Realism and Modernism: 19th and 20th Century Literary Movements

Realism

From the second half of the nineteenth century, a new movement began, Realism, which represented a reaction to the Romantic writers of Romanticism. Instead of seeking a subjective contemplation of reality, the authors gave a more objective, realistic view. Throughout Europe, a series of social changes were taking place, including the emergence of the proletariat. Realist writers began to report the negative consequences of these changes.

Characteristics of Realism:

• They prefer factual descriptions and dialogues that characterize the characters.
• The protagonists are ordinary men and women.
• Works have a social intent and subject matter drawn from reality.
• Narrative grows mostly.
• In France, Balzac and Flaubert are highlighted, with Madame Bovary.
• In England, Charles Dickens. Remember David Copperfield.
• Leo Tolstoy in Russia, with War and Peace, and Dostoyevsky, in The Brothers Karamazov.
• In Spain, it develops later than in Europe.

Benito Pérez Galdós

Born in Las Palmas, he moved to Madrid at a young age. His Republican ideology caused him to lose the Nobel Prize twice. He lived his last years blind and still writing. Shortly before his death, he was paid high tribute. Quiet and shy, his life was dedicated to writing his reflection on the Spanish society of his time, especially on disadvantaged classes. There are several stages:

• The national events: highlight Trafalgar and Bailén.
• Novels of the first period: Doña Perfecta.
• Spanish contemporary novels: Fortunata and Jacinta.
• Spiritual realism stage: Misericordia.

Leopoldo Alas "Clarín"

He lived in Oviedo. He studied law in Madrid, where he started his journalism career and developed his qualities as a critic, short story writer, and novelist. Clarín was defined politically as a Republican. He wrote:

• Tales: ¡Adiós, Cordera!
• Short Novels: Doña Berta, Superchería, and Pipá.
• Long Novels: La Regenta (The Judge's Wife), and Su único hijo (His Only Son).

Modernism

In the early twentieth century, many writers were tired of the empty rhetoric and realistic post-Romantic literature and attempted to create a new literary language. The poetic trend brought to Spain by Nicaraguan writer Rubén Darío is called Modernism. It is a movement of exaltation of love and faith, of fantasy and dream elements, which Rubén Darío takes from his contact with French symbolism.

Characteristics of Modernism:

• Cult of beauty.
• Aristocratic and refined tone.
• Expression of the intimacy of the poet.
• Exotic settings.
• Sonorous language, which seeks the rhythmic effect and color. To enrich the language, they resort to cultism and create neologisms.
• Metric renewal that retrieves Alexandrine verses.
• The most common themes are: the meaning of life, time, death, nature...
• These writers are trying to break with the everyday; there is a tendency to escapism, which leads to:
• Space: distant and luxurious scenery.
• Time: historical, legendary topics.

Rubén Darío

Biography:

• His real name was Félix Rubén García Sarmiento.
• Born in Metapa, now Ciudad Darío, Matagalpa.
• From his childhood, he was a child prodigy. He learned to read when he was three years old. He was a poet, journalist, and diplomat.
• He had a very hectic life that consumed him. He reveled in an excess of all worldly pleasures.

Works:

Azul..., Prosas profanas, Cantos de vida y esperanza.