Spanish Novel Evolution: Late 20th Century Literary Shifts

Spanish Novel: Mid-20th Century Transformation

The evolution of the novel in the last decades of the twentieth century saw the social novel depleted in the 1960s with the publication in 1962 of Tiempo de silencio by Luis Martín-Santos. This work initiated a new stage in Spanish narrative.

This period involved a formal renewal of the genre through experimentation with language and the search for complex structural lines, all without losing critical ability. Novelists abandoned the purely social approach, returning to the imagination and the narrator's insight. They also addressed the existential issue dominating the absurd nature of human life, thanks to the recovery of irrationality as seen in philosophical currents like existentialism and psychoanalysis.

These novels, often influenced by psychoanalysis, were complex and difficult to understand. Umberto Eco famously described them as "open works" because they required the reader to be vigilant and to interpret without the author's explicit aid. We can clearly see the direct influence of foreign innovators such as Franz Kafka, who significantly contributed innovative strength, moving away from traditional patterns.

Latin American Novel & Publishing Growth

The great success of the Latin American novel also played a role, incorporating contributions from foreign innovators and adding special features such as imagination and exuberance. Works like Dogs's (1962) were published during a time when the power of publishers was growing, supporting greater dissemination of published works.

Post-1975: Shifting Focus & Narrative Diversity

After 1975, novelists distanced themselves from political approaches, focusing instead on private, anecdotal themes, often with an ironic tone. However, this focus on anecdote also began to recover from a certain weariness in narrative. From the 1980s, narrative trends became diverse. The novel lost some of its critical load but gained in variety and approaches.

The Novel in the Sixties: Innovations & Characteristics

The innovations introduced by Tiempo de silencio highlighted the need to separate political and social concerns from literature, which had previously been relegated to the background in many works. The new narrative maintained a critical approach to Spain's problems but placed greater emphasis on structure.

According to Gonzalo Sobejano, the characteristics of this period include:

• Presence of characters with identity problems, seeking reasons for their existential anxiety.
• Splittings that provide different descriptions of the narrator and/or criticism of a previous narrative style that had defined the existence and character of protagonists.
• Disappearance of the traditional argument; sometimes the plot serves merely as an excuse to present opinions.
• Structural difficulty, with chapters often replaced by sequences.
• Multiple viewpoints, where the story is told from the perspective of different characters, employing techniques like counterpoint and kaleidoscope.
• Unusual dialogue, often replaced by interior monologue to reflect the free flow of thought of the characters.
• Time breaking through the influence of cinema and undefined space.
• Renewal of literary language, introducing neologisms, foreign words, learned words, and colloquialisms.