Spanish Novel Evolution: Post-War Stages (1940-1975)

Contemporary Spanish fiction evolved from the realism of the post-war period, through the social novel, to formal renewal.

Main Stages of the Novel

1. The Uprooted Novel (Novela desarraigada)

This stage focused on the daily reality of violence and senseless existence.

• Key Example: La familia de Pascual Duarte by Camilo José Cela.

2. The Social Novel (Novela social)

These novels tell stories of social concern. In these works, the collective character and the tendency toward objectivism led to a decrease in the importance of the narrator and an increase in dialogue.

• Key Examples: La colmena (The Hive) by Camilo José Cela; Las ratas (The Rats) by Miguel Delibes.

3. Formal Renewal in the Novel

This stage gave greater importance to language and how to structure the story, incorporating new procedures:

• The mixture of space and time.
• The individual protagonist set against a social background.
• The use of typological resources.
• Unconventional spelling and different points of view.

This period emphasizes works such as Tiempo de silencio (Time of Silence) by Luis Martín Santos, and Cinco horas con Mario (Five Hours with Mario) by Miguel Delibes.

Camilo José Cela: Life and Works

Camilo José Cela was an elected academician of the language, a Cervantes Prize winner, and a Nobel Prize laureate in Literature. He is the author of short stories and travel books, such as Viaje a la Alcarria.

The Introduction of Tremendismo

With La familia de Pascual Duarte, Cela introduced tremendismo (stark realism), a technique that consists of presenting the harshest aspects of reality.

• The protagonist tells his life story in the first person and justifies his conduct by the violent environment in which he was educated.

Social Concern in La Colmena

Social concern is reflected in La colmena (The Hive), a novel that gives an overview of Madrid in the 1940s.

In La colmena, the atmosphere of the times is reflected through a group of characters who frequent the Café La Rosa. This is a novel characterized by its collective nature.

Latest Trends in Spanish Fiction (Post-1960s)

Since the late 1960s, the novel has been characterized by a variety of topics and the search for new methods of expression.

Major Trends

1. Historical Novels and Symbolic Worlds

These novels often feature a symbolic world with inscrutable characters, sometimes relating to the lyric poem.

2. Historical Fiction (Narrativa histórica)

Some historical accounts reconstruct a specific time in the past. In others, the author treats history freely, without worrying about the veracity of what is said.

• Example: El capitán Alatriste series by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

Historical narratives often serve authors to showcase their mastery of narrative technique.

3. Police Thriller (Novela negra)

The influence of film has led to the transfer of narrative techniques to the novel.

• Example: Las mares del Sur (The South Seas) by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán.

4. Novels of Realistic Tendency

These works incorporate imagination and fantasy, often focusing on autobiography or psychological analysis.