The Spanish Experimental Novel: Characteristics and Key Authors

The Experimental Novel: Factors Influencing Formal Renewal

The factors influencing the formal renewal of Spanish narrative after 1960 include:

• The depletion of the formulas associated with Socialist Realism.
• Greater openness to foreign literary currents.
• A deeper understanding of the great innovators of the novel from the first half of the 20th century (e.g., Proust, Kafka).
• The influence of recent trends, such as the French Nouveau Roman and Hispano-American literature.

This period is marked by progressive formal experimentation, a slowing in the linguistic dimension of the narrative, and the predominance of what might be called the Neovanguardista novel.

Fundamental Characteristics of the Experimental Novel

The fundamental characteristics of this literary movement are:

• The argument becomes less important compared to formal or structural elements.
• Characters are often blurred or indistinct.
• Space loses the concretion typical of realistic storytelling.
• In terms of time, chronological linearity is avoided.
• The structure of the novel tends to be labyrinthine, not relying on the linear progression of the story.
• Absolute freedom is given in the use of the narrator and the narrative point of view, which translates into flexibility in the employment of grammatical persons.
• Theoretical texts that fundamentally question aspects of the narrative genre are often introduced within the works.
• There is a profound stylistic renewal.

Key Authors and Works of the Experimental Period

The linguistic novel that initiated this trend was Luis Martín Santos’s Tiempo de silencio (1962).

Major Innovators

• Juan Goytisolo: After his first works framed in social realism, he gave a twist to his career with Señas de identidad (1966). His works carried out a sarcastic critique of the cultural myths of traditional Spain while consuming a ruthless demolition of the inherited narrative language of realism.
• Juan Benet: Known for the difficult and hermetic character of many of his works. Most of his novels are set in the fictional space of Región Miic, a standby region where the author constructs a narrative universe that reflects the desolation of post-war Spain.
• Luis Goytisolo: In his tetralogy Antagonía (1973–1981), he led the blend of narration and metaliterary reflection to its ultimate consequences.
• Miguel Espinosa: An author of some of the most original novels of this period, such as Escuela de mandarines (1974).

Other Notable Figures

These authors were also joined by Camilo José Cela, Miguel Delibes, and, outside the strictly experimental novel, Gonzalo Torrente Ballester.

The Decline of Experimentalism

It is necessary to mention the work of Juan Marsé, particularly Últimas tardes con Teresa (1966). Starting around 1975, experimentalism began its depletion phase. A return to more traditional narrative forms would become the dominant feature during the subsequent decades.