Spanish Literary Movements: Pre-Civil War to 1930s

Spanish Literary Movements Before the Civil War

Art Nouveau in Spanish Literature

• Features:
  • Search for beauty, departing from surrounding reality.
  • Great aesthetic renovation: valuable stylistic resources, sensory plots (auditory, visual, tactile).
  • Use of exotic words and cultisms.
• Authors and Works:
  • Valle-Inclán: Sonatas
  • Juan Ramón Jiménez: Platero y yo

Generation of '98: Literary Renewal

• Defense of Subjectivity: A subjective vision of reality, yet a faithful reproduction.
• Artistic Preoccupation: Reflected in the renovation of narrative structures and renewal of style, emphasizing anti-rhetoric, sobriety, clarity, and a taste for traditional words.
• Thematic Groups:
  1. The Issue of Spain: Concern for contemporary evils (backwardness, poverty) and love for Spain.
  2. Existentialism: The impossibility of finding meaning in life, anxiety, pessimism over death, the passage of time.

Key Authors of the Generation of '98

Miguel de Unamuno

• Novelistic Approach: Novels serve to express ideas, not to follow a strict storyline.
• Themes: Immortality, conflict between faith and reason, problems of personality.
• Characters: Individuals grappling with existential struggles.
• Works: Niebla (Fog), San Manuel Bueno, mártir (San Manuel Bueno, Martyr)

Pío Baroja

• Vision: Presented a pessimistic view of humanity.
• Character Types:
  • Men of action
  • Confused characters
  Both types ultimately fail.
• Works: Zalacaín el aventurero (Zalacaín the Adventurer), The Look, El árbol de la ciencia (The Tree of Knowledge)

Azorín (José Martínez Ruiz)

• Novelistic Style: His novels often lack action, resembling essays or trials.
• Work: La voluntad (The Will)

Ramón María del Valle-Inclán

• Novelistic Innovation: Pioneered the "esperpento" (grotesque novel), distorting reality to reveal its authentic image.
• Works: Tirano Banderas (Tyrant Flags), El Ruedo Ibérico trilogy (The Iberian Ring trilogy)

Novecento or Generation of '14

• Features:
  • A new aesthetic, moving away from the sentimentality and passionate tone of the previous generation.
  • Tendency towards pure art and the intellectual novel.
• Authors and Works:
  • Gabriel Miró: Nuestro Padre San Daniel (Our Father Saint Daniel), El Obispo Leproso (The Leper Bishop)
  • Ramón Pérez de Ayala: Belarmino y Apolonio (Belarmino and Apolonio), Tigre Juan (Tiger Juan)

The Avant-garde in Spanish Literature

• Features:
  • Predominant focal experimentation.
  • Interplay between reality and fantasy.
  • Breakdown of traditional structures and syntax.
• Authors:
  • Benjamín Jarnés
  • Rosa Chacel

The Novel of the 1930s

• Characteristics:
  • The novel returns to a rehumanized form.
  • Emphasis on social commitment.
• Authors:
  • Ramón J. Sender
  • Max Aub
  • Francisco Ayala
  • Rosa Chacel
  All these authors went into exile after the Spanish Civil War.