Spanish Literature: Generation of '27 and Key Poets

Aesthetic Affinities of the Generation of '27

Aesthetic affinities between the components of the Generation of '27:

• From dehumanization and human authenticity: the human concern is increasing, not to mention the aesthetic requirements.
• Among the tightness and clarity: the cultured and popular.
• Among the intellectual and the emotional: emotion restrained by the intellect.
• Between the universal and the Spanish: receptivity to foreign poetry and poetry with strong national roots.
• Between tradition and renewal: combine art with respect for tradition (J.R.J., Bécquer, Góngora, etc.).

Themes of the Generation of '27

• The city: comfort and frivolities, inventions, communications, transport, etc.
• Nature: near the city or assumed by it. From exile, the reason for the land and lost childhood.
• Perfect love: ode to personal and sexual freedoms. Courageous approach to homosexuality.
• Poetry committed (during war).

Pedro Salinas (1891-1951)

Born in Madrid, Pedro Salinas was a university professor and took part in cultural life. In 1936, he was exiled to the United States. His work can be divided into three stages:

• First stage: Influenced by the avant-garde and Góngora, including Seguro Azar (1929) and Fábula y Signo.
• Second stage: His great love production, including La Voz a Ti Debida (1931), Razón de Amor (1936), and Largo Lamento (1939).
• Third stage: In exile, with reflections on human existence, including El Contemplado (1946), Todo Más Claro (1949), and his posthumous work Confianza (1955).

La Voz a Ti Debida: This work is part of a trilogy that includes romantic love, loss, and regret. In it, the beloved, who is present in the form of "you," gives meaning to the existence of the lover, the "self."

Miguel Hernández (1902-1942)

Although a contemporary of the Generation of '27, Miguel Hernández did not share any of their poetic principles. His style is traditional and follows classical metrics. He was born in Orihuela into a poor family.

As a child, he was a shepherd and was self-taught. His work includes the following titles: El Rayo que no Cesa, Cancionero y Romancero de Ausencias, Perito en Lunas, and Viento del Pueblo. After the Civil War, he was imprisoned and died in prison.

Dámaso Alonso (1898-1990)

Born in Madrid, Dámaso Alonso was a great scholar, specializing in Góngora and Gil Vicente. He spent nine years teaching at various universities abroad, including Berlin, Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford, and Columbia. He was a member and director of the Real Academia de la Lengua. The first part of his production follows the line of pure poetry in the best Juan Ramón Jiménez tradition. To this period belong Poemillas de la Ciudad, El Viento y el Verso, and Poemas Puros. After the Civil War, his poetry became a cry of protest against hatred and injustice. In this age are Hijos de la Ira, Oscura Noticia, and Hombre y Dios.

Vicente Aleixandre (1898-1984)

Vicente Aleixandre studied law and commerce. In 1934, he received the National Prize for Literature for La Destrucción o el Amor. After the Civil War, he did not leave Spain but lived an inner exile and influenced younger poets. In 1977, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. His work includes:

• A poetry of social rejection, singing about love and nature: Espadas como Labios (1932), La Destrucción o el Amor (1935), and Sombra del Paraíso (1944).
• A poetry of human solidarity: Historia del Corazón (1954).

La Destrucción o el Amor: In this 1935 work, love is equated with death, the destruction of what makes us human. There is no rejection of love, but excitement, because for the author, minerals and wild animals are the purest forms of existence: lovers turned into stones, rocks, stars, etc., testify to the fullness of love.

Luis Cernuda (1902-1963)

Born in Seville, Luis Cernuda moved to Madrid after the death of his parents, where he devoted himself to literature. He worked as a Spanish teacher in Europe. He went into exile in 1938 and died in Mexico. Cernuda collected his pre-war production in a single book, La Realidad y el Deseo (1936), which, along with surreal poems, includes others of intimate and personal expression. Of his production in exile, Desolación de la Quimera (1962) stands out.

Los Placeres Prohibidos: In this work, published in 1931 and written in free verse, Cernuda explores the limits of love, identified with desire and pleasure. Although listed as a supreme aspiration, love is an impossibility: only loneliness remains.