Spanish Literature: Key Movements, Authors, and Works

Nouveau Features

The creator, far from everyday reality, invents an aristocratic art, elegant and exotic. The environments evoke classical antiquity, with a medieval atmosphere in Paris. There is a cult of the beauty of form, collecting a wealth of themes ranging from classical to modern, symbolist attitudes, vision, and interpretation of reality. Poetic trends in modern poetry are an explosion where colors, sounds, and sensual aromas, etc., are an extreme idealization.

Generation of '98 - Features

A vision of Spain and Castile is absorbed, focusing on the authentically Spanish through landscape, history, and literature. Idealistic solutions are proposed to regenerate the country, a mixture of romantic and subjective attitudes with existentialism, renewing national consciousness. This includes an examination of conscience that comes to literature after the disaster of 1898.

Authors of Generation of '98

• Juan Ramón Jiménez: One of the great innovators of modernist and contemporary poetry, known for "Platero y Yo," "Sad Arias," "Stone and Sky."
• Antonio Machado: Several recurring obsessions in his work include the passage of time, nostalgia for childhood and lost youth, lack of love, and emotional correspondence between landscape elements and mood. Notable works include "Campos de Castilla" and "Solitudes."
• Miguel de Unamuno: Playwright, novelist, and essayist, known for poetry and works like "Ballad of Exile" and "Songbook."

Postwar Theater - Features

Constructed as a well-made theater, with solid dialogues and well-executed action. The characters are almost always middle-class, facing economic problems. Themes include infidelity between parents and children, and a theater that criticizes the habits of the bourgeoisie.

Authors of Postwar Theater

• Calvo Sotelo: Known for "A Girl of Valladolid" and "The Wall."
• Luca de Tena: Known for "Where Are You, Alfonso XII?" and "Where Are You, Sad One?"
• Ruiz Iriarte: Known for "Game Order."
• Neville: Important for his comic work, which represents a caricature of society.
• Poncela: Known for "You Have Eyes, Femme Fatale" and "Eloise Is Beneath an Almond Tree." His work differs from earlier comedy theater in the timelessness of the characters and the stage, using language that reflects their social category.
• Mihura: Known for his improbable humor and his maverick stance on social conversations, poured into many of his works with a language full of naiveté. His great work is "Three Hats." He also wrote "Two Peaches in Syrup" and "Neither Poor Nor Rich, the Opposite."
• Buero Vallejo: The most important author of his time, his works always present social complaints, unease before a hostile world, the search for truth, and the struggle for freedom. His work can be divided into three stages:

1. Existentialist: "History of the Staircase," "In the Burning Darkness."
2. Social Stage: "Party Today," which recreates historical issues, "A Dreamer to a People," and "Skylight," a drama in which the actual is seen from the future.
3. Continues with ideological concerns but with formal restoration: "Foundation," "Secret Dialogue."