Spanish Post-War Novels: Literary Movements and Key Works

Spanish Post-War Novels: 1940s to 1970s

Novels of the 1940s: Tremendismo and Existentialism

Important novels of the 1940s include The Family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo José Cela (1942) and Nada by Carmen Laforet (1945).

The Family of Pascual Duarte (1942)

• Most representative of the tremendista novel, vividly portraying the extreme inhumanity and violence of rural Spain, and ultimately, the human condition.
• In his narrative, Cela combines elements of:
  • Picaresque novel: Narrative told in the first person.
  • Naturalism: The supposed determinism governing the protagonist and the detailed description of reality.
  • Esperpento (Valle-Inclán): Exaggeration and the animalization of characters.

Pascual Duarte: Sentenced to death, he tries to justify his crimes (savagely murdering his stepmother, his lover Rosario, his wife Lola, and his own mother), presenting them as an inevitable consequence of his temperament and the environment of poverty and aggression in which he lived.

Nada (1945)

• Included in the narrative of the existential novel.
• It reflects the emptiness and lack of expectations, portraying the miserable and gray life in post-Civil War Spain.

The Social Novel (1950s)

During the 1950s, the social novel predominated in Spain. Titles within this trend aimed to offer critical testimony of Spanish society of the era. Two major works are:

The Hive by Camilo José Cela (1951)

• Collective Protagonist: Portrays the daily life in Madrid over three days in 1943. It reflects the routines and daily miseries of a multitude of characters from different social conditions (prostitutes, poets, a physician, etc.), all struggling to survive in an environment of isolation and frustration.
• Extensive Dialogues: They reflect the true, actual speech of the era. These dialogues almost always manifest as irrelevant, highlighting the profound boredom and concerns of the protagonists.

The Experimental Novel (1960s-1970s)

Tiempo de Silencio (Time of Silence), published in 1962 by Luis Martín-Santos, marked the starting point of the so-called experimental novel. Other significant experimental novels include:

• Five Hours with Mario by Miguel Delibes
• Signs of Identity by Juan Goytisolo
• Volverás a Región by Juan Benet
• The Truth About the Savolta Case by Eduardo Mendoza (1975)
• Corazón tan blanco by Javier Marías (1992)

Key characteristics of the experimental novel:

• Interior Monologue: Reproducing the chaotic and disorganized thoughts of characters.
• Chronological Disorder: With constant jumps in time, both backward and forward.
• Multiple Points of View: Alternating narrative perspectives and voices.
• Aesthetic Renewal: Leading to a literary language that deviates from everyday speech. The incorporation of these narrative strategies resulted from the influx of foreign authors.