Spanish Romanticism: Bécquer, Castro & Literary Traits

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer: Modern Spanish Poetry

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer is an initiator of modern Spanish poetry. His poetry collection, Rimas, consists of 86 poems.

Themes in Rimas

• Love Rhymes: Explore subthemes like the search for the ideal, unattainable women, being in love, disappointment, and relationship failure.
• Existential Rhymes: Express distress caused by the passage of time, death, or a lack of life direction.
• Metapoetic Rhymes: Reflect on the concept of poetry itself.

Style Features

• Brevity and intimacy
• Repetitive structure
• Use of metaphors and similes
• Assonant rhyme
• Dialogue format

Rosalía de Castro: Galician and Spanish Poet

Rosalía de Castro is one of the most important female voices in Spanish poetry.

Work in Galician

Denounces social injustice suffered by Galicia, leading to misery and the drama of emigration. In Follas Novas, she presents a vision of existence touching on themes like loneliness, death, and the pain of living.

Work in Castilian

Characterized by pessimism and subjectivity. The outside world serves only to echo the author's loneliness and poetic voice, reminding her of the root of her affliction. Her suffering stems from the Romantic clash between dreams and reality.

Style Features

• Long verses (often between 14 and 18 syllables)
• Assonant rhyme
• Use of stylistic resources
• Search for expressive clarity

Common Text Types

• Texts from Daily Life: Social rules, instructions, personal letters, diaries.
• Academic Texts: Outlines, abstracts, proposals, reports.
• Mass Media Texts: News articles, reports, interviews, features.
• Literary Texts: Narrative, dramatic, lyrical.

Romanticism: Artistic and Cultural Movement

An artistic and cultural movement that developed in Europe during the first half of the 19th century.

Key Features of Romanticism

• Individualism: Emphasis on the individual. Reality often limits aspirations (love, social, political), leading works to express inner feelings and privacy.
• Rejection of Reality: Rejection of disliked reality, leading to frustration and escapism into fantasy worlds, exotic locations, or the past (Middle Ages). This anxiety could lead to suicide. Romantics rebelled against established order and many conventions.
• Defense of Liberty: Romantic writers rejected Neoclassical rules that hindered creative freedom. They sought authentic feeling, irrational passion, and freedom from constraints. This often led to mixing literary genres (prose, verse) and metrics.
• Nature: Nature reflects the artist's mood. Landscapes adapt to express feelings: rugged, desolate settings, castle ruins, storms, night scenes, cemeteries... These landscapes highlight melancholy, sadness, loneliness, and anguish related to death.
• Nationalism: Romantics highlighted the peculiar traits defining their country, revaluing its history, customs, traditions, and language.

Poetic Style Features

• Long verses (often 14-18 syllables)
• Assonant rhyme
• Use of stylistic resources
• Search for clear expression

Liberal vs. Absolutist Ideologies

• Liberal (Inspired by the French Revolution): Liberty, equality, fraternity.
• Conservative (Return to Traditional Values): Absolute monarchical rule, religiosity.