Larra's ideology

• The time was a time of decline in all parts of Spanish life
• There was monetary stagnation and corruption in the courts, spiritual boredom, and a repressive environment of conservatism, traditionalism, and opposition to change.

Larra's Ideology

• Larra's politically driven writings are based on a liberal philosophy
• They express a critical stance against traditionalism and absolutism, as well as a consistent appeal for progress and tolerance
• He is known for the slogan 'Freedom in literature, as in business, as in conscience.'
• Paradoxically, it was an ambition undermined by a pervasive sense of sublime pessimism: “we leave the equality of men for the other life because in this one we do not take it as clear as they want to assume.”
• These political ideas are informed by a growing sense of disillusionment, which transforms Spain's whole political arena for him into a 'battlefield.'
• The Artículos de Costumbres, in their complexity, encompass the broad scope of Spanish socio-cultural life, exposing an alien country psyche.
• The thematic arsenal is limitless, and a quick look at it reveals that it is both uniquely and nationally informative.

Traditionalism

• Literature is the expression of a people's progress, and the spoken or written word is simply a reflection of ideas, therefore, literature must be practical
• He is alluding to social classes. ‘In Madrid, people are always the same. There is no middle class in Spain
• Don't look for a middle class in Madrid if there is one in Spain
• Classic Spanish literature lacked a methodical, investigative, philosophical, and, in a word, helpful and progressive character
• He supports a literature based on experience and history, as well as an indicator of the future; studious, analytical, philosophical, profound, contemplating and communicating everything.

Considerations

• Spaniards do not know how to converse; instead, they scream and say unpleasant things to one another
• Criticism on vital and social stagnation: ‘Our country does not have days...nothing happens for her (and yet time implies movement, change, decay and death).
• Spain is not yet civilized or mature enough for larger institutions
• Spain is a country where nothing is done
• I discovered Spain beginning to awaken from a dream
• It is a Spain where nothing can be found in science, a little something in literature, and not much in the arts
• Everything in Spain is nearly, and nothing is totally...Everything is half done

Spaniards Categories

• Three attitudinal types in Spain were identified by Larra
• A multitude that is indifferent to everything (dead for a long time)
• A middle class that is gradually becoming enlightened (to illustrate: it is beginning to have needs and desires reforms)
• A privileged class that is not very numerous
• Spain is a country that needs to unite without having done so
• It never ends, it always begins
• We are not even a society, but a battlefield

Ontological Note

• He discusses ‘The monotonous and sepulchral silence of our Spanish existence (silence equals death).'
• "But I felt my heart constrict, and a tear welled up in my eyes," he says
• He internalizes Spanish tragedy, transforms it into a personal experience, and inextricably links his personal and national tragedies
• ‘I wanted to take refuge in my own heart; full there is not much of life, emotions, of desires
• Good heavens! Is that another cemetery as well? Hope rests here...Here rests hope.' Larra wishes to withdraw into himself
• Hope dwells in his heart, yet his heart is likewise a cemetery

Larra Analysis

• This is a somber and prophetic prelude to his death in 1837
• A tragic intertwining of life and space, involving both a national dilemma and a personal tragedy
• Quevedo is perhaps the first to so brutally and morbidly portray the country's predicament around him, exposing its core essence
• Larra may not be known for his manner of speech, but he certainly has an energetic and racy approach to reaching his audience with clarity, directness, and excellent precision
• He may not be an aesthetically inventive writer, and his exaggerated passions and bright liberal ideas may fail to be fully articulated in his strictly journalistic style, yet Larra possesses an admirable sense of social critique and a talent for keen psychological intuition, which diagnosed, albeit superficially, the yawning and degenerate collective instinct for change and progress.
• Larra embodies the dichotomy and two halves of his genius, according to Menéndez y Pelayo: "Figaro...critique and satire, and Macias the passion, the madness of love."

Spanish identity

• Spanish Costumbrismo: traditional realism that seeks to explore the people's cultural, social, and human characteristics aesthetically and emotionally
• Their preferences, anxieties and aspirations, their visions and aspirations
• In a word, how they lived and died
• It was a catalog of biographical facts, all of which occurred in an essentially romantic period when fantasy played a prominent role.

This text explores Larra's political ideology, rooted in a liberal philosophy that critiques traditionalism and absolutism. Larra advocated for progress and tolerance, summarized by his slogan 'Freedom in literature, as in business, as in conscience.' A pervasive sense of pessimism and disillusionment, however, undermined his ambitions, influencing his view of Spain's political arena.