Realism and Naturalism

Realism and Naturalism

• Realism was an artistic and literary movement in the second half of the 19th century
• Its main goal was to reflect reality accurately, opposing the subjectivism of Romanticism
• Realism started in France, influenced by the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of social consciousness
• It reflected the conflict between the dominant bourgeoisie and the working class
• Realism aimed to depict reality, spaces, experiences, character’s speech, and psychology rationally
• The novel became the most representative genre
• Influenced by European authors, like Flaubert, Balzac, Stendhal, Dostoevsky, and Mark Twain
• Realistic novels are characterized by observation and precise descriptions of reality
• It used experimental science’s methodologies for observation
• Plots took place in recognizable locations, with social criticism, simplicity, narrative sobriety, and linearity
• Meticulous descriptions, language suited to the characters, didactism, and an omniscient narrator were all common
• Realistic novels featured individual, psychologically analyzed, and collective characters that represented a social group
• Authors used their work to express ideas, resulting in "thesis novels"
• Realism emerged from journalism, leading to a simpler and more flexible prose, free from romantic forms and subjectivity
• The movement was influenced by articles on customs and historical novels
• Prominent conservative authors included Valera, with Pepita Jiménez, and Pereda, with Sotileza
• Progressive authors included Galdós, with Marianela, Fortunata y Jacinta, and Miau, and Clarín, with La Regenta
• Naturalism was a literary movement developed in the last third of the 19th century
• Realism started to decline, especially in France
• Emile Zola as its main figure
• Naturalism confronted surrounding reality by analyzing human behavior based on scientific observation and experimentation
• Humans are biologically and socially predetermined and lack freedom
• Conditioned by genetics and surrounding environment
• Naturalist focused on miserable and sordid environments, disturbed, alcoholic, sick, and brutalized characters
• Allowed for demonstrating the influence of biology and social environment
• Extremes of realism’s features

Narrative Point of View & Influence in Spain

• The novelist should avoid intervening in the narration, favoring the impersonal, objective narrator
• Spain saw limited impact due to conflict with religious ideals
• The influence of narrative techniques was noticed
• Major authors were Clarín, Blasco Ibáñez in La Barraca, and Emilia Pardo Bazán in Los pazos de Ulloa
• Poetry moved away from romanticism
• New style: prosaic, moralizing, or ironic, reflected the pragmatic mindset of the bourgeoisie
• Ramón de Campoamor’s prominent work
• Theater moved away from Romanticism
• Reflected contemporary ideas in a less rhetorical way
• Theater attendance became a social event
• Implemented technical advances in scenography for complex stage productions
• Prominent figures were Tamayo y Baus, Joaquín Dicente, and Galdós

Literature at the End of the Century

• The end of the 19th century in Spain was marked by the Disaster of '98, with the loss of Cuba and the Philippines
• It led to the Generation of '98, a group of young intellectuals seeking to renew Spanish consciousness
• Focused on national issues in literature, inspired by figures like Berceo, Manrique, Cervantes
• They admired Quevedo and Larra
• Employed simple, expressive language, influenced by existentialism
• Key representatives: Azorín, Pío Baroja, Ramiro de Maeztu, and Miguel de Unamuno
• Modernism emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, formally renewing art
• It was an anti-bourgeois reaction
• Art Nouveau spread through Europe, giving imagination free rein
• The movement was influenced by Parnassianism and French Symbolism
• Modernism featured rich language with metaphors, synesthesia, neologisms, blue color, and swans
• Rubén Darío was most important exponent
• Modernist influences appear in Valle-Inclán’s, Juan Ramón Jiménez’s, and Antonio Machado’s works

Narrative Trends & Innovative Theater

• Early 20th century saw coexistence of realism, naturalism, erotic novels, and regenerationist novels
• Novels of the pre-1936 era prioritized introspection over traditional realism
• La voluntad by Azorín, Camino de perfección by Baroja, Amor y pedagogía by Unamuno, and Sonata de otoño by Valle-Inclán were foundational in 1902
• History gives way to the thought and psychology of maladjusted characters
• Niebla by Unamuno and El árbol de la Ciencia by Baroja examples
• Theater before 1936 featured both traditional and innovative forms
• The former encompassed bourgeois comedies by Jacinto Benavente, plays in verse by Eduardo Marquina, and comic theater by Carlos Arniches and the Álvarez-Quintero Brothers
• The latter sought to break from convention, particularly Valle-Inclán
• Theater of 17th century, similar to Lope de Vega’s
• Text became secondary, introducing elements that enriched representation, freedom for the artist, technical advances, and the role of the masses
• Problems were shown through political, social, and religious contexts
• Influenced by Chejov, Ibsen, B. Shaw, the avant-garde, Russian theater by Stanislavski, committed French theater, and theater of the absurd
• Pérez Galdós tried creating a serious, symbolic theater, but was rejected

Generation of 98' & Theater Impulses

• The Generation of 98 innovated, but did not premiere plays
• Valle-Inclán’s revolutionary aesthetic of the grotesque in Luces de Bohemia distorted reality to critique social immorality
• Characters undergo animalization and objectification, mixing tragic and comic elements
• The Group of 27, with Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti, and Pedro Salinas, promoted popular theater through educational initiatives and theatrical university groups
• This period reflected a Spain in crisis, approached through the introspection of the Generation of 98 and the escapist aesthetic of Modernism, evolving novels and theater expressions

Novecentism

• Novecentism, also known as the Generation of 14, was a cultural movement using the new century as a banner to differentiate themselves from prior literature and art
• Authors advocated a different, intellectualized literature marked by rationalism, anti-romanticism, a preference for the classical, defense of pure art for aesthetic pleasure, and intellectual elitism
• Writing for an "immense minority" with a refined style and focus on well-crafted works
• Members were intellectually formed, influencing Spanish reality in fields like law, philology, science, philosophy, and politics
• Most were reformers and later republicans, embraced European ideals, and sought España's openness to the world
• Genres: essays, Novecentist novels, and lyrical poetry

Literature Forms

• Essays featured authors like Ortega y Gasset, explored the effect of art
• Explained that art divides the public in two: those who understand it and those who do not, with a focus on a hermetic minority
• Other authors: Eugenio d'Ors and Manuel Azaña
• Gabriel Miró's Las cerezas del cementerio was most important lyrical novel and represented by Ramón Pérez de Ayala’s AMDG
• Juan Ramón Jiménez was the most important figure in lyrical poetry
• Sensory Phase: featured intimate, modernist, symbolist poetry
• Intellectual or Pure Poetry phase: includes books like Diario de un poeta recién casado
• True poetry during exile with Dios deseado y deseante
• Strove for perfection, combining intellect with the search for the essential and aesthetic purity

The Avant-Garde Movements

• Around 1910, Europe and America saw the emergence of avant-garde or "isms”, which broke traditional artistic forms to renovate literature and reflect a changing society
• Served as cultural support to convey political ideologies
• Key characteristics: breaking with tradition, creative freedom, anti-subjectivism, provocation, the predominance of metaphors, and humor
• Futurism: Created by F. Marinetti
• Exalted mechanical civilization, destroyed syntax, and used "words in freedom"
• Cubism: Proposed by G. Apollinaire
• Reality broke to recompose it, emphasizing calligrams
• Expressionism: Distorted reality to address themes like madness, war, and loss of identity
• Key figures: Kafka, Rilke, and Brecht
• Dadaism: Created by Tristan Tzara
• Destroyed linguistic rules
• Surrealism: Founded by André Breton
• Defended free imagination with techniques like automatic writing and exquisite corpses
• The most influential and enduring avant-garde

Artistic Influence in Spain & Hispanic America

• Vanguard arrived in Spain through Ramón Gómez de la Serna, who disseminated ideas through the magazine Prometeo and gatherings at the Café Pombo
• Other promoters: Guillermo de Torre and Ortega y Gasset
• Adapted vanguard with less radical attitude
• Influenced artists: Pedro Salinas, Rafael Alberti, Lorca, Aleixandre, and Luis Cernuda
• Ultraism: Initiated by Rafael Cansinos Assens
• Eliminated narrative elements, broke logical discourse, and emphasized metaphors and calligrams
• Creationism: Led by Vicente Huidobro
• Defended the poet as a creator of worlds
• Ramonism: Created by Ramón Gómez de la Serna
• Humor with metaphors in short texts with surprising, pseudo-etymologies
• Sound play and desautomatization of phrases and sayings
• Hispanic America has its own movements, like Jitanjáfora and surrealism
• In Cuba, the Jitanjáfora of Mariano Brull prioritized sonority and sensations
• Dominican Republic’s Postumismo and Vedrinismo highlighted Negrist influences and verbal games
• Puerto Rico: Luis Palés Matos and Jorge Isaac de Diego promoted the sensorial and phonetic
• Mexico’s Generation of the Contemporaries and Estridentismo championed modernity and cosmopolitanism
• Transformative influence on literature and arts

Characteristics of Generational Poets

• The Generation of 27 combined the rich Spanish literary tradition with new avant-garde currents
• Group was influenced by Ortega y Gasset, Ramón Gómez de la Serna, and Juan Ramón Jiménez
• Characterized by their liberal, progressive, and cosmopolitan spirit
• Influenced by vanguard and popular forms: sonnet, romance, and villancico
• Used free verse
• Themes: modernity, love, political commitment, exile, and nostalgia
• Blend: tradition and modernity, high and low culture
• Phases included the pre-Civil War period and post-Civil War

Key Poets & Lorca Influence

• Pedro Salinas: Love poetry- Presagios, La voz a ti debida, Razón de amor
• Jorge Guillén: Aire nuestro
• Gerardo Diego: Traditional and avant-garde poetry
• Vicente Aleixandre: Nobel Prize winner
• Dámaso Alonso: Work characterized by existential pain
• Federico García Lorca: Combined folk and high culture
• Plays: Romancero Gitano, Poeta en Nueva York, Sonetos del amor oscuro
• Lorca's theater explored universal themes through symbolic elements, poetic language, and songs
• Lorca used the color green, the moon, the horse, etc.
• Rafael Alberti ranged from popular to surrealist and social poetry
• Luis Cernuda: Dealt with unhappy love and exile
• Las Sinsombrero: Group of women, transformed cultural and artistic panorama with modern approach

Post-Civil War Poetry & Theatrical Innovation

• The Civil War profoundly impacted the poets and playwrights after 1936, separating literary production into trends and generations due to exile, censorship, and political circumstances
• Miguel Hernández: focused on love, pain, death, and hope
• The 1940s distinguished two types of poetry: rooted and uprooted
• Rooted poetry aligned with Francoism
• Key figures included Leopoldo Panero and Luis Rosales
• Uprooted poetry featured existential tones
• In the 1950s, Antología consulted appeared on social poetry and social injustice
• Key figures included Blas de Otero and Gabriel Celaya
• The 1960s highlighted the Generation of '50
• Focused on everyday and existential themes
• José Hierro, Ángel González, Jaime Gil de Biedma became key figures
• The 1970s feature G. del 68, rejected social realism
• Featured Pere Gimferrer, Ana María Moix and Vázquez Montalbán
• The post-1980s saw diverse trends featuring Benítez Reyes
• Neosurrealism of Blanca Andreu and Antonio Colinas also made appearance
• The post-1936 theater was affected by economics, exile, and censorship

Theater Groups & Historical Figures

• Jardiel Poncela, Alejandro Casona, and Miguel Mihura
• The 1950s experienced the emergence of social and existential theater
• Antonio Buero Vallejo and Alfonso Sastre became prominent
• The 1960s, innovative and alternative theater works emerged
• Fernando Arrabal and Francisco Nieva key figures
• Post-1975 saw a recovery of censored texts: Spanish Civil War was a catalyst
• Independent theater started here
• Antonio Gala, José Luis Alonso de Santos, Fernando Fernán Gómez, and José Sanchís Sinisterra became important figures
• Contemporary theater: Juan Mayorga and Paloma Pedrero lead wave of innovation

Novel of Post-War in Spain, Isolationism, & Realism

• Spain isolated from world in the early post-war years
• The 1940s-50s: searching literature
• Realistic narrative tendency restored through 2 trends: traditional and Tremendismo
• Most novels present sordid environments, violent actions, harsh realities, and an existential tone
• La familia de Pascual Duarte by Camilo José Cela: most impactful during period
• Carmen Laforet published Nada.

The 50s & the Spanish Literary Transformation

• A more critical consciousness against the bourgeoisie emerged
• Series of works mark that lead to a new form of narration
• Miguel Delibes and Camilo José Cela made their impact on this period
• Immediately after the appearance of La colmena a series of authors emerged
• Called Generación de medio siglo, coincided in age and training
• Shared vision of literature: a social commitment and testimonial vocation.

Literary Trends & Generations

• Neorealism focuses on high interest in language and a form over social matter.
• Realism aims to present reality to transform.
• After 1960 aesthetics of realism and implementation of experimental literary forms occurred
• Time after and period of ideological renovation occurred after this event
• In this period a new narrative form began to emerge where the novel triumphs the most

Novel from 1975 - 20th Century

• Spanish people return to democracy
• Experimentalism from 1960s and 1970s left to return to pleasure story mode.
• Stage consisted of intrigue in a narration form.
• This was a period where narrative structures began to simplify.
• During this area literary and journalistic connections began to connect.
• Stylistic began to diversified, leading to several types.
• Several people rose to fame during this period. Trends occurring in novels from 1975:
• Mystery in noir fashion and critical denounce.
• Inspired the success of "El nombre de la rosa".
• Novel reflected the past and social issues with the feminist condition
• Literature where central theme in focus
• Response focused towards the younger crowd, who reflected problems of youth in urban cities.
• Authors began writing this period.
• A song inspired by Siniestro Total.
• Literature derived from the spanish rural

Contemporary Hispanic-American Literature

• Contemporary Hispanic-American literature features diversed movements over varied trend
• Literature split into 2: that of pure art and one where more social problems being explored
• Vicente Huidobro*, Jorge Luis Borges led these avant garde movements
• Pure literature and integration of rythmns that were focused on themes of African decent Influenced by previous writers as themes were highlighted