Spanish Literature I INTRODUCTION

Spanish Literature, literature of Spain from about AD 1000 until the present, written in the Spanish language. Spanish literature does not include works in Spanish that originated in Latin America, the Philippines, or the United States. Spanish literature does include a number of works written by Spanish citizens living outside of Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) or during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco from 1939 through 1975.

Geography has been an important factor in the development of Spanish literature. Located on the Iberian Peninsula at the southwestern corner of Europe, Spain long remained isolated from the rest of Europe. Trends in other European literatures, if they reached Spain, generally arrived after they had reached other parts of the continent. This isolation enabled Spain to develop its own distinctive literary voice.

Spain’s distinctive literary voice also resulted in part from its diverse population: a combination of groups from the Mediterranean region with rich cultural heritages. Arabs from northern Africa, Jews from the Middle East, and Christians from the Iberian Peninsula intermingled during Spain’s early literary period and created a unique blend of literary styles and subject matter. The influence of each group is evident in some of Spain’s most celebrated literary works, including El cantar de mío Cid (1140; The Song of the Cid) and Libro del Conde Lucanor (1323-1335; Book of Count Lucanor).

Spanish literature takes in many contradictions. It celebrates a combined heritage of Christian, Arabic, and Jewish influences that helped define Spanish culture and history, while at times conforming to the literary styles of European movements such as the Renaissance, romanticism, naturalism, realism, and modernism.

Several historical events significantly influenced Spanish literature. The first of these was the occupation of the Iberian Peninsula from 719 until the late 1400s by Arabic-speaking people from northern Africa known as Moors. The Moors introduced Spain to the Arabic language, the Islamic religion, and a social structure that encouraged academic study of the arts and mathematics. Ironically, the Moors’ presence in Spain also promoted the rise of Christian Spain. Christian kingdoms in the north of Spain gradually reconquered the peninsula and by the early 1500s made a single Spanish dialect, Castilian, the language of the unified land.

An important period in Spanish literature began in the 16th century when Spain, along with other European countries, experienced a burst of intellectual activity in literature, art, and philosophy known as the Renaissance. This creative outpouring led to the Golden Age of Spanish literature from the mid-16th century through the 17th century. During the Golden Age, writers such as Miguel de Cervantes, Tirso de Molina, and Lope de Vega addressed conflicting views of life often described as idealism and realism. Their efforts yielded popular (and sometimes comic) literary styles used for discussions of the universal themes of love, honor, disillusionment, and death.

During the 20th century, the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Franco profoundly influenced Spanish literature. From the late 1920s through the 1970s, authors, poets, and dramatists such as Federico García Lorca, Francisco Ayala, Camilo José Cela, and Carmen Laforet addressed political and societal issues of the time, including the brutality and horror of the civil war and its aftermath. Authors found themselves divided into two ideological camps—those who supported the fascist government of Franco and those who opposed it. By the end of the 20th century, Spanish writers once again could write without fear of censorship. A movement led by Esther Tusquets, Paloma Pedrero, Carme Riera, and other writers addressed the idea of literary creation itself and turned to newly permissible subject matter about the state of Spanish society.

II THE EARLY PERIOD (1ST CENTURY THROUGH 10TH CENTURY)

Although the works that together make up Spanish literature were not written until after the 10th century, literature on the Iberian Peninsula and the Spanish language originated much earlier. Spanish is considered a Romance language, as are French, Italian, and other languages that developed from the Latin language spoken in the Roman Empire. During the Middle Ages, a number of distinct dialects appeared in Spain. Each is named after the region of the peninsula in which it was spoken—for example, Castilian in Castile and Aragonese in Aragon.

The language of Spain, like its literature, reflects the diversity of the land’s inhabitants and heritage. Sometime before the end of the 6th century BC, the region’s first inhabitants, the Iberians, began to mingle with the Celts, a nomadic people from central Europe. The two groups formed a people called Celtiberians, who spoke a form of Celtic. The literature of the Celtiberians of the southern part of the peninsula included epic poems and books of metrical laws, but it is now lost. Subsequent invasions by various groups, including Carthaginians in the 3rd century BC, added words to the Celtiberian language.

A Under Roman Rule

In 206 BC the Romans captured the Carthaginian capital of Gadir (present-day Cádiz). After driving out the Carthaginians, the Romans began to subdue the native inhabitants, and by 19 BC they had completed their conquest of the peninsula. Under Roman rule the region became known as Hispania, and its inhabitants learned Latin from Roman traders, settlers, administrators, and soldiers. Cities in both the south and north became great centers of Latin civilization. Although many scholars still debate whether it is “Spanish,” a Hispano-Latin literature was written in Latin by people born in Hispania. Some of the most important writers during the 1st century

AD (a period known as the Silver Age of Latin literature) were Mela, who wrote the first Latin geography of the Mediterranean world; Columella, whose 12-volume work in prose and verse, De re rustica (On Agriculture), written in about AD 50, is the most complete treatise on agriculture of ancient times; Lucan, whose epic poem Pharsalia narrates the war between Julius Caesar and Pompey; Quintilian, who wrote a 12-volume work on the education of orators; and Martial, whose lively and satiric poetry and epigrams depict Roman life and customs of his age. The two greatest figures of Hispano-Roman letters were members of the Seneca family from Córdoba. The first, Marcus Annaeus Seneca, was known for his oratory and for his political writings. His son, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, also skilled in politics and oratory, became even more famous as a Roman senator, tutor of the emperor Nero, and author of three dramatic tragedies: Medea, The Trojan Women, and Agamemnon. His Moral Essays gives concrete examples for the practice of Stoic philosophy.

B The Visigoths

The Visigoths, Germanic tribes of eastern Europe, invaded Roman Spain in the 5th century AD. During the time that the Visigoths controlled Spain, from the 5th to the 8th century, Latin was the official language of government and culture. The Visigoths had belonged to a Christian sect called Arianism at the time they entered Spain, but by the end of the 6th century most had been converted to Roman Catholicism by Saint Isidore of Seville. Isidore was the most important intellectual figure in Spain during the Visigoth period, and his Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum, et Suevorum (History of the Kings of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevi) is the principal source of information about these early groups. He also wrote several works dealing with religious education and a description of the Earth and the universe in De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things), an attempt to capture universal history. His most famous work, however, is Etymologiae, an encyclopedia in 20 volumes that contains definitions of words and names, as well as information on topics such as grammar, mathematics, geometry, medicine, law, languages, the military arts, and music. The Etymologiae was a favorite textbook for students during the Middle Ages, and it remained a standard reference book for centuries. C The Moors

When the Moors invaded Spain in AD 711 they brought with them an established language, religion, and social and political structure. They built numerous Muslim universities where the study of medicine, mathematics, philosophy, and literature flourished. The work of ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, for example, was studied in Spain long before it became well known in the rest of Europe. An extensive literature developed partly because Moorish caliphs (rulers) themselves were poets and authors of note. Art and architecture also thrived. Writers include Ibn Hazm, author of the 11th-century poem Tawq al-hamama (The Dove’s Neckring); Ibn al-Arabi, an interpreter of Islam’s conservative, mystic Sufi sect; and Averroës, a physician, jurist, and philosopher.

A sizable Jewish population appeared in Spain during the early Middle Ages, bringing commercial, administrative, intellectual, and artistic talents. The mixture of Christians, Arabs, and Jews on the peninsula produced an unstable but highly creative literary environment. Religion, society, and politics were the subjects for each group’s literary works. One of the best-known non-Moorish authors of this period was Maimonides, a Spanish-born Jewish physician and thinker. His works include the Mishneh Torah (1170-1180), a 14-volume book on Jewish law written in Hebrew, and Guide for the Perplexed, a work written in Arabic around 1190.

III TOWARD A NATIONAL LITERATURE (11TH CENTURY TO 15TH CENTURY)

Under the Moors, Toledo had become a cultural center, where Arab, Hebrew, and Christian scholars translated the important works of Islamic and ancient Greek culture into Latin. These works concerned the areas of philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, mineralogy, medicine, and geometry. When the Christian reconquest of the peninsula began in the 11th century, Toledo became a strategic objective for forces led by the king of Castile, Alfonso VI, who was a descendent of Visigoths. Alfonso captured Toledo in 1085, and the Muslim School of Translators came under Christian custody. The tradition of learning in Toledo continued under Alfonso, and Christian scholars from elsewhere in Europe also joined activities at the school. The school’s activities strengthened the development of a national language and literature.

The gradual retaking of Spain by the Christians proved to be not only political, military, and religious, but linguistic as well. Over the years, as Christians from the north slowly reconquered Spain, the Spanish dialects of northern Spain, such as Castilian and Leonese, became dominant. These dialects slowly replaced Arabic and Mozarabic (a Romance language with many Arabic words) as the spoken languages. Writing in these northern dialects also became standard as Christian forces pushed the Moors farther and farther south during the 12th and early 13th centuries.

Spanish literature of the late Middle Ages took many forms. Uneducated but highly entertaining bards sang stories of the Christian heroes; scholars wrote and translated works under the direction of monarchs; and monks, clerics, and priests composed poetry about the natural and spiritual world. The whole of these works helped define the emerging Spanish state under Christian rule.

A The Earliest Spanish Literature

The first truly Spanish works of literature appeared just before the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula. These works took the form of songs called jarchas. They first appeared as short stanzas at the end of a muwassaha, a kind of poem written in the second half of the 11th century in Arabic and Hebrew. Scholars believe they came from a much older oral tradition of Vulgar Latin, a colloquial form of Latin spoken in the Roman Empire.

In their simplest form, jarchas combined styles of Arabic or Hebrew poetry in Mozarabic, but they also were written in other Spanish dialects as the reconquest spread. Although sung by men and boys, jarchas most often express the point of view of a woman in love who seeks solace and advice. In theme and form they are similar to later cantigas de amigo (love songs) that belong to oral traditions of the 12th, 13th, and early 14th centuries in Galician, a dialect of northwestern Spain.

B The Troubadour Style and the Epic

El Cid Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, an 11th-century Spanish warrior known as El Cid, became a national hero and served as the subject for the most famous epic in Spanish literature, El cantar de mío Cid (The Song of the Cid, composed about 1200). El Cid rose to prominence as a soldier of fortune, gaining great power and wealth with his small army. In 1094 El Cid and his men took Valencia from the Moors, who at that time held a large part of Spain. Hulton Getty Picture Collection

Even though the reconquest created linguistic, political, and social instability on the peninsula during the late 12th century, the first great works of Spanish oral literature appeared at this time. These were poems composed by troubadours, medieval poets who sang for the people in village squares and for the nobility in castles and royal courts. The troubadour poets flourished in Spain as a result of pilgrimages to the burial place of Saint James, the patron saint of Christian Spain, in the city of Santiago de Compostela. This tourism popularized performances of the troubadour poets not only in Santiago de Compostela but also in stopping places along the way. Troubadours entertained the pilgrims with songs and long, narrative poems called epics, which recounted the deeds of Christian heroes.

The epics were composed mainly in a poetic style known as mester de juglaría (craft of the troubadour). Verses could be of various lengths, although most were 12 to 16 syllables long, with a caesura (pause) in the middle. They employed a form of rhyming in which the last accented vowel in a line, and any vowels after it in that line, were repeated in the lines that followed. The Spanish epic tradition differs from other European epic traditions in its focus on social and political realities and in its lack of extensive exaggeration, supernatural forces, and fantasy. One of the most celebrated works in Spanish literature, El cantar de mío Cid, is an epic poem in the troubadour style. Although scholars are divided about the source of El cantar de mio Cid, many believe it was composed around 1140. A Christian monk wrote down its almost 4,000 verses in the Castilian dialect in 1307, but the work was based on cycles of songs from an older oral tradition. The poem focuses on Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, known as El Cid Campeador (an Arabic title meaning “Lord Champion”). Rodrigo was born in 1043 in the town of Vivar in north central Spain. A noble with great power, he first served in the Christian reconquest under Ferdinand I, the king who united the kingdoms of León, Galicia, and Castile. After Ferdinand’s death those kingdoms were divided among his heirs and Rodrigo remained loyal to King Sancho II of Castile. After Sancho was assassinated, the Cid served under Sancho’s brother Alfonso VI (then king of Castile and León) but fell from favor because of disagreements with the new king.

El cantar de mío Cid begins in approximately 1081, when Alfonso banishes the Cid, and it covers the Cid’s activities as he marches east to conquer Valencia for Christian forces in 1094. Despite their disagreements the Cid never swerves in his loyalty to Alfonso, and Rodrigo rules Valencia in his king’s name until his own death in 1099. The poem is noted for its realistic, detailed description of the code of chivalry and other customs of the period, its accurate rendering of political alliances, and its dramatic touches. In some ways, the poem is a guide to exemplary Christian behavior. The Cid is depicted in the poem not only as a model of loyalty, but also as a great military figure, a leader of soldiers, a friend to Christian and Arab allies, a just enemy, and an honored and honorable family man.

C Evidence of a Dramatic Tradition

Little is known about early Spanish drama, although troubadours performed plays as well as epics to amuse people. Fragments remain of a religious play written in the mid-12th century in the Castilian dialect, Auto de los Reyes Magos (Drama of the Three Wise Men). The work, a simple reenactment of the birth of Jesus Christ, is also one of the earliest plays written in a Romance language. Although only five fragments remain, many scholars consider the play to be evidence of a rich medieval tradition of religious drama in Spain.

D The Scholarly Tradition

The scholarly tradition initiated at Toledo by the Moors continued under Alfonso X, known as El Sabio (The Wise), who became king of Castile and León in 1252. Alfonso directed the scholars at the School of Translators to translate histories, chronicles, and scientific, legal, and literary writings from other languages (principally Latin, Greek, and Arabic) into Castilian, thereby boosting the dialect’s importance within Spain. Alfonso also commissioned original works in Castilian, such as Estoria de España (1270?-1289; History of Spain), a universal history called General historia (1270?; General History), and a canon of laws titled Siete Partidas (1256-1265; The Seven Books of Law). A major result of his efforts was a standardized language based on the Castilian dialect. The dialect was further strengthened when Alfonso abandoned Latin as the language of his political administration. Instead, he used the Castilian dialect for all official documents and decrees, which served as models of correct Castilian to be used throughout his kingdom. Castilian became standard for literature and formal education, even in Galician- and Catalan-speaking areas, although those regions maintained bilingualism in language and literature.

One of the earliest works of prose fiction, Libro del Conde Lucanor (1335; Book of Count Lucanor), was written by Alfonso’s nephew Don Juan Manuel. Libro del Conde Lucanor is a collection of 50 stories that imitate the fables attributed to Aesop, the ancient Greek collector of stories with a moral intended to instruct. The Spanish work is modeled closely on the work of Arab scholars who had translated Aesop’s fables. Each story focuses on a specific problem of Count Lucanor, for which his adviser, Patronio, offers a solution using contemporary examples. Although many of Lucanor’s problems are Middle Eastern and ancient in theme, Patronio’s solutions are distinctly Spanish. His advice conveys a realistic picture of Spain’s social structure during Manuel’s lifetime.

E Poetry in the Cleric Style

Juan Ruiz: El libro de buen amor The poetry of 14th-century priest Juan Ruiz ranks among the highest achievements of Spanish literature. Shown here are pages from his masterpiece, El libro de buen amor (The Book of Good Love), now in the library of the University of Salamanca. Archivo Fotografico Oronoz

Whereas the mester de juglaría was the poetry of the people, a second poetic style, mester de clerecía (craft of the clerics), developed in educated verse in Spain toward the end of the 13th century. Influenced by poetry of southern France, mester de clerecía differed from mester de juglaría in three distinct ways. First, the authors of verse in the cleric style were educated individuals, such as monks and priests. For the most part they could read and write in Greek, Latin, Castilian, and their own regional dialect. The second difference was in structure. Unlike poems in the free-flowing troubadour style, most poems in the cleric style were organized in stanzas of four verses that isolated and focused on specific ideas. Each line contained 14 syllables and used a rhyming pattern of consonants, called consonance, in which the last accented vowel and all the following consonants and vowels repeat. The third difference was in subject matter. The deeds and adventures of heroes worked well as subjects of troubadour songs and epics. The cleric style, however, focused more on religious aspects of love and life.

The cleric style did remain true to the realistic depiction of everyday life. A monk, Gonzalo de Berceo, is the first poet identifiable by name who wrote in the mester de clerecía and in Castilian . Although he also wrote in a more formal style, poems such as his Milagros de Nuestra Señora (1252; Miracles of the Virgin Mary) entertained common people and members of the court with satire, humor, and realism in a language with which they readily identified.

A later poem written in the cleric style is El libro de buen amor (1330, enlarged 1343; The Book of Good Love), written by a priest named Juan Ruiz. The work consists of more than 7,000 verses written to glorify spiritual love. It is famous, however, for its focus on the raucous and negative influences of mal amor, or carnal love. Using a dramatic and satiric style, the poem features first-person accounts of romantic episodes and adventures in which characters experience the effects of both spiritual and carnal love. El libro de buen amor addresses the conflict between these two ideas—religious piety and worldly experience—with a blend of low humor and moral teaching. It is also one of the first works to feature an old woman who acts as a messenger between the lover and beloved. This character, Trotaconventos, is considered by many to be the prototype of the female go-between in many later European literary works.

F Lyric Poetry

By the end of the 14th century the educated classes in Spain had begun to produce shorter lyric poetry in Castilian. Unlike epic poetry, which narrated a story or tale, Spanish lyric poetry often addressed the idea of courtly love. In a highly personal manner, the poem’s speaker, often a knight or other individual of prestige, addressed the beloved, offering praise or expressing longing or inadequacy. The sonnet was an especially popular form for lyric poetry, in imitation of the sonnet perfected by Italian poet Petrarch in the 13th century. The sonnet in Spanish consists of 14 lines, organized into two 4-line stanzas called quartets and two 3-line stanzas called tercets. Each line contains 11 syllables and is linked to other lines through consonance. Fifteenth-century poet Íñigo López de Mendoza, the Marquis of Santillana, with his themes of love, religion, patriotism, and morals, offers the best examples of the early sonnet in Spanish in his Sonetos hechos al itálico modo (Sonnets written in the Italian Mode).

Coplas por la muerte de su padre (1476; Verses on the Death of his Father) by Jorge Manrique is another highly personal poem in the lyric style. In writing about his father’s death, Manrique focuses on medieval ideals and beliefs concerning life and death, namely that an individual’s earthly existence is a preparation—worthwhile and honorable at times, and full of suffering at others—for the glorious life to come after death.

G Spain United

The marriage of Roman Catholic monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand V of Aragon in 1479 brought together the largest Christian kingdoms in Spain. Isabella and Ferdinand further unified Christian Spain in 1492 by banishing the Moors from Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, and by expelling Jews from Spain unless they converted to Christianity. The two rulers assumed control of many powers of the Catholic Church, including the Inquisition, which they used against political adversaries and against Moors and Jews they believed had falsely converted. These actions unified Spain and helped create a Spanish religious and political identity. With unity came expansion as Spain sent explorers to the Americas and in the early 1500s won control of The Netherlands and southern Italy.

Another way of unifying the peninsula was to make Castilian the official language of Spain. In 1492 humanist Antonio de Nebrija published Gramática sobre la lengua castellana (Grammar of the Castilian Language). It was the first attempt to study and standardize the grammar of a European language. Nebrija believed that a common language was essential to the strength of an empire—a belief that fortified the monarchs’ plans.

At roughly the same time that the Spanish Empire expanded and the Spanish language was standardized, movable type, which had been pioneered by German printer Johannes Gutenberg, became available for publishing books. These events had the potential for making Spanish culture and literature immensely more accessible. Instead of becoming a great cultural and literary influence in Europe, though, Spain closed itself to much of its heritage, including its Moorish and Jewish past. On an official level the country began to limit its cultural, philosophical, and religious identity. As Spain’s influence expanded into the Americas, this intellectual and spiritual isolation led to censorship of literature in newly conquered territories out of fear that native peoples might consider works of fiction and poetry and the Catholic Bible equally valid.

H The Celestina

In many senses, La tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea (1499) by Fernando de Rojas, a work popularly known as La Celestina, exemplifies the strict moral tone and temper of the times in Spain. It concerns two noble lovers, Calisto and Melibea, who resort to the services of a go-between named Celestina to further their love. The lives of these three characters become entangled through a variety of comic mistakes and beguilements, and in the end all three are brought to disaster.

The Celestina presents the reader with a number of contradictions. The work cautions individuals who are blinded by love and advises them against the deceits of go- betweens and immoral servants. At the same time, The Celestina seems to celebrate human diversity, accepting existence as a complex set of natural impulses—some noble and generous, others base and egotistical. Even its original title, La tragicomedia, indicates that The Celestina is neither tragedy nor comedy, but both. Its structure is that of a novel in dialogue form; this structure illustrates the tensions between the form of the novel and the form of the drama. It also illustrates tension between tragedy and comedy and between the idealism of the lovers and the materialism of the servants. The literary sources of this work are Latin and medieval, but The Celestina also expresses a vision of life that diverges from the spirit of the Middle Ages and propels Spanish literature into the Renaissance.

IV THE RENAISSANCE IN SPAIN (EARLY- AND MID-16TH CENTURY)

Ferdinand was succeeded by his grandson Charles, who ruled from 1516 to 1556. Charles grew up in The Netherlands and was at first rejected by his Spanish subjects for his unfamiliarity with the Spanish language and Spanish culture. But he soon won their hearts. Charles brought The Netherlands, which he inherited from the Habsburg side of his family, under Spanish control, and he established a colonial empire in the Americas. In 1519 he was elected Holy Roman emperor, an office that required him to protect the empire’s territory in central Europe from hostile forces, including France and England.

Not the least of Charles’s worries was the Protestant Reformation against the Catholic Church, led by Martin Luther. Spain became one of the primary defenders of the pope and a proponent of the Catholic Church’s response to the Reformation: the Counter Reformation. Among its leaders, later made saints, were Spanish cleric Ignatius of Loyola and Spanish mystic Teresa of Ávila. During this period of tumultuous political and religious battles, Renaissance ideals emerged. However, those ideals, based on the promise of the intellectual, spiritual, artistic, and physical capacity of humans to solve the problems of society, were always tempered in Spain. Spain was suspicious that those beliefs in human potential were somehow in conflict with a strong faith in the power of God.

Renaissance literature in Spain was limited to a few forms, themes, and figures. Renaissance humanism, with its emphasis on the individual, did not achieve the importance in Spain that it did in Italy, France, and other parts of Europe. Instead, Spanish writers relied on accepted styles and looked to Spanish history for subject matter. The chief literary forms were novels of chivalry, romances (oral ballads from the Middle Ages), pastoral poetry (poetry that portrays the innocence of life in the country), and religious poetry.

A Works of Chivalry and Romance

Chivalric novels celebrated the deeds of knights-errant, or knights who searched for adventure in order to demonstrate their chivalry. These works were immensely popular and mixed the themes of epic heroism with figures from the reconquest. Themes of courtly love drawn from the troubadour poets were also popular subject matter. One of the period’s best works is Amadís de Gaula (Amadís of Gaul), a 14th-century story written down in four books by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo in 1508. Filled with giants, monsters, and other fantastical characters, the story traces the adventures of Amadís, a knight-errant who completes many deeds while remaining faithful to his lady. The work was so popular that several imitations of it were created elsewhere in Europe.

Also during the Renaissance vast numbers of ballads, which had been circulating in oral form since the Middle Ages, began to be written down. Many of these romances had historical or legendary themes that focused on figures of the reconquest, such as Bernardo del Carpio (the Spanish hero who, according to legend, defeated the forces of Charlemagne) and the Cid. Some romances, called romances fronterizos (ballads of the frontier), focused on wars along the frontiers between Christian and Islamic Spain and presented both Christians and Arabs as heroes. Other romances are more lyric and personal, focusing on love and loss.

B Pastoral Poetry

As city dwelling became more common during the Renaissance, a type of poetry called pastoral became popular. Pastoral poetry depicted ladies and gentlemen who retired to the country in search of a simple life, without the complications of newly developing urban existence. The forms and themes of pastoral poetry were not entirely new. Spanish pastoral poets, such as Juan Boscán Almogaver and Garcilaso de la Vega, imitated the sonnet, tercet, and other verse forms often used in Italian pastoral works. Garcilaso also drew on ancient Roman writers Virgil, Horace, and Ovid as inspiration for his lyric poems. These poems contained sentimental discussions of rural love and the beauty of the Spanish landscape. Garcilaso captured the Spanish spirit through descriptions of his experiences as courtier, soldier, artist, and musician, but it was his literary skill that influenced Spanish poets in later centuries.

C Religious Poetry

Religious poetry gained intensity near the middle of the 16th century, partly as a consequence of the Counter Reformation. This writing expressed attitudes of spiritual devotion, the state of the soul, and the desire to withdraw from the world. Three writers of religious verse stand out: Augustinian monk Luis Ponce de León, known as Fray Luis de León; Carmelite monk Juan de Yepes y Álvarez, known as Saint John of the Cross; and Carmelite mystic Saint Teresa of Ávila, also known as Saint Teresa de Jésus.

Fray Luis de León, the first important writer of religious verse, expressed his desire to separate himself from the business of the world and to live simply and in harmony with nature. This theme of pastoral serenity echoed the works of Garcilaso and other writers. Fray Luis de León’s lyric poem “Vida retirada” (The Retiring Life) focuses on Christian devotion and the beauty of love for God.

Saint John of the Cross composed what many critics consider the most mystical and intense poems written in the Spanish language. He attempted to express, in terms of human love, the mystical experience of uniting the human soul with God in poems such as “Cántico espiritual” (Spiritual Canticle), “Llama de amor viva” (Living Flame of Love), and “Noche obscura del alma” (Dark Night of the Soul).

Saint Teresa of Ávila, who wrote both prose and poetry, was one of the most important reformers of the Catholic Church during the Counter Reformation. Her prose, especially her most famous work, Moradas del castillo interior (1577; Rooms in the Interior Castle of the Soul), focuses on the theology of the soul and its relation to God. Much of her poetry expresses her mysticism and a personal desire to escape the earthly life and its problems by joining God in the afterlife.

V SPANISH BAROQUE AND THE GOLDEN AGE (LATE 16TH THROUGH 17TH CENTURIES)

Corral de Comedias, Spain The Corral de Comedias, in the small Spanish town of Almagro, is an open-air theater dating back to the 17th century, the Golden Age of Spanish theater. The town, situated in the province of Ciudad Real, presents a festival of classic theater each summer. age fotostock

Whereas the Renaissance fostered literature and other intellectual pursuits, the baroque period that followed was filled with disillusion and disappointment. The Netherlands revolted in 1567 against harsh Spanish rule under Charles’s successor, Philip II, and a costly war ensued. England supported The Netherlands. In 1588 the Spanish Armada, the naval fleet sent by Philip to conquer England, suffered a humiliating defeat. This war drained the Spanish treasury.

Despite these political disappointments, Spanish literature entered its Siglo de Oro (Golden Age), a highly creative and prolific era in the late 16th century. Spanish writers of this period saw from experience that humankind’s talents often could not triumph over violence, ignorance, and injustice, nor over the forces that had defeated the Armada. The greatest Spanish writers and works of the Golden Age expressed these complications, as well as disillusion with the age and humankind.

A The Rise of Prose

One of the first achievements of the Golden Age was the creation of the picaresque novel—a narrative that recounts the life and adventures of pícaros (rascals). The prototype of this form is La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades (The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and his Fortunes and Adversities), which was published in 1554 in seven chapters. Although the author remains unknown, it became one of the most influential works in Spanish literature. La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes details the adventures of a young man named Lazarillo. After his father’s death Lazarillo is forced to make his own way in the world. Lazarillo serves several masters, including a blind beggar, a miserly clergyman, a penniless squire, and a vendor of indulgences (remission of punishment for sins). Each master stands as an example of society’s pitfalls, and each experience offers a severe critique of Spanish life. The organization of the Roman Catholic Church of that time was a specific target of criticism. Unlike the chivalric deeds and courtly love present in the literature of the previous centuries, La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes demonstrates how the human spirit survives in a hostile world by use of wit and trickery.

Disillusion also appeared in pastoral writings. In 1559 Jorge de Montemayor published his Los siete libros de la Diana (The Seven Books of Diana), the first pastoral novel written in Spanish. The characters in it are not happy individuals delighted by life in the countryside. Seeking love and suffering for it, Montemayor’s characters are portrayed as victims of irrational forces, such as emotion, destiny, and fate. Time and change are also enemies because they threaten the stability and constancy of life and love.

B Don Quixote

Cervantes Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes changed the face of fiction with his early 17th century masterpiece, Don Quixote (part I, 1605; part II, 1615). In the book, a distinguished country gentleman becomes a knight after reading too many chivalric novels. Intended as a spoof on the romantic literature of the time, Don Quixote exposed and satirized Spanish society, medieval romance, and the pastoral novel. Don Quixote reveals the essential humanity of its complex, crazed characters and has influenced many subsequent works. Archivo Fotografico Oronoz

The greatest figure of the Golden Age was Miguel de Cervantes, author of the novel El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha (Part I, 1605; Part II, 1615; The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of la Mancha). Don Quixote is generally considered the first great Western novel. Cervantes narrates the adventures of the main character, an aging man named Don Quixote, who is from a region of central Spain called La Mancha. Quixote is a member of the titled class, a group of noblemen created by the Catholic kings to promote unity and loyalty during the reconquest.

After reading too many novels about chivalry, Don Quixote loses his mind. Filled with ideas about medieval knights-errant, especially his favorite, Amadís of Gaul, he sets forth on a quest through the Spanish countryside with his companion Sancho Panza. In reality Sancho is an uneducated but practical country farmer, but in Don Quixote’s mind Sancho serves as his faithful squire. Don Quixote’s delusions are many. As he attempts to combat the world’s injustices, his imagination transforms windmills into giants, flocks of sheep into enemy armies, and country inns into castles. True to the chivalric model, Don Quixote dedicates his actions of valor to a noble love, whom he calls Dulcinea. But she is really a simple country girl. Individuals whom Don Quixote and Sancho Panza meet along their journey become, in Don Quixote’s mind, defenseless orphans, maidens, and widows whom they must befriend, help, and serve in the name of truth and beauty.

The focus of the novel is the sustained dialogue between idealism and realism as lived by Don Quixote and Sancho respectively. While the two main characters may represent the opposite attitudes of idealism and realism, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are not simple characters; each demonstrates and develops within himself the point of view of the other. Typifying writers of the baroque period, Cervantes offers the reader a wealth of moral complexities, but he does not give answers to the dilemmas of his time.

In structure, the novel is also complex. It contains characteristics of various types of novels and critiques of both the chivalric and pastoral modes. It depicts a highly realistic setting, with attention paid to Spanish geography. Cervantes also incorporates autobiographical elements and details of the history and deeds of the time.

The influence of Don Quixote extends into later centuries. Subsequent periods gave their own interpretations of the story and found in it a model for new types of fiction. Cervantes wrote other works as well: 12 novelettes that make up the Novelas ejemplares (1613; Exemplary Novels) and an imaginative romance, Persiles y Sigismunda (1617; The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda), which is also considered a masterpiece of Spanish baroque prose. His most famous play, La Numancia, written between 1581 and 1587, dramatizes the destruction of the Spanish town Numancia by its citizens to avoid defeat by the Roman general Scipio.

C Experiments in Poetry

One of the most inventive poets of the baroque age, Luis de Góngora y Argote, experimented with language. Góngora used unusual word order, word invention, personal symbolism, descriptions of the five senses, and references to Greek and Roman mythology to capture the period’s instability. His style came to be known as gongorism or culturanism, because it captured the essence of the Spanish culture in forms, words, and symbols. Because of its complexity, Góngora’s work appealed to a small audience of educated elite during his lifetime. Two of Góngora's outstanding books are Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea (1627; Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea) and his unfinished masterpiece, Soledades (1627; Solitudes).

Another great baroque poet of the Golden Age was Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas. Quevedo wrote several novels and numerous essays, but his poetry stands out for its examination of ideas and concepts—specifically, the individual’s acceptance of human vice. His poetic works are filled with black humor and caricatures of society through which he expressed his alienation from and disappointment with the lofty ideals of the earlier pastoral poets.

D Golden Age Drama Tirso de Molina The comedies of Tirso de Molina, one of the best-known playwrights of the Spanish Golden Age, excel in the portrayal of character. This is an anonymous 17th-century portrait from the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid. Archivo Fotografico Oronoz

The term Golden Age is also applicable to great works written for the theater during the 17th century. All plays were written in verse, so a playwright had to be skilled in a variety of poetic forms. Of the many successful playwrights of the day, three stand out: Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, and Pedro Calderón de la Barca.

Lope de Vega was the most prolific of the Golden Age playwrights. He was also a well-known poet. Lope wrote hundreds of plays, often taking his themes and forms from popular and traditional literature. In his famous long poem, El arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este tiempo (1609; The New Art of Writing Comedies in this Time), Lope described the characteristics and techniques that he considered most important for the theater of his day. These included a rejection of the three unities of ancient classical theater—time, place, and action—in favor of more artistic freedom for the playwright and greater recognition of the tastes of his audience. Lope celebrated the traditional Spanish themes of religion, monarchy, and honor and almost always succeeded in combining tragedy and comedy in his plays.

Lope de Vega Spanish playwright and poet Lope de Vega is considered the founder of Spanish national drama. His plays are usually divided into three acts, centered around a crisis often motivated by love, and resolved at the very end of the last act. Lope focused his most important works on historical themes. age fotostock

Lope’s El caballero de Olmedo (1615?–1626?; The Knight of Olmedo) is set during the reign of King Juan II (1406-1454) and examines the actions of an idealistic, brave, poetic, and handsome hero, Alonso. Alonso’s sword cannot defend him from the bullet of his rival, and he dies. At the end of the play the king dispenses justice to the villains. The play’s power lies not in the complexities of character or action, but in the subtle opposition of love and death, sword and bullet, Renaissance ideals and baroque reality. The lively clashes and happy (or at least just) endings in his plays made Lope exceedingly popular in his day.

Pedro Calderón Spanish dramatist Pedro Calderón de la Barca wrote 140 plays and sketches. La vida es sueño (1635; Life Is a Dream, 1925) is considered to be his masterpiece. The play explores moral concepts, which Calderón often personified in his plays so that his audience could understand his message. age fotostock

Tirso de Molina was known for his religious and historical plays. His most famous work is El burlador de Seville y el convidado de piedra (1630; The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest). In it Tirso gives life to the legendary lover and seducer, Don Juan Tenorio, who seduces the daughter of Seville's military commander and later kills the commander in a duel. In the end Don Juan is condemned to hell for his life of unbounded passion and pride before the laws of humans and God.

Calderón de la Barca’s most popular work, La vida es sueño (1635; Life is a Dream), depicts life as a dream from which we awaken only after death. This work, perhaps more than any other of its time, captures the disillusion of the baroque period and the intellectual and religious ethic of the Catholic Counter Reformation clashing with the ideals of the Renaissance. Later in his life, Calderón devoted himself to writing one-act allegorical plays that emphasized moral aspects of life. In these plays Calderón vividly personified abstract concepts of Roman Catholic theology, thus making them understandable to his audience. His allegorical play El gran teatro del mundo (1649; The Great Theater of the World) represents the world as a stage on which men and women are actors for a brief period of time. VI POLITICAL AND CULTURAL REALIGNMENT (18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES)

Before his death in 1700, and having no heirs, Spanish king Charles II decided to leave his throne to a grandnephew, Philip V, of the French royal family of Bourbon. This began a century-long rule of Bourbon kings in Spain. Philip united Spain and France politically, militarily, and culturally, and he also introduced the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment. These ideals arose from faith in the potential of human reason to solve, by means of education and scientific progress, all the problems of humanity and thereby transform society. Just as Renaissance beliefs in the power of individual human talents gave way to the confusion and complexities of the baroque period, a swing back to belief in the inherent goodness of humankind and in the capacity of human reason occurred during the Age of Enlightenment.

A The Enlightenment and Neoclassicism

Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos Spanish writer and statesman Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos is shown in a portrait painted by Francisco de Goya in 1797. The portrait is now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. He was known for his poetry and sentimental melodramas, but his desire to introduce social reforms landed him in trouble with the Spanish government and the Roman Catholic Church. The Prado Museum, Madrid/Archivo Fotografico Oronoz

Enlightenment thought was based on the teachings of French philosophers such as Denis Diderot and Voltaire, and it spread throughout Europe during the early 1700s. Human aspirations, these philosophers believed, should be centered not on the next life, but rather on ways of improving this life. Worldly happiness was placed before religious salvation. The influence of the Age of Enlightenment in Spain and on Spanish literature was limited and modified by a strong nationalism and by Catholic and traditional beliefs and customs.

For nearly a hundred years, very few writers of major importance appeared in Spain. In general, literary works of the 18th century outlined critical and philosophical arguments regarding what literature should be in relation to the ideas of the Enlightenment. Perhaps the most important figure in these arguments was a Benedictine monk, Benito Geronimo Feijóo y Montenegro. He felt that Spain’s intellectual leadership in Europe had dwindled because the Inquisition, along with struggles against Protestantism in The Netherlands and England, had diverted and stagnated Spanish thinking. Feijóo used a clear, succinct, uncomplicated style to argue in support of science and reason—arguments that often led to controversy. In his two best-known works, Teatro crítico (1726-1739; A Critique of the Theater) and Cartas eruditas (1742-1760; Scholarly Letters), he attempted to direct Spain back to a position of intellectual leadership in Europe.

During the mid-1700s renewed interest in the forms and themes of classical Greece and Rome launched a movement known as neoclassicism. The principal work that defined and spread the ideas of neoclassicism in Spain was the Poética (1737; Poetics) by Ignacio de Luzán. In this essay, Luzán admires yet strongly criticizes the works of the great writers of the Golden Age, including Góngora, Lope, and Calderón, for undisciplined, disordered, and extravagant writing, and for what he thought was a certain lack of moral sense. He felt that the Golden Age works lacked reason and art, and he called for a return to the classical rules and forms devised by Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle and Roman poet Horace. Like the ancients, Luzán also believed that literature must teach as it entertains.

Despite Luzán’s reasoned arguments, the vast majority of Spanish plays of his time were poor and exaggerated imitations of Calderón and Lope. However, one playwright, Leandro Fernández de Moratín, is notable for his skill, humor, and discipline. His two plays, La comedia nueva (The New Comedy, 1792) and El sí de las niñas (The Girls’ Affirmative Answers, 1806), ridicule the errors and vices of the new Spanish middle class, but they also offer solutions to the problems he exposes.

B Romanticism

The armies of French emperor Napoleon I swept across Europe at the beginning of the 19th century, and they took control of Spain. The Enlightenment’s faith in reason no longer held sway. Although the Spanish monarchy was restored in 1814 after the fall of Napoleon, it was seriously weakened. Political clashes continued throughout the 19th century between forces of liberalism, identified with French thinking, and those of conservatism, marked by traditional Spanish support for the monarchy. In Spain, as in the rest of Europe, a movement in literature and the arts captured this atmosphere of crisis and change. This movement is known as romanticism.

The romantic writers believed that overvaluing reason had led to abuses of power and that intellectual examination of social problems did little to solve them. Those who called themselves romantics praised imagination over reason, emotions over logic, and intuition over science. They focused on the concerns of the individual or groups of individuals rather than on those of the political establishment. The heroes of their works are often alone in the world or at least outside the accepted norms of society (revolutionary activists, pirates, thieves, and so on). The romantics often rejected the present and looked to an idealized history for their subjects and for the answers to problems of their times.

In Spain many romantic authors idealized the Middle Ages or the Reconquest and wrote works in which the old figures of the nobility or monarchy triumphed. Romantic authors viewed women as models of goodness and beauty. Human love, the most powerful emotion, was considered the way to humankind’s salvation, while Nature functioned as background or scenery and often reflected human emotions. Some of the most popular romantic prose was produced by costumbristas, writers who described regional customs, dress, and language with a new feeling for the picturesque. Rosalía de Castro, for example, wrote poetry that depicted the life and recalled the lore of Galicia with lyrical folk-song quality in the Galician dialect. Her best-known work is Cantares gallegos (Galician Songs, 1863).

Far from stressing traditional literary forms, romantic authors gloried in experimentation with a variety of forms as their ideals and hopes clashed with the reality of daily life. Romantic writers had to deal with the fact that love did not always triumph; women were human and not perfect; nature did not always reflect the emotional state of human beings; and the individual was often defeated by a blind or ignorant society. This disappointment led many romantics to address the excess of emotions that resulted in melancholy, in pessimism, and even in suicide.

The most important romantic writer in Spain was undoubtedly Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, who lived a life that fit the requirements of a romantic novel. He and his brother were orphaned as youths and went to live with an uncle. At the age of 18 Bécquer set off to seek fame and fortune in Madrid, where he soon contracted tuberculosis. Bécquer married the daughter of his doctor and had three children. The end of his life was filled with despair. He separated from his wife, his brother died, and Bécquer himself died of tuberculosis at the age of 34, never having achieved the fame and fortune he sought. His best-known work, a collection of lyric poems called Rimas (Rhymes, 1860-1861), focuses on idealized passion and the melancholy of a dark and impossible love. Bécquer also wrote prose. His Leyendas (Romantic Legends of Spain, 1871) is a collection of fantastic legends that link the events and people of a mysterious and idealized Middle Ages with problems of his own day (such as Spain’s occupation by France).

Another important poet of the romantic period was José de Espronceda. His poem El estudiante de Salamanca (The Student of Salamanca, 1841) describes the life of Don Félix de Montemar, a figure in the Don Juan tradition. Don Félix attempts to experience the full spectrum of emotion by seducing all women and defying all men. Unsatisfied in the end, he attempts to seduce Death and is destroyed.

José Zorrilla is known as the creator of the most famous play in the Hispanic world, Don Juan Tenorio (1844; Don Juan the Rake), which echoes the story of El burlador de Seville by Golden Age dramatist Tirso de Molina. Zorrilla’s play, however, reflects his own period’s belief in human emotion and an ideal of womanhood. Instead of being sent to hell, as was Tirso’s Burlador, Don Juan is ultimately saved from eternal damnation by the love of a woman.

Mariano José de Larra recorded descriptions of Spanish life and customs in his Artículos de costumbres (Articles on Manners, 1832-1837). Larra’s works were filled with irony, satire, and fierce and violent attacks on what he considered the decadent society of his day.

C Realism and Naturalism

Benito Pérez Galdós Regarded by many as Spain's greatest novelist since Miguel de Cervantes, Benito Pérez Galdós is most famous for his cycle of 46 novels that came to be called the Episodios nacionales (1873-1879 and 1898-1912). Chronicling the history of 19th-century Spain, Pérez Galdós developed a style of historical fiction that relied on meticulous research to recreate events of the past. A second series of novels, known as the Novelas españolas contemporáneas, explored the social and religious issues of his own day. Despite his relentless criticism of Spain’s powerful clergy, Pérez Galdós showed in his later work a growing acceptance of spirituality and its place in Spanish life. THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE

During the second half of the 19th century, two philosophies reacted to the exaltation and emotional and idealistic excesses of romanticism: positivism and determinism. Positivism focused not on the individual as challenger of the status quo, as romanticism had, but rather on the place of the individual within society. Positivists believed that progress and knowledge came from observation and experience of the world. Determinism gave little credit to the individual as a shaper of his or her life. Instead, it stressed the importance of outside forces and events over which the individual has little or no control. Determinism was reinforced by the theories of British scientist Charles Darwin and Austrian physician Sigmund Freud. Darwin’s theories of evolution and survival of the fittest and Freud’s theory of the unconscious suggested that externally and internally human beings were driven by a set of circumstances outside their control.

Taking up these ideas and techniques, Spanish writers of the late 19th century attempted to describe human behavior and surroundings, or to represent figures and objects exactly as they act or appear in life. This practice became known as realism. Realist writers aspired to be objective (in contrast to the subjective romantics) and to present all sides, positive and negative, of reality and characters. An important goal of realism was to reproduce exterior and interior reality in order to show the life of the individual in relation to society and the environment. Realists also strove to depict the psychological forces that shape each person. Instead of looking for escape in other places and history as the romantics had done, the realists examined the immediate world and time that surrounded them. They were less interested in grand adventures and more focused on daily life and the growing middle class. Their principal characters were often human types that represented social classes (usually middle or lower) and the social and related personal problems of the day.

Benito Pérez Galdós was the most prolific and important realist novelist of Spanish literature. He wrote five series of historical novels. He also wrote 46 volumes of history with the general title Episodios nacionales (1873-1879, 1898-1912; National Episodes), a work that vividly narrates events from Spanish history. In many of his novels he focused on his characters, their motivations, and their reactions to the forces around them. In novels such as La desheredada (1881; The Disinherited Woman, 1957) and Doña Perfecta (1876; translated 1880), Galdós realistically examined contemporary Spanish politics, economy, religion, and family through the eyes of the middle class. He addressed the cruelty of human beings toward one another in the novels Miau (1898; translated 1963) and Misericordia (1897; Compassion, 1962)). Galdós was often called the national conscience of Spain for his honest observations and his realistic look at society and its ills.

Naturalism took the ideas of realism, especially determinism, even further. Naturalist writers emphasized that heredity and environment determine their characters and the actions and fates of these characters. Just as Spanish writers did not fully accept the dominion of reason during the Age of Enlightenment, their strong Roman Catholic inheritance kept them from accepting the domination of heredity and environment over the human will, spirit, and spirituality. A few Spanish writers, however, display naturalistic tendencies in their basically realist works.

Spanish author Emilia Pardo Bazán introduced the principles of naturalism to the Spanish literary world in her essay La cuestión palpitante (1883; The Burning Question). Although she introduced these ideas, Pardo Bazán did not completely accept the outright determinism of French naturalist writers such as Emile Zola and Gustave Flaubert, probably because of her strong Catholicism. She did make use of the techniques and dark tone of naturalism in her stories, however. Her most famous novel, Los pazos de Ulloa (1886; The House of Ulloa), is a study of the decadence of a Galician family.

Authors in the naturalist vein include Leopoldo Alas y Ureña and Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. Leopoldo Alas is known for his novel La regenta (1884-1885; The Regent’s Wife) and for his stories that place his characters in scenes or situations from which they cannot escape. Blasco Ibáñez also wrote several stories and novels in which his characters are trapped in a materialistic and hostile environment. His novels, which contain realistic and vivid depictions of life in Valencia, achieved far more renown outside Spain than they did in his own country. His first important literary success was La barraca (1898; The Cabin, 1917), a novel exposing social injustice in the Valencian countryside. Blasco Ibáñez’s most famous work, Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis (1916; The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1918), deals with broad philosophical and cultural themes.

VII UPHEAVAL (LATE 19TH CENTURY AND 20TH CENTURY)

Jacinto Benavente Spanish playwright and critic Jacinto Benavente won the 1922 Nobel Prize in literature. One of his works was Cartas de mujeres (The Letters of Women, 1893). Library of Congress

The end of the 19th century was marked by defeat in the Spanish-American War (1898). Spain was forced to cede the last of its colonies to the United States; the most important of these were Cuba, the Philippine Islands, and Puerto Rico. Spain was also still suffering from the tumultuous period that occurred in the 1870s, when the government fluctuated between liberal factions that supported a republic and conservative factions that supported the monarchy. Spain was on the verge of economic and spiritual bankruptcy at the end of the 19th century.

A The Generation of 1898

Miguel de Unamuno Author of philosophical works that exerted a powerful influence on 20th-century thought, Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno is often considered a precursor to existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. age fotostock

During this period of loss and decay, a group of Spanish intellectuals called for reform and renewal, and a literary movement called The Generation of 1898 emerged. It was centered at the Institución Libre de Enseñanza (The Institute of Free Education), which Spanish educator Francisco Giner de los Ríos had founded in 1876 after the government dismissed many renowned university professors for their liberal ideas. The aim of the school was to graduate students who would feel responsible for the state of their country. Teachers and writers at the school felt it was their duty to analyze the institutions and social framework of their day. They attempted to explain why Spanish society had deteriorated and to provide some impetus for reversing that decline.

Several individuals, including Spanish diplomat and philosopher Angel Ganivet and Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío, influenced the Generation of 1898. Ganivet was interested in the Roman philosophy of Stoicism. He felt that the Roman writer Seneca, a follower of Stoicism who had been born in Spain, was the defining philosopher for the country. Ganivet attempted to define the ethnic identity of Spain in his book Idearium español (1897; Spain: An Interpretation, 1946) in order to affirm Spain’s ability to find its place in the modern world.

The principal writers of the Generation of 1898 were Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo, Jacinto Benavente y Martínez, Ramón María del Valle-Inclán, Antonio Machado y Ruiz, Azorín (pen name of José Martínez Ruiz), and Pío Baroja y Nessi. Despite their very different styles, the writers had in common a questioning and critical attitude, an awareness of the need for liberalization and modernization in Spain, and a deep insight into what is distinctively Spanish.

Unamuno typified the critical and searching spirit of the Generation of 1898. A professor of Greek and later president of the University of Salamanca, Unamuno wrote essays, poetry, and novels, whose focus was often Spain and its decay. His most renowned works are long essays. In En torno al casticismo (Concerning Purity, 1902), he tried to penetrate and explain what it is to be Spanish. In Vida de don Quijote y Sancho (1905; The Life of Don Quijote and Sancho, 1927), he focused on the life and cultural importance of literary characters. Del sentimiento trágico de la vida en los hombres y en los pueblos (1913; The Tragic Sense of Life, 1921) concerns humankind’s essential skepticism about the meaning of life and the struggle toward understanding it. According to Unamuno, the struggle itself gives life meaning.

The most distinguished dramatist of the Generation was playwright and critic Jacinto Benavente y Martínez. His works include the comedies Los intereses creados (1907; The Bonds of Interest, 1917), Cartas de mujeres (The Letters of Women, 1893), and El nido ajeno (1894; Another’s Nest, 1922). Benavente’s witty, satiric, complex dialogue often attacked social climbers, the wealthy, and feudal institutions. In 1922 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.

Perhaps the most inventive modern writer in the Generation of 1898 was playwright, poet, and novelist Ramón María del Valle-Inclán. He introduced a literary genre he called esperpento that used distorted characters to ridicule Spanish institutions. Through fantastic, satiric, and grotesque elements, Valle-Inclán deformed reality and images in plays such as Los cuernos de don Friolera (1921; The Grotesque Farce of Mr. Punch the Cuckold, 1991) and Tirano Banderas (1926; The Tyrant, 1929). Valle- Inclán’s other works include his Sonatas, a collection of partly autobiographical stories published between 1902 and 1905 that describe the adventures of a Galician Don Juan figure.

The poet Antonio Machado typified the less critical and political vein of this generation. Machado’s poetry uses simple, yet powerful images of the natural world to promote a conscious turning inward, where high and noble ideals for himself and his country are to be found. Soledades (1907; Solitudes, 1983) and Campos de Castilla (1907-1917) illustrate his belief that the poet draws symbolic nourishment from natural objects and the landscape.

B Transition to the 20th Century

The Generation of 1898 continued to discuss the decline of Spain in the early 1900s, and was joined by a slightly younger group of early-20th-century writers. The younger group was led by essayist and philosopher José Ortega y Gasset and poet Juan Ramón Jiménez. Ortega, considered one of the principal interpreters of the spirit of his epoch, searched for philosophical roots that Spain could rely on to lead the way out of its decline. His most important work is La rebelión de las masas (1930; The Revolt of the Masses, 1932). Jiménez, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1956, addressed the full range of human emotion in his poems, which are filled with technical innovations, exquisite descriptions of feeling, and subtle nuances of rhythm and tone.

Other notable writers of this transitional period include novelist, poet, and critic Ramón Pérez de Ayala and novelist and essayist Gabriel Miró. Novelist, dramatist, and critic Ramón Gómez de la Serna was the leading advocate of literary expressionism in Spain. Also important are critic and essayist Eugenio d'Ors, essayists Salvador de Madariaga y Rojo and Gregorio Marañón, and scholar and critic Ramón Menéndez Pidal.

C New Influences

Federico García Lorca The works of Federico García Lorca, Spain’s most renowned 20th-century poet and dramatist, focus on the themes of death and fate in the lives of rural people and Roma (Gypsies). Lorca infused many of his poems and tragic plays with violent passions and delicate descriptions of nature. These lines from “Gacela of the Dark Death,” translated by Stephen Spender and J. L. Gili and recited by an actor, exemplify the interrelationship of dreams and reality in Lorca’s poetry. (p) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved./© Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Spanish literature after the Generation of 1898 can be divided roughly into two categories: literature that came before the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and literature that came after. Violence and chaos in Europe influenced the group of writers that grew up during the first two decades of the 20th century. World War I (1914-1918), the Russian Revolution of 1917, and a series of protests, strikes, assassinations, and changes of government (culminating in the rise of dictator Primo de Rivera) in Spain led to pessimism and anguish.

Several new movements reflected this cultural, political, and social upheaval in Europe. Futurism gloried in modern inventions and the necessity of machines. Dadaism embraced extraordinary, irrational, and contradictory themes to explain the horrors of World War I. Surrealism looked for the truth beyond material reality, in the imagination and in the irrational. Creationism declared the poet totally free to create works independent of moral or social preoccupations. Ultraism was founded by a group of poets in Spain who wanted to break with what they felt was the sentimentalism and lyricism of the past.

D The Generation of 1927

A group of poets known as the Generation of 1927 adopted some of the new ideas and freedoms of expression of the new European movements. These poets also maintained and valued themes and forms taken not only from traditional Spanish lyric poetry but also from popular culture. The group took its name, Generation of 1927, from the 300th anniversary of the death of Luis de Góngora, the great Golden Age poet. Góngora’s refinement of style, delicacy of imagery, and richness of vocabulary became the group’s model. The most important poets of the Generation of 1927 were Federico García Lorca, Jorge Guillén, Pedro Salinas, Rafael Alberti, Luis Cernuda, Vicente Aleixandre y Merlo, and Gerardo Diego.

García Lorca is the most universally recognized writer of this group. In his poetry and plays, Lorca combined lyric and dramatic elements with a sense of tragedy and ritual. He mixed a feeling of popular rhythms and songs, especially those of Andalusian gypsy or flamenco origin, with childhood memories, the mysterious, the absurd, and the irrational. His poetry and drama address the tensions in themes of hate and desire, sex and motherhood, and death and revenge. The power and richness of Lorca’s works place him among the most outstanding figures of Spanish literature. At the age of 38, García Lorca, an outspoken supporter of the Spanish Republic, was assassinated by General Francisco Franco’s Nationalist soldiers at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. His most important books of poetry are Primer romancero gitano (1928; Gypsy Ballads, 1951), Poeta en Nueva York (1940; Poet in New York, 1940), and Poema del cante jondo (1931; Deep Song, 1980). Among Guillén’s outstanding works are his three-volume collection of poems, subsumed under the title Aire Nuestro (1968). After he was forced into exile for political reasons in 1939, Guillén’s poetry began to reflect a growing pessimism. Aleixandre, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1977, exercised a considerable influence on other Spanish poets. His poetic works begin with Ámbito (1928) and are collected in Poesías Completas (The Complete Poems, 1960) and Antología total (Complete Works, 1975). At first, Aleixandre’s poetry focused on nature, but as Franco’s control over Spain increased, Aleixandre joined a group of poets concerned with social problems. He expressed his opposition to the government by using themes of love, violence, destruction, and death. This generation of peninsular poets greatly influenced their counterparts in Latin America, as seen in the works of the Peruvian poet César Vallejo and the Chilean poets Pablo Neruda and Vicente Huidobro Fernández, among others.

Another famous poet of the Generation of 1927 is Miguel Hernández, who was unanimously praised after the publication of El rayo no cesa (1936). His poetic trajectory and his friendship with the other poets in this group earned him the nickname “the epilogue of genius,” coined by the poet Dámaso Alonso. Hernández, born into a poor family and self-taught, created work that is impossible to classify. He became one of the most read poets in Spain. Some of his works, nearly all committed to the Republican cause in which he fought during the civil war, include Viento del pueblo (1936-37) and Cancionero y romancero de ausencias (1941).

E The Spanish Civil War Period

Vicente Aleixandre y Merlo Spanish poet Vicente Aleixandre y Merlo won the 1977 Nobel Prize in literature. His poetic writing explored the human condition and renewed interest in Spanish poetic traditions. © The Nobel Foundation

In 1930 a group of intellectuals and leftist liberals succeeded in opposing the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, and a Spanish Republic was declared with moderate liberal Alcalá Zamora as president. Opposed by the extreme left, moderate conservatives, and the extreme right, the government was short-lived. In 1933 it was replaced when conservatives won the elections. In reaction to this takeover, the Frente Popular, a leftist coalition of supporters of the Republic, socialists, communists, and trade unionists, was organized and voted into power. In turn, that group was opposed by Franco and a diverse group of conservatives, including the Fascist Falange. Franco’s rebellion led directly to the Spanish Civil War in 1936. The war ended in 1939 when Franco captured Madrid and established himself as dictator in Spain, a position he held for the next 36 years.

Many writers had allied themselves with the Frente Popular, or the Republican Forces as they came to be known, and found life either too dangerous or too repressive under Franco. Several of them, including short-story writer and novelist Francisco Ayala and novelist, thinker, and essayist Ramón Sender, left Spain for the United States, never to return. Their works center on themes such as abuse of power, hypocrisy, and betrayal of trust by the Catholic Church and the government. Their hope was to inspire moral revitalization in Spain. Sender’s firsthand accounts of the Spanish Civil War are considered by many critics to be the most important Spanish novels of his generation. They include Mr. Witt en el cantón (1935; Mr. Witt Among the Rebels, 1937), Crónica del alba (1942; Chronicle of Dawn, 1944), and Requiem por un campesino Español (1960; Requiem for a Spanish Peasant, 1960). In 1958 Ayala published Muertes de perro, which describes a country ruled by a dictatorship.

F Poetry After the Spanish Civil War

Following the defeat of the Spanish Republic, the majority of intellectuals were silenced or obliged to flee the country. The exiled poets continued their work outside of Spain, while those who remained in Spain entered an interior exile that permitted them to express their sentiments with some liberty and freedom from government reprisals. Some poets who had begun their work prior to the war such as Leopoldo Panero, Luis Rosales, and Dionisio Ridruejo, sought a renewal of the Renaissance tradition. Others, mostly the younger poets, were able to formulate a poetry of social protest. This was the case with Gabriel Celaya, Blas de Otero, Carlos Bousoño, and José María Valverde. The generation of 1936 is characterized by personal and religious expression. These poets were dissatisfied with the political and social situation after the war, but instead of confronting it, they chose a mode of expression that dealt with nature, religious faith, and other themes.

In the 1950s a group of poets came on the scene who stressed the social importance of poetry and expressed the values of day-to-day life. Grouped around Carlos Barral, the poets became known as the Barcelona group. Among them were the most illustrious poets of the day, including José Agustín Goytisolo, Jaime Gil de Biedma, Ángel González, José Manuel Cabellero Bonald, José Ángel Valente, Claudio Rodríguez, and Francisco Brines. Another great poet, not linked to the Barcelona group, was José Hierro, whose poems embodied the anti-aestheticism, social commitment, and concern for Spain that characterized the poets of this era.

Among the numerous poets who began publishing in the 1960s and since then were José María Álvarez, Antonio Colinas, Jaime Siles, and Luis García Montero. Their work is characterized by modernity and aesthetic intuition, especially the Novísimos group, which included Félix de Azúa, Pere Gimferrer, Antonio Martínez Sarrión, and Leopoldo María Panero. Since the 1980s, Spanish poetry has become increasingly individualistic. Few poets are characterized by groups or schools. Each creator affirms himself or herself in linguistic expression, without confronting generations or styles of the past. The poetry of Blanca Andréu is an example. Within this individualist expression there are also poets who look back, trying to establish ties with their elders and combining in groups, such as Luís García Montero, Cristina Peri Rossi, and Álvaro Salvador. It is difficult if not impossible to fix any criteria of stylistic unity among these poets due to the convergence of different genres and styles.

G Novels and Short Stories After the Civil War

Many writers remained in Spain after the civil war despite the censorship of the Franco regime. Among the most noteworthy was novelist and poet Camilo José Cela, who won the 1989 Nobel Prize in literature. To avoid censorship and other harsh consequences, Cela had to publish some of his works abroad. The second edition of Cela’s La familia de Pascual Duarte (1942; The Family of Pascual Duarte, 1946) was confiscated by Franco’s government because of its negative description and depiction of Spanish life. Cela used a style of brutal realism called tremendismo. His novel La colmena (1951; The Hive, 1953) had to be published in Argentina.

Other postwar novelists include prizewinning Basque author Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui and several who represented the reigning fascist aesthetes, including Rafael Sánchez Mazas, Max Aub, and the prizewinning Galician author Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, who gained popularity when his trilogy, Los gozos y las sombras (1956-62) became a bestseller. In La saga/fuga de J.B. (1972), Torrente Ballester opened the road to the interweaving of fantasy and reality, a technique followed by the prizewinning Galician novelist Álvaro Cunqueiro. After the Spanish Civil War, Spanish literature focused on existence as grotesque, brutal, and full of horror and violence. Within this atmosphere a new group of writers emerged. These writers focused on the psychological aspects of the postwar situation. Men and women were depicted as social beings lost within themselves or within their society. Society was seen as hypocritical and without values. The writers of this time, several of them women, began to deal with the consequences of the civil war in their work.

Carmen Laforet launched this period of criticism with her novel Nada (1944; translated 1958). Ana María Matute, as exemplified in her prizewinning novel Primera memoria (1960; School of the Sun, 1963), developed a very personal style that often focuses on children and adolescents growing up under Franco after the civil war. Elena Quiroga, Carmen Martín Gaite, and Mercedes Salisachs also published stories and novels that deal with women as social beings. Their works analyze attitudes toward friendship, work, and sexuality; anxiety about old age and death; and the struggle to break free from the restrictions of Spain’s past and Franco’s dictatorship.

Male writers also attempted to capture the universal aspects of this struggle. José María Gironella’s Los cipreses creen en Dios (1953) tells a story of family conflicts that symbolize the political struggles that led to the civil war. The novels and short stories of Miguel Delibes focus on life in rural Castille. His works include La sombra del ciprés es alargada (1948) and Cinco horas con Mario (1966). El jarama, which won the 1955 Spanish Nadal prize, was an innovative novel by Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio.

Many of the works by one of Spain’s foremost 20th century writers, Juan Goytisolo, explore the emptiness of life in Spain. Goytisolo’s novel Juegos de manos (1954; The Young Assassins, 1959) looks at the youthful victims of the Spanish Civil War. Duelo en el paraíso (1955; Children of Chaos, 1959) focuses on Spain’s alienated adolescents. Several other of his noted works include Reivindicación de don Julián (1970) and Paisajes después de la batalla (1982). In 1962 Luís Martín Santos opened new narrative perspectives with his Tiempo de silencio. Ignacio Aldecoa, Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, Juan Benet, and Juan Marsé also made important contributions in the novel and short-story genres. Marsé’s Ültimas tardes con Teresa (1966) charted new territory for the Spanish novel.

Franco’s death in 1975 prompted Spanish writers in all genres to address their new freedom. Writers also began to analyze how Spain would move toward a modern society under the liberalizing influence of King Juan Carlos. José Ruibal’s essays on the theory of drama and his dramatic works became important influences as writers used more contemporary themes and innovative forms. Economic prosperity and the mid-century boom of Latin American fiction by writers such as Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia), Julio Cortázar (Argentina), Alejo Carpentier (Cuba), Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), and Miguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala) also influenced Spanish writers after Franco’s rule ended.

During the late 1970s a generation of Spanish women entered the literary world with a language of their own and with their particular concerns. The novels of Esther Tusquets, for example, examine problems of sexuality and the rights of women to control their bodies and erotic experiences. These issues, which were ignored or repressed in traditional Spanish culture, are addressed in her trilogy, made up of the works El mismo mar de todos los veranos (1978; The Same Sea As Every Summer, 1990), El amor es un juego solitario (1979; Love Is a Solitary Game, 1985), and Varada tras el último naufragio (1980; Stranded, 1991). Dramatist Paloma Pedrero handles a similar theme in her plays El color de agosto (The Color of August, 1989) and La llamada de Lauren (Lauren's Call, 1985).

By the 1980s and 1990s a group of female writers had become Spain’s most prominent literary force. This group included short-story writer Rosa María Pereda and novelists Rosa Montero and Ana María Moix. They, and male writer José María Guelbenzu, addressed contradictions of modern society, including societal taboos versus societal permissiveness and global solidarity versus individual egoism and spiritual emptiness.

Two prominent writers, Carme Riera and Soledad Puértolas, won numerous prizes for their work and pushed Spain into the mainstream of world literature. Riera’s short stories often took place on Mallorca, an island off the coast of Spain. Writing in the Castilian, Catalan, and Mallorquín dialects, Riera explored the mingling of fantasy and reality in literary creation. Her works include Palabra de mujer (My Word as a Woman, 1980) and Joc de miralls (1989; Mirror Images, 1993). Puértolas used mystery novels and short stories with a philosophical edge to treat various examples of what she called moral illnesses, including prejudice and inequality. One of her major works is Burdeos (1986; Bordeaux, 1998).

More recent novelists include Mercedes Salisachs; Eduardo Mendoza, whose novels are nearly all situated in Barcelona and combine humor, mystery, and outstanding character description; Luís Mateo Díaz; Juan Eslava Galán; Adelaida García Morales; Arturo Pérez-Reverte, known for his historically based mystery novels; Almudena Grandes, known for her Las edades de Lulú (1989), Malena es nombre de tango (1994), and Castillos de carton (2004); and Antonio Muñoz Molina, one of Spain’s great talents known for his El invierno en Lisboa (1987) and Sefarad (2001). In 1994 Gustavo Martín Garzo won Spain’s National Narrative Prize for El language de las Fuentes. Novelist, translator, and columnist Javier Marías is noted for his 1992 Corazón tan blanco (A Heart So White, 1995).

Other recent novelists include Luisa Castro, Suso de Toro, Clara Sánchez, travel novelist Javier Reverte, and Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Dulce Chacón, despite her death at an early age in 2003, left a notable body of work examining the lives of women, immigrants, and outcasts.

H Drama and Essays

García Lorca’s dramas, written during the civil war, may be the best known of the works of the Spanish dramatists. Important plays by García Lorca are Bodas de sangre (1933; Blood Wedding, 1939), Yerma (1935; translated, 1941), and La casa de Bernarda Alba (1936; The House of Bernarda Alba, 1936).

Censorship and dire economic conditions almost succeeded in killing Spanish drama immediately after the civil war. Two important dramatists, Alejandro Casona and Antonio Buero Vallejo, continued writing. These two writers represent different means of dealing with the brutality and violence of their times.

Casona was a teacher, and in 1932 he formed a theater group that traveled throughout Spain to take the classic works of Spanish theater to remote areas. After his career was interrupted by the civil war, he left Spain to live in Argentina. One of his most famous works, La dama del alba (1944; The Lady of the Dawn, 1949), combines reality and fantasy in a poetic treatment of death. Buero Vallejo, on the other hand, stayed in Spain and criticized Spanish society more directly. In his plays En la ardiente oscuridad (1946; In the Burning Darkness, 1985) and Historia de una escalera (Story of a Staircase, 1947), a school for the blind and an apartment house serve as microcosms of Spanish society. The plays reflect a pessimistic point of view but support the idea of free will and the ability to determine one’s future. The psychological realism of Buero Vallejo’s dramas contrasts strongly with the lyricism of Casona.

Essayist, theater critic, and dramatist Alfonso Sastre grew up under the dictatorship of Franco. Sastre was one of the few dramatists whose works were openly critical of contemporary politics. He founded various theater groups that attempted to stage politically provocative works before Spanish audiences. Influenced by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, Sastre attempted to engage the members of his audience intellectually but hoped to create at the same time an emotional distance from his work. Sastre’s plays Escuadra hacia la muerte (1955; The Condemned Squad, 1961) and Asalto nocturno (Assault by Night, 1959) typify his open political engagement and his experimentation with his audience.

Another important underground theater group, besides Sastre’s, also survived after the civil war, led by Ruibal. A strong opponent of the Franco regime, Ruibal left Spain in the 1950s to avoid censorship. He returned to create short pieces of drama that could be produced in cafés with little scenery or action. If the police arrived, the actors simply sat down as customers of the café. Ruibal also wrote longer works and other pieces for theater and television.

Other Spanish dramatists include José María Pemán, Edgar Neville, Enrique Jardiel Poncela, and Miguel Mihura. More commercial theater works were produced by the prolific Alfonso Paso, with his comedies of intrigue. Fernando Arrabal, a polemical author who called his first works “panics,” turned the Spanish theater scene upside down.

Among essayists, Julián Marías, a disciple of the Spanish essayist and philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, has made important contributions since the postwar period. Américo Castro and Dámaso Alonso are outstanding literary critics. Other essayists include José Gaos, Pedro Laín Entralgo, José Ferreter Mora, María Zambrano, José Luís López Aranguren, and Ricardo Gullón.

Contributed By: Celia E. Richmond Weller Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.