Spanish literature is one of the richest and most varied of all European literatures. Spanish writers have combined a strong individuality with an openness to the Western traditions of Europe and the Eastern traditions of North Africa. As a result, they have produced a literature characterized by its originality, vibrant wit, realism, color, humor, and lyricism.
Two historical periods have been especially important in their influence on Spanish literature. The Romans occupied the Spanish peninsula for about 600 years, beginning in the 200’s B.C. The main heritage they left to Spain was the Latin language, particularly vernacular Latin, the form used by the common people. Vernacular Latin gave birth to the Romance languages, three of which became the most common Spanish dialects—Castilian, Galician-Portuguese, and Catalan. See Spanish language (Development). From the A.D. 700’s through the 1400’s, Christians fought Muslim Moors for control of Spain. This long struggle created a strongly religious patriotism that inspired some of the world’s finest religious poetry and prose.
The greatest period of Spanish literature began about the mid-1500’s and lasted until the late 1600’s. This period, called the Golden Age, brought a flowering of fiction, poetry, and drama. Spain’s most outstanding and best-known writer, Miguel de Cervantes, the author of the novel Don Quixote, lived during this period.
This article discusses literature written in the Spanish language by authors in Spain. For information about literature written in the Spanish language by authors in the Americas, see Latin American literature.
The Middle Ages
Early medieval literature.
Lyric poetry existed in Spain as early as the A.D. 900’s. The first lyric poems, called jarchas, are short refrains added to Arabic or Hebrew poems called muwashshahas. Jarchas were written in characters from the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets, but the language was a Mozarabic dialect of Spanish. The Mozarabs were Christian Spaniards living under Moorish rule. Jarchas may be the oldest form of lyric poetry in a Romance language. The poems express the sadness of a young woman who misses her absent lover, or of a young woman who longs for love.
Almost all the early Spanish epic poems have been lost. The only one that has survived in nearly complete form is the Poem of the Cid. It tells of the adventures of a Castilian hero, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar. The Cid is more realistic than epics written in other countries during the Middle Ages. It was written about 1140, or perhaps in the early 1200’s.
Minstrels called juglares recited epic poems in town squares and also performed satirical plays called juegos de escarnio. Early medieval Spanish drama is not well known. Only a fragment of a religious drama from the middle to late 1100’s, The Play of the Three Wise Men, has survived. During the 1100’s, Spanish lyric poetry came under the influence of the poems of the Provençal troubadours of southern France. The early poetry of two related dialects, Galician and Portuguese, was modeled on Provençal poetry. The Galician-Portuguese works, consisting of short cantigas (songs) and longer poems, were collected and preserved in three famous medieval cancioneiros (anthologies). From this period came Gonzalo de Berceo, the first Spanish poet known by name. He wrote Miracles of Our Lady (about 1250), a series of poems about the miracles of the Virgin Mary.
The Castilian king Alfonso X, called the Wise, helped promote early Spanish prose. In the late 1200’s, two long historical works were begun under Alfonso’s direction—General Chronicle of Spain, a history of Spain; and General History, a world history. The king also supported the scientific and philosophical interests of the school of translators at Toledo, which introduced Ptolemy, Aristotle, and other ancient writers to western Europe. In addition, Alfonso is remembered for his Galician cantigas that were dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
The earliest known prose fiction in Spain included a collection of apologues (moral tales) in Latin. They were published in about 1100 by Pedro Alfonso under the title Scholar’s Guide. During the 1200’s, several collections of tales were translated into Spanish from Arabic and other languages. These works included Calila and Dimna (1251) and Sendebar (1253). In the early 1300’s, Spanish prose began to take on a more distinctive character with the writings of Don Juan Manuel, nephew of Alfonso the Wise. Don Juan Manuel wrote many works on a wide variety of subjects. His greatest achievement was Count Lucanor (1335), a collection of moral tales.
The poetry of the scholars began to decline during the 1300’s. Juan Ruiz, the archpriest (chief priest) of the town of Hita in Castile, preserved the verse form of the clerics to some extent in his unique work, The Book of Good Love (1330, enlarged 1343). The book offers a vivid picture of many details of Spanish life in the 1300’s, telling about food, musical instruments, songs, love affairs, and monastic and tavern customs. Ruiz invented a famous character named Trotaconventos, an old hag who serves as a go-between for the lovers.
The 1400’s.
A wide view of the lyric poetry of the late 1300’s and the 1400’s appeared in the Cancionero de Baena and the Cancionero de Stúñiga. The Italian poets Dante, Petrarch, and Giovanni Boccaccio influenced the poetry. But the spirit of the Middle Ages survived in many anonymous romances (ballads). Some scholars believe these romances were fragments of epic songs that were meant to be sung or recited. They have been preserved through oral tradition in Spain, Spanish America, and Morocco, and among Sephardic Jews.
Three great poets wrote in the 1400’s: (1) Íñigo López de Mendoza, better known as the Marquis of Santillana; (2) Juan de Mena; and (3) Jorge Manrique. Santillana wrote sonnets in the Italian style and elaborate, courtly serranillas (pastoral poems). He also wrote an important letter concerning the poetry of the times. Mena wrote The Labyrinth of Fate (1444), an allegorical work of 297 stanzas inspired by Dante and several ancient writers. Manrique wrote the Coplas (1476), a moving and sophisticated elegy on the death of his father.
Several events of literary importance took place during the late 1400’s. Printing was introduced in Spain, probably in Saragossa in 1473. In 1492, Antonio de Nebrija published his Castilian Grammar, the first book written on the rules of a modern European language. The theater took its first steps toward secular (nonreligious) dramas before 1500. Juan del Encina and Lucas Fernández wrote Christmas and Easter plays, as well as pastoral and folk dramas.
Other new trends in Spanish literature appeared in such prose works as Diego de San Pedro’s The Prison of Love (1492) and the Catalan book of chivalry, Tirant lo Blanch (begun about 1460 and published in 1490), by Joanot Martorell and Martí Joan de Galba. The long novel of chivalry called Amadís of Gaul, known since the 1300’s, was printed, probably for the first time, in 1508. Part of it was written by Garci Ordóñez (or Rodriguez) de Montalvo. See Amadís of Gaul.
The masterpiece generally known as La Celestina appeared in the late 1400’s. The first known edition was published as an anonymous novel in dialogue form. Its 16 acts appeared under the title Comedia de Calisto y Melibea in 1499. Three years later it was expanded to 21 acts and titled Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea. The author of at least part—and possibly all—of the work was Fernando de Rojas. La Celestina combines medieval theology with a Renaissance conception of life and love. The central character is Celestina, a witchlike go-between who brings together two lovers, Calisto and Melibea. The main characters lose their lives one by one. Melibea’s father closes the work with a tragic lament in which he questions the emptiness of his world.
The Golden Age
The 1500’s.
The spirit of the Italian Renaissance spread through Spanish literature in the 1500’s. During this time, literary expression was in constant conflict with the Inquisition, an institution established by the Roman Catholic Church to seek out and punish people who opposed church teachings. Many Spaniards were influenced by Desiderius Erasmus, a Dutch scholar and priest who worked for reform of the church. His ideas were present in the philosophical writings of Juan Luis Vives and the brothers Alfonso and Juan de Valdés.
Poetry.
During the early 1500’s, Juan Boscán and Garcilaso de la Vega introduced the meters, verse forms, and themes of Italian Renaissance poetry, which soon dominated Spanish poetry. But Cristóbal de Castillejo and Gregorio Silvestre, among others, preserved the Castilian tradition of writing shorter verse lines. Spanish poetry is indebted not only to such other Spaniards as Hernando de Acuña and Gutierre de Cetina, but also to the Portuguese poets Francisco Sá de Miranda and Luis de Camões. Camões’s great epic poem Os Lusíadas (1572) is a masterpiece in the style of Italian epics. 
There were two main poetic schools after the mid-1500’s—the Castilian school of Salamanca and the Andalusian school of Seville. Poets of both schools wrote in the style of the Italian poet Petrarch. However, a certain serenity and a more cautious use of metaphor characterized the school of Salamanca and its representatives—Fray (Brother) Luis de León, Pedro Malón de Chaide, and Francisco de la Torre. Poets of the school of Seville included Fernando de Herrera, Baltasar de Alcázar, Francisco de Rioja, Juan de Jáuregui, and Juan de Arguijo. Through the use of colorful images, they developed a concern for the formal possibilities of language that led to the Baroque style of the 1600’s.
Another important aspect of Spanish poetry of the 1500’s was the lyrical expression of mystics—people who seek a union of the soul with God. Saint John of the Cross was the major mystic poet. Saint Teresa of Avila contributed several prose works, including her autobiography, to mystical literature. Two similar writers were Fray Luis de Granada, author of Introduction to the Symbol of Faith (1582), and Fray Luis de León, a professor at the University of Salamanca who was persecuted by the Inquisition. León wrote religious poetry and the prose masterpiece The Names of Christ (1583).
Medieval epics survived in the 1500’s, not only in the romances but also in books of chivalry. The epic glorification of people and events also continued in long poems by Luis de Zapata, Luis Barahona de Soto, and Bernardo de Balbuena, and in Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga’s important La Araucana (1569-1589). This epic poem told of the conflicts between the Indians of Chile and the Spaniards. All these poets wrote in the Italian narrative style.
Prose.
The pastoral novel became popular during the Renaissance. Pastoral novels idealized rural life and the lives of shepherds and simple country people. Diana (1559?) by Jorge de Montemayor and Diana in Love (1564) by Gaspar Gil Polo are still well-known Spanish pastoral novels. Cervantes’s first long work, La Galatea (1585), and Lope de Vega’s La Arcadia (1598) later followed the fashion of pastoral fiction.
The picaresque novel was by far the most important contribution of Spanish Golden Age fiction to world literature. This type of novel presented society through the eyes of a pícaro (rogue) and usually included biting satire or moral commentary. The first picaresque novel, according to some critics, was Lazarillo de Tormes (1554). This anonymous work was written in the form of a short autobiography. It details the struggles of Lazarillo, a boy of humble birth who makes his way by cunning and treachery as he serves a blind beggar, a greedy priest, a starving nobleman, and other representative social types. The work moralizes on the episodes of his life, and it is especially aggressive in its satire of the church. Lazarillo became a famous character and inspired sequels in Spain and elsewhere in Europe.
Drama.
The Spanish theater developed slowly during most of the 1500’s. In 1517, Bartolomé de Torres Naharro published a collection of plays with a prologue on dramatic theory, Propalladia. Gil Vicente of Portugal wrote plays in Spanish, such as La Comedia del Viudo (1514) and Amadís de Gaula (1533). The actor-playwright Lope de Rueda created the paso, a short farce that ridiculed the daily life of his time. Juan de la Cueva was the first author to take his plots from Spanish history or from popular narrative songs called ballads.
The 1600’s.
Following Lazarillo, the most outstanding Spanish picaresque novel is Guzmán de Alfarache (first part, 1599; second part, 1604) by Mateo Alemán. Guzmán is more detailed than Lazarillo and presents a more bitter, pessimistic view of life by showing that neither human nature nor conditions of life can be changed. The picaresque novel quickly became a tradition. Francisco López de Úbeda created a female rogue in La picara Justina (1605). Vicente Espinel wrote Marcos de Obregón (1618). The poet and satirist Francisco de Quevedo wrote the aggressive and skeptical novel Life of the Swindler (1626). Quevedo also became famous for his satirical Visions (1627) and his theological and philosophical essays.
A contrast to the realism of the picaresque novel was the idealism of Cervantes’s masterpiece, Don Quixote (first part, 1605; second part, 1615). This story of a country landowner who considers himself a knight is filled with humor and pathos. The novel contrasts idealistic and practical approaches to life, and it examines the differences between appearances and reality. But Cervantes went beyond his times and gave his characters and themes universal qualities that extend to all humanity. Cervantes is not well known as a dramatist, but his entremeses (one-act comedies) are among his best works.
Lope de Vega was the leading Golden Age dramatist. He emerged in the late 1500’s as a uniquely prolific and gifted literary figure. He wrote popular works that mix tragic and comic elements. The topics of Lope’s dramas had various origins. As the creator of a national drama, he drew on historical events and glorified national heroes. He also created rulers who had divine characteristics and were concerned with justice. Some of Lope’s plays were “cloak-and-sword” dramas of intrigue, with love and honor as the sources of dramatic conflict. Others were light plays with complicated plots in which his qualities of poet and dramatist stand out. The bobo (fool) of earlier comedies became a constant character in Lope’s plays in the form of the gracioso, the witty counterpart of the hero. Two of his greatest dramas were Fuenteovejuna (1619) and Justice Without Revenge (1634).
Another dramatist who wrote in the style and spirit of Lope was Tirso de Molina, whose The Trickster of Seville (1630) was the first dramatized version of the Don Juan legend. Guillen de Castro wrote a famous play, The Cid’s Youth (1618?), about Spain’s national hero. Other notable playwrights were the Mexican-born Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Juan Pérez de Montalbán, Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla, and Agustín Moreto.
At the beginning of the 1600’s, the world of art sought new forms of expression. Artists tended toward greater ornamentation and density in their works. The resulting style was called Baroque. In Spain, there were two literary examples of this trend—conceptismo and culteranismo.
Conceptismo featured a subtle and ambiguous use of figures of speech. Authors elaborated upon complex metaphors called conceptos (conceits) to create complicated and original views of life. Quevedo and Baltasar Gracián represented this trend.
Culteranismo was a movement led by Luis de Góngora. The movement was also known as Gongorismo. Góngora created lyric poetry full of color, imagery, and musical linguistic effects. His long and complex poems, The Fable of Polifemo and Galatea (1613) and the unfinished Solitudes, as well as his sonnets, ballads, and short compositions, became models for new developments in literature. Other poets who cultivated culteranismo were Pedro Soto de Rojas; Juan de Tassis y Peralta, the count of Villamediana; and Luis Carrillo y Sotomayor.
Drama was also influenced by the Baroque style. Pedro Calderón de la Barca succeeded Lope de Vega as the leading Spanish dramatist. He is sometimes considered a more skillful playwright than Lope for the construction of his intricate plots. Calderón dramatized the dreams and realities of life in a brilliant work, Life Is a Dream (written in 1635; first performed about 1638). The theme of honor and the conflict between love and jealousy were topics often explored by Calderón. His historical and religious dramas showed his versatility. Calderón’s autos sacramentales (religious plays on the theme of the Eucharist) reflected culteranismo combined with the spirit of the Counter Reformation, a reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church following the Reformation. Calderón used symbolism to express in solemn verse philosophical explorations of life and death, original sin, and free will. His best-known autos include The Feast of King Belshazzar (1634) and The Great Theater of the World (1649?).
Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Realism
The 1700’s.
By the end of the 1600’s, Spain had declined politically, economically, and artistically. Philip V, a Frenchman, became king of Spain in 1700 and began the Bourbon dynasty of rulers. With French rulers in Spain and the beginning of the Enlightenment in the rest of Europe, it was inevitable that Spanish literature would assume new directions.
Neoclassicism, a style strongly influenced by Greek and Roman literature, was the most important literary trend of the 1700’s. Many writers tried to refine Spanish literature along the lines of French Classicism, eliminating the ornamental excesses of much Baroque literature. See Classicism.
Benito Jerónimo Feijoo, a Benedictine friar, wrote on almost every branch of learning in his nine-volume Universal Theater of Criticism (1726-1740) and five-volume Erudite and Interesting Letters (1742-1760). Ignacio de Luzán supported the Neoclassical ideas of reason, proper behavior, and moral sense in Poetics (1737), a work that attempts to systematize literary principles.
The major novel of the time was the comic satire History of the Famous Preacher, Friar Gerund de Campazas (first part, 1758; second part, 1768) by the Jesuit José Francisco de Isla. Two of Spain’s most important writers during the 1700’s were José Cadalso and Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos. Cadalso satirized the defects he saw in the people of Spain in a collection of letters between fictional people, Moroccan Letters (written about 1774, published in 1789). Jovellanos was a poet, essayist, and economist who wrote on ways to reform the country.
Neoclassicism heavily influenced Spanish drama beginning in the mid-1700’s. Playwrights who wrote in the Neoclassical style included Nicolás Fernández de Moratín and his son, Leandro Fernández de Moratín; Vicente García de la Huerta; and José Cadalso. Two of the best poets, Juan Meléndez Valdés and Nicasio Álvarez de Cienfuegos, wrote lyrical works that displayed refined tastes.
The 1800’s.
Spanish authors continued the Neoclassical style during the early 1800’s. Leandro Fernández de Moratín was the most accomplished writer of Neoclassical comedy. His most famous play was The Maiden’s Consent (1806). The poet Manuel José Quintana belonged to the Neoclassical school. His odes and long poems had a strong patriotic sentiment. The works of Juan Nicasio Gallego resembled those of Quintana. Manuel Bretón de los Herreros wrote dozens of satirical, realistic comedies in the manner of the younger Moratín.
Romantic impulses had existed in Spanish literature since the 1700’s. These impulses intensified after the death of the conservative King Ferdinand VII in 1833. A new liberal atmosphere prevailed in Spain, and exiled Romantic authors returned to Spain from elsewhere in Europe carrying new influences.
Ángel de Saavedra, the Duke of Rivas, assured the success of Romantic theater with his Romantic tragedy Don Alvaro or the Force of Destiny in 1835. Antonio García Gutiérrez scored a triumph with his historical tragedy The Troubadour (1836). Francisco Martínez de la Rosa and Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch wrote plays that reflected the rebellion, melancholy, and passion of Spanish Romanticism. José Zorrilla’s Don Juan Tenorio (1844) became one of the greatest successes of the Spanish stage. There were echoes of the Romantic fervor in Manuel Tamayo y Baus’s A New Play (1867) and in José Echegaray y Eizaguirre’s The Great Go-Between (1881). A concern for social justice, evident in Juan José (1895) by Joaquín Dicenta, highlighted the Spanish stage of the late 1800’s.
Romantic prose had its greatest stylist in Mariano José de Larra, who published penetrating articles in the daily press that criticized Spain’s many problems. His acute observations were directed at political, social, and literary events. He turned progressively more bitter and frustrated with life, and killed himself in 1837.
Among Spain’s most distinguished poets of the 1800’s were José de Espronceda and Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. Two of Espronceda’s poems, The Student from Salamanca (1836-1839) and the unfinished Devil World, are the richest expressions of Spanish Romantic anguish and social protest. Bécquer’s simple, airy lyric poetry contains elements of Romanticism. He is often considered the most sensitive Spanish poet of the 1800’s, and he represents the country’s transition to modern poetry.
Two poets, Ramón de Campoamor and Gaspar Núñez de Arce, represented a reaction to Romantic passion. Campoamor wrote short philosophical and skeptical poems that he called doloras and humoradas. Núñez de Arce expressed an aggressive patriotism in War Cries (1875). Rosalía de Castro wrote delicate lyrics, mostly in Galician. Her collection of poems in Castilian, On the Shores of the River Sar (1884), helped make her one of the most respected poets of the 1800’s.
Romanticism in Catalonia led to a revival of literature in the Catalan language during the last half of the 1800’s. It produced such excellent poets as Jacint Verdaguer and Joan Maragall, and such dramatists as Àngel Guimerà.
Short prose sketches of regional customs and manners reached a peak of popularity in the mid-1800’s. This type of literature was called costumbrismo, and the writers of costumbrismo were called costumbristas. Costumbrista writers included Larra, Ramón de Mesonero Romanos, and Serafín Estébanez Calderón (known as El Solitario). Mesonero, who called himself El Curioso Parlante, wrote articles about Madrid and published them in several collections. Estébanez described typical scenes and people from Andalusia in articles published as Andalusian Scenes (1847).
Elements of the costumbrista article can be found in some Realistic novels, which developed in the mid-1800’s. Cecilia Böhl de Faber, who wrote under the name of Fernán Caballero, brought costumbrismo to the novel in The Seagull (1849). Pedro Antonio de Alarcón wrote about Andalusian characters in his charming story The Three-Cornered Hat (1874). Juan Valera, one of the most cultured writers of the 1800’s, wrote the psychologically complex Pepita Jiménez (1874).
Realistic regional novels dominated the second half of the 1800’s. José Maria de Pereda’s The Upper Cliffs (1895) was a costumbrista novel about life on Spain’s northern coast. Marta and María (1883) by Armando Palacio Valdés dealt with the conflict of mystic and worldly virtues set against the detailed description of a small town in the region of Asturias. Emilia Pardo Bazán wrote The Ulloa Estate (1886), a sparkling narrative of local traditions and politics in the interior of Galicia. Vicente Blasco Ibáñez earned his literary reputation in the late 1800’s with The Cabin (1898) and other novels about life in his native Valencia. However, he gained international popularity in the early 1900’s for his novel inspired by the terror of World War I (1914-1918), The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1916).
The literary critic Leopoldo Alas, who wrote under the name of Clarín, created one of the best novels of the 1800’s in Spain—the sensitive and powerful La Regenta (1884-1885). But Spain’s greatest novelist of the 1800’s, and the best author of fiction since Cervantes, was Benito Pérez Galdós. Galdós wrote about 80 novels and about 25 plays. In the five series of novels that make up the Episodios Nacionales, he novelized Spanish history from the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) until the late 1800’s. Many of his works were novels of ideas that dealt with religion and the structure of society. Galdós created profound characterizations—particularly his main female characters, as can be seen in his masterpiece, Fortunata and Jacinta (1886-1887). He showed unusual awareness of the depth of human psychology. Galdós wrote about all levels of society, and his novels provided clear insight into the life of Madrid.
The 1900’s
The Generation of 1898
was a group of writers who appeared on the literary scene about the time of the Spanish-American War. These writers played an important part in the history of Spanish literature.
In the Spanish-American War, fought in 1898, Spain lost the last parts of its once mighty empire. The corruption of Spain’s ruling class and the loss of its overseas colonies led many Spaniards to examine the nation’s culture and civilization. The problem was whether Spain’s cultural heritage could be adapted to the progress of modern Europe, and if it was original and creative enough to survive. From this examination of the Spanish character and past came a philosophical, historical, and artistic awakening that produced rich artistic expression.
Many types of writers contributed to the national renaissance of creative genius that dominated Spanish letters during the early 1900’s. Miguel de Unamuno expressed romantic and philosophical grief in his essay The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), in his poetry, and in such novels as Mist (1914). Unamuno is often considered a forerunner of the philosophical movement called Existentialism. The unique prose of José Martínez Ruiz, who called himself Azorín, included delicate and melancholic descriptions of Spanish landscape and history. Pío Baroja became a leading Spanish novelist of the early 1900’s. He showed sensitive heroes shifting between failure and triumph in Zalacaín the Adventurer (1909) and The Tree of Knowledge (1911).
The poetry of Antonio Machado portrayed the severe spirit and landscape of Castile. Ramiro de Maeztu expressed himself in biting journalism. The beautiful and original prose of Ramón María del Valle-Inclán appeared in Autumn Sonata (1902). He invented a drama of distortion and exaggeration called the esperpento. In the esperpento Bohemian Lights (1924), he saw Spain as a grotesque distortion of normalcy.
Spain’s literary past was rediscovered, interpreted, edited, and published by a group of scholars at the Center of Historical Studies in Madrid. These scholars included Américo Castro, José Fernández Montesinos, Ramón Menéndez Pidal, and Tomás Navarro Tomás. They continued the work of Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, the great scholar and critic of the late 1800’s.
Two fine novelists succeeded the Generation of 1898. Gabriel Miró wrote extremely lyrical prose, and Ramón Pérez de Ayala was one of the most intellectual novelists of his day. Noted essayists included the Catalan philosopher and art critic Eugenio d’Ors, and the internationally recognized philosopher, historian, and critic José Ortega y Gasset.
Modernism.
While the generation of 1898 was trying to discover the spirit of Spain, lyric poetry was undergoing a renewal through a literary school called Modernism. This school was inspired by the work of the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío and the French Symbolists (see Latin American literature (Modernism)). The Modernists joined the richness of form, musicality, and expression of the Spanish language with new poetic concepts and created a wealth of lyric poetry.
The school of Modernism was represented by Manuel Machado and Gregorio Martínez Sierra. Although short-lived, it inspired poetry of a quality and intensity that has been unequaled in Spanish literature during the 1900’s. Modernist writers included Juan Ramón Jiménez. Jiménez also wrote poetic prose, best exemplified in his beautiful Platero and I (1914).
Drama
during the early 1900’s was dominated by Jacinto Benavente. His best-known plays are the comedy The Bonds of Interest (1907) and the domestic tragedy The Passion Flower (1913). The brothers Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero wrote amusing plays about Andalusian life. The plays of José María Pemán and the verse dramas of Eduardo Marquina dealt patriotically with Spanish national themes. The costumbrista plays of Carlos Arniches and the farces of Pedro Muñoz Seca—plays that portrayed local customs, habits, and speech—pleased audiences of the time.
The Generation of 1927.
During the 1920’s and 1930’s, several poets turned to the traditional ballad or to the ornate literary style called Gongorism for inspiration. These poets, who celebrated the 300th anniversary of Luis de Góngora’s death in 1627, became known as the Generation of 1927. They included Rafael Alberti, Vicente Aleixandre, Dámaso Alonso, Luis Cernuda, Gerardo Diego, León Felipe, Federico García Lorca, Jorge Guillén, and Pedro Salinas.
In the 1930’s, Germán Bleiberg, Miguel Hernández, Leopoldo Panero, Luis Rosales, and Luis Felipe Vivanco represented a return to the formal poetry of the Renaissance. But their works reveal the anguish often present in love poetry. Prose writers of note included Ramón Gómez de la Serna and Benjamín Jarnés.
Poets who began writing after 1939 tended toward simpler forms of expression than those favored by the poets of the Generation of 1927. José Luis Cano and Dionisio Ridruejo wrote thoughtful and beautiful poems. Gabriel Celaya, Blas de Otero, and others reflected social concerns similar to the novelists of the period.
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
caused a break in Spanish literature. Some writers, notably García Lorca, were killed, and others were exiled. The world of Spanish letters took some time to recover. Many writers, including the novelists Francisco Ayala and Ramón Sender and the playwright Alejandro Casona, developed their work in exile. After the war, the dark novel The Family of Pascual Duarte (1942) by Camilo José Cela was published, followed by Carmen Laforet’s Existential novel Nothing (1944) and Cela’s The Hive (1951).
Social Realism and beyond.
Many young authors emerged in the 1950’s. Their work was initially characterized by Social Realism, which realistically presents subjects of concern to society. Their writing later moved into more daring and experimental areas. Some of the major novels since the mid-1950’s have included The Jarama River (1956) by Rafael Sánchez Ferlioso, Time of Silence (1962) by Luis Martín Santos, Ana María Matute’s Soldiers Cry at Night (1964), Five Hours with Mario (1966) by Miguel Delibes, Juan Goytisolo’s The Revenge of Count Julian (1970), The Saga/Flight of J. B. (1972) by Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, If They Tell You I Fell Down (1973) by Juan Marsé, the four-volume Antagonía (1973-1981) by Luis Goytisolo, The Truth About the Savolta Case (1975), by Eduardo Mendoza, and Carmen Martín Gaite’s The Back Room (1978). Following the death of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, Spain returned to democracy after a period from 1975 to 1982 called “the Transition.”
The theater was represented by playwrights who wrote in a wide variety of styles. Antonio Buero Vallejo initiated the modern interest in serious theater with his History of a Staircase (1949). Alfonso Sastre wrote philosophical and political plays, while Alfonso Paso became popular for his social comedies. Fernando Arrabal gained international attention for his controversial and experimental plays.
Playwright José Martín Recuerda wrote powerful studies of values in Spanish society. Two plays about the Spanish Civil War gained enough popularity to be adapted into successful motion pictures. They were Fernando Fernán Gómez’s Bicycles Are for Summer (1978) and José Sanchis Sinisterra’s Oh Carmela! (1991). Ana Diosdado wrote plays of social criticism, such as You Can Also Enjoy It (1973) and The 80’s Are Ours (1988).
Some poets, including Claudio Rodríguez and Carlos Bousoño, were less interested in Social Realism. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, the generation known as the Novísimos rejected social concerns, instead displaying interest in more personal, intimate, and intellectual matters. Guillermo Carnero and Luis Antonio de Villena were poets of this generation.
Spanish literature today
A number of novels expressed the richness of modern Spanish life following the Transition. They include I’ll Treat You Like a Queen (1983) by Rosa Montero, Heart So White (1993) by Javier Marías, Stories from the Kronen Bar (1994), by José Angel Mañas, and The Polish Horseman (1991) and Full Moon (1997) by Antonio Muñoz Molina. Manuel Vázquez Montalbán wrote a popular series of detective stories featuring a private investigator named Pepe Carvalho, who appears in such novels as Off Side (2000) and Murder in the Central Committee (2002). Arturo Pérez-Reverte also gained popularity with his historical novels set in the 1600’s that feature an adventurer named Captain Alatriste. Elvira Lindo achieved popularity with her comical children’s series about Manolito Gafotas, a boy growing up in working-class Madrid, as well as more serious novels such as Your Word (2006). Fernando Aramburu’s Patria (2016) is set in the Basque region and focuses on memory and forgiveness.
Itziar Pascual explored gender and race issues in such plays as Shadow Tamer (1995) and Variations on Rosa Parks (2006). Creative stage techniques and nontraditional performance sites marked the work of Mar Gómez Glez and other younger dramatists.
In the late 1900’s and early 2000’s, Alejandro Duque Amusco, Luis García Montero, and Ana Rosetti have written poems of great beauty and power. Poets born after 1975 who have attracted attention include Elena Medel, Fernando Valverde, and Antonio Lucas. The even younger poets Elvira Sastre Sanz and Sara Búho have broken sales records in Spain.
