Spanish Romance literature
Encyclopedia
Spanish Romanticism
arrived late and lasted only for a short but intense period, since in the second half of the 19th century it was supplanted by Realism
, whose nature was antithetical to that of Romantic literature.
In Spain, Romanticism is thought of as complex and confusing, with great contradictions that range from rebellion and revolutionary ideas to the return of the Catholic and monarchial tradition. With respect to political liberty, some understood it merely as the restoration of the ideological, patriotic, and religious values that the 18th century rationalists had tried to suppress. They exalted Christianity, throne, and country as supreme values. In this "traditional Romanticism" camp one would place Walter Scott
in Scotland, Chateaubriand in France, and the Duke of Rivas
and José Zorrilla in Spain. It was based on the ideology of the restoration of absolute monarchy in Spain, which originated after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, and defended the traditional values represented by Church and State. On the other hand, other Romantics, as free citizens, fought the entire established order in religion, art, and politics. They proclaimed the rights of the individual over and against society and the law. They represented "revolutionary" or "liberal" Romanticism, and their most notable members were Lord Byron, in England, Victor Hugo
, in France, and José de Espronceda
, in Spain. The movement's three underlying ideas were: the quest for and justification of "irrational" understanding, which reason denies, Hegelian dialectic, and historicism
.
, situated on the margins of Romanticism, and in an ironic position in relation to it. Costumbrism, born out of Romanticism, but as a manifestation of nostalgia for the values and customs of the past, contributed to the decadence of the Romantic movement and the rise of Realism, as it became bourgeois and turned into a style of description.
. The working class unleashed protest movements with anarchist and socialist tendencies, accompanied by strikes and violence. While Europe experienced significant industrial development and cultural enrichment, Spain presented the image of a somewhat backward country that was always apart from the rest of Europe.
came to Spain through Andalusia
and Catalonia
.
In Andalucía, the Prussia
n consul
in Cádiz
, Juan Nicolás Böhl de Faber
, father of novelist Fernán Caballero
, published a series of articles between 1818 and 1819 in the Diario Mercantil (Mercantile Daily) of Cádiz, in which he defended Spanish theatre of the Siglo de Oro, and was widely attacked by the neo-Classicists. Against him were José Joaquín de Mora and Antonio Alcalá Galiano, who argued from a traditionalist, antiliberal, and absolutist point of view. Böhl de Faber's ideas were incompatible with theirs (since they were still tied to the Age of Enlightenment
), despite the fact that they represented European Literary Modernism.
In Catalonia, El Europeo was a journal published in Barcelona
from 1823 to 1824 by two Italian editors, one Englishman, and the young Catalans Bonaventura Carles Aribau
and Ramón López Soler
. This publication defended moderate traditionalist Romanticism following Böhl's example, totally rejecting the virtues of Neo-Classicism. An exposition of the Romantic ideology appeared for the first time in its pages, in an article by Luigi Monteggia, titled Romanticismo.
Some of the characteristics of Romantic poetry are:
It was also a sign that a new spirit was inspiring the creation of verse. By contrast with the monotonous neoclassic repetition of songs and lyrics, poets proclaimed their right to use all existing variations on meter, to adapt those from other languages, and to innovate where necessary. In this respect, as in others, Romanticism prefigured the modernist audacities of the end of the century.
Espronceda was born in 1808 in Pajares de la Vega, located near Almendralejo
, Badajoz
. He founded the secret society of Los numantinos, whose aim was to "demolish the absolutist government". Because of his involvement with this society, Espronceda was imprisoned. At age 18 he fled to Lisbon
and joined with a group of liberal exiles. There he met Teresa Mancha, the woman with whom he lived in London. After an act of political agitation, he returned to Spain in 1833. He lived a dissipated life, full of incidents and adventures, which caused Teresa Mancha to leave him in 1838. He was at the point of marrying another lover, when in 1842 he died in Madrid
.
Espronceda worked in the principal literary genres, such as the historical novel, with Sancho Saldaña o El castellano de Cuéllar (1834), and the epic poem, with El Pelayo, but his most important work was his poetry. He published Poesías in 1840 after returning from exile. It is a collection of poems of different types, which brings together his youthful neoclassic poems with other, more intense, Romantic works. These last were the most important, and elevated marginalized types: Canción del pirata (Song of the Pirate), El verdugo (The Executioner), El mendigo (The Beggar), and Canto del cosaco (Song of the Cossack). His most important works were El estudiante de Salamanca (1839) and El diablo mundo:
n Juan Arolas
(1805–1873), the Galician Nicomedes Pastor Díaz (1811–1863), Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda
(1814–1873) and Pablo Piferrer (1818–1848). Piferrer, in spite of writing only in Spanish, was one of the precursors of the romantic movement in Catalonia
.
February 1, 1873) was a Cuba
n writer and poet of the 19th century. Although Cuban, she lived most of herlife in Spain. She wrote various poems, plays, and novels. Her most famous work is an antislavery novel called Sab (novel).
, 1823–Lisbon
, 1911) merits special mention. She spent a great part of her childhood in the Extremadura
n countryside, and from a very young age showed a talent for poetry. She married an American diplomat and lived in various foreign countries. Family misfortune prompted her to seek solitude and retreat in Lisbon
, where she died in 1911. Her most important work is Poesías (1852).
, Chateaubriand, Walter Scott
, and Victor Hugo
. Spanish prose essentially consisted of the novel, scientific or scholarly prose, journalism, and the intense development of costumbrismo.
During the first quarter of the century, four distinct types of novels developed: moral and educative novels, romances, horror stories, and anticlerical novels. The most purely Romantic of these is the anticlerical novel. However, the Romantic influence would shape, principally, the historical novel.
developed in imitation of Walter Scott
(80 of his works had been translated), author of Waverley
, Ivanhoe
, and other novels of adventure set in the Scottish and English past. Spanish historical novels fall into two categories: liberal and moderate. Within the liberal school existed both anti-clerical and populist currents. On the other hand, the moderate school produced, on occasion, novels of exalting traditional and Catholic values. The most notable Spanish authors are:
. The most representative authors were Juan Donoso Cortés (1809 † 1853) and Jaime Balmes Urpía (1810 † 1848):
Costumbrismo (or costumbrism) arose out of the Romantic desire to emphasize the different and the peculiar, inspired by the French affinity for the same genre. Thousands of articles of this type were published, thus limiting the development of the novel in Spain, since narration and individual characters predominated in that genre, while costumbrist vignettes were limited to generic descriptions of personality types (bullfighter, chestnut seller, water carrier, etc.). Large anthologies of such vignettes were compiled, such as Los españoles pintados por sí mismos (Spaniards painted by themselves), (published in two volumes in 1843–1844, reprinted in one volume in 1851). Notable authors represented in this work are the madrileño Ramón Mesonero Romanos and the Andalusian Serafín Estébanez Calderón
.
. He belonged to the Spanish Academy and was a gentle bourgeois. His ideas were anti-Romantic and he was a great observer of the life around him. He was famous under the pseudonym El curioso parlante (The talking bystander).
His principal literary production was in the costombrist tradition; however, he wrote Memorias de un setentón (Memories of a 70-year-old), an allusion to the people and events he knew between 1808 and 1850. His costumbrist works were collected in the volumes Panorama matritense and Escenas matritenses.
and died in Madrid
. He was known as El solitario (The solitary one), and held high political office. Though known for his conservatism, in his youth he was a liberal. He published various poems and a historical novel, Cristianos y moriscos (Christians and Moors), though his most famous work is a collection of costumbrist vignettes Escenas analuzas (Andalucían scenes) (1848), containing descriptions such as El bolero, La feria de Mairena, Un baile en Triana, and Los Filósofos del figón.
is decisive. The Barcelona publication El Europeo (The European) (1823–1824) published articles about romanticism and, through the publication, Spain came to know the names of Byron, Schiller
and Walter Scott
. However, the press was also an arm of the political fight. In this sense, we must emphasize the political satire press of Trienio Liberal (El Zurriago, La Manopla), where there appeared not only social themes, but also customism outlines which were clear precedents of Larra's production.
After the death of Fernando VII in 1833, many important changes occurred in journalism
. The emigrants after the absolutist reaction of 1823 returned and together with the new generation (that of José de Espronceda
and Larra) they would mark the style of the era, though they had learned much in their years of exile from the advanced presses of the English and the French.
In 1836, the French Girardin initiated in his newspaper La Presse a custom which would have a staggering and lasting success: that of publishing novels by delivery. The Spanish press, always with their eyes on the press of their neighbors, hurried to copy this initiative; however, the height of this era in Spain would be between 1845 and 1855.
Mariano José de Larra, El pobrecito hablador (The poor little talker)
Mariano José de Larra (Madrid
, 1809 † id., 1837), son of a liberal exile, soon conquered fame as a journalist. His character was less than agreeable. Mesonero Romanos, his friend, spoke of "his innate mordacidad, which carried few sympathies". At twenty he married, but the marriage failed. With total success as a writer, at 27 years of age, Larra committed suicide with a pistol to the head, it seems, for a woman with whom he maintained an illicit love affair.
Though Larra is famous for his newspaper works, he also worked in other genres, like poetry, short neoclassics and satire (Sátira contra los vicios de la corte, or "Satire against the vices of the court"); the theatre, with the historical tragedy Macías; and finally, the historical novel, with El doncel de don Enrique el Doliente, about a Gallego troubador who kills a husband blinded by jealousy.
Larra's Newspaper Articles
Larra wrote more than 200 articles, behind the façade of diverse pseudonyms: Andrés Niporesas, El pobrecito hablador and above all, Fígaro. His works can be divided into three groups: customs, literary articles y political articles.
Romanticism triumphed in the Spanish theatre with La conjuración de Venecia (The Venetian Conspiracy), by Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, El Trovador (The Troubador), by Antonio García Gutiérrez
, and Los amantes de Teruel (The Lovers of Teruel), by Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch
. But the key event was in 1835, when Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino (Don Álvaro, or the Power of Fate), by the Duke of Rivas, had its premiere.
Drama was the most developed of the theatrical genres. All works contained lyrical, dramatic, and fantastical elements. Freedom ruled in all aspects of the theatre:
Ángel de Saavedra y Ramírez de Baquedano (Córdoba
, 1791 † Madrid
, 1865) struggled against the French invasion as a young man and gained political prominence as a progressivist. He was condemned to death for his liberal views but managed to escape to England.
In Malta
he met an English critic who taught him to appreciate Classical theater and set the stage for him to become a Romantic
. He lived in France during his exile, and returned to Spain a decade later in 1834. By his return, the Neo-classical liberal had morphed into a conservative Romantic.
Ángel de Saavedra held a number of important public posts. Like many contemporary writers, he began by adopting a neo-classical aesthetic in the lyrical
(Poesías, 1874) and dramatic genres (Lanuza, 1822). He gradually incorporated Romantic elements into his work as can be seen in works like El desterrado. His conversion became complete in Romances históricos.
Rivas' fame is largely based on his work Leyendas and especially Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino, a play which premiered in the Teatro del Príncipe (the modern-day Teatro Español) in Madrid
in 1835. 1,300 spectatores attended and witnessed the first Spanish Romantic drama, featuring such novelties as combining prose and verse.
Born in Valladolid
, 1817 and died in Madrid
, in 1893. He started his career in literature by reading verses at the funeral of Larra, with which he earned great fame. He married a widow sixteen years younger than him, but the marriage failed and, fleeing from her, he went to France and then to Mexico in 1855, where the emperor Maximiliano named him director of the National Theater. Upon returning to Spain in 1866 he was greeted with enthusiasm. He married again and, with constant monetary penuries, he had no other remedy but to sell his works unprofitably, like Don Juan Tenorio. The courts granted him a pension in 1886.
Works
The literature of Zorrilla is prolific. His poetry reaches a zenith with Readings, which are small dramas sung as narration in verse. The most important of these readings are Margarita la Tornera and To a good judge, a better witness.
However, his recognition is owed more to his dramatic works. Dramas that stand out include The Shoemaker and the King, about the death of the king don Pedro; Traitor, Confessor, and Martyr, about the famous baker of Madrigal, which came to pass by way of don Sebastián, king of Portugal; Don Juan Tenorio (1844), the most famous of his works, represents a tradition in many Spanish cities at the beginning of November. It discusses the theme of the famous joker of Seville
, written about previously by Tirso de Molina
(17th century) and other national and foreign authors.
His first works are full of neoclassicism, such as La niña en casa y la madre en la máscara ("The girl in the house and the mother in the mask"). Later, as he began to practice "right means", adopting the new, latent aesthetic, he wrote his most important works: Aben Humeya y La conjuración de Venecia ("The conspiracy of Venice").
, in 1813 and died in Madrid
, in 1884. From an artisan family, he dedicated himself to words and, short on resources, enlisted in the army. In 1836 he released El trovador ("The troubador"), a work which evoked an enthusiastic response from the public, though it obligated him to bid farewell to his current situation, instituting in Spain an effective custom from France. Thanks to his success he could rise above the economic difficulties with which he lived. On the explosion of the "Gloriosa", he joined with the revolutionaries, with a hymn against the Borbones that became very popular.
(1806–1880). Son of a German cabinetmaker and an Analucian mother, he dedicated himself at first to his father's profession, but later consecrated himself to the theatre, where he obtained rotund success with his most famous work, Los amantes de Teruel ("The lovers of Teruel") (1837). He continued to publish stories, poems and custombrist articles.
, Logroño
, in 1796 and died in Madrid
, in 1873. He accepted his literary fate at a very young age, with works like A la vejez viruelas ("To the ancient smallpox"), Muérete y verás ("Die and you will see") and El pelo de la dehesa ("The hair of the meadow"). He satirized Romanticism, though some of its characteristics appear in his comedies, as in Muérete y verás.
's German poetry.
Poetry continued to be Romantic, while prose and theater adhered more to Realism. Romantic poetry slowly lost some of its popularity due to its concentration on emotive forces. Narration
declined in favor of lyricism
, and poems became more personal and initimate. Rhetoric
became more scarce as lyricism increased, and common themes were love and passion for the world in all of its beauty. Romantics began to experiment with new metric forms and rhythms. The homogeneity that the Romance movement enjoyed was transformed into a plurality of poetic ideas. In sum, post-Romanticism represented a transition between the Romanticism and Realism.
The most well-known poets of this period were Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
, Augusto Ferrán
, and Rosalía de Castro
. They were not particularly well-received in their contemporary society, the utilitarian and unidealistic Restoration, and were admired much less than writers who chose contemporary social themes like Ramón de Campoamor and Gaspar Núñez de Arce
, though the latters have little critical relevance.
Born in Seville
in 1836, Bécquer was orphan
ed and raised by his godmother. He dreamed of becoming a sailor
but found his calling as a writer. At 18 years of age he moved to Madrid
where he suffered hardships while trying to achieve literary success. At 21 he contracted tuberculosis
which would eventually carry him to the grave. He fell desperately in love with Elisa Guillén, and she returned his affections, but the couple soon separated in a taxing process for the poet. In 1861 he married Casta Esteban and worked as a columnist with a politically conservative slant. He later secured a monthly income of 500 pesetas
(a large sum for the time) while working as a novel critic, but he lost the job in the revolution of 1868
. He separated from his not-so-faithful wife, became disillusioned and lived a dirty and Bohemian
lifestyle. In 1870 his inseparable companion and brother Valeriano died. Bécquer reconciled with Casta but passed away mere months later in 1870 in Madrid and was buried along with his brother in Seville
.
Bécquer's prose work is contained within Leyendas, a work of twenty-one stories that are dominated by themes of mystery and the afterlife in true Romantic
fashion. He also wrote Cartas desde mi celda, a collection of chronicles composed during his stay at the Veruela monastery
. In a similar manner, all of Bécquer's poetry is collected in Rimas. The 79 poems are short, have 2,3, or 4 stanza
s (with rare exceptions), generally employ assonant
rhyme, and are written in free verse
.
in 1837, de Castro was the bastard child of unmarried lovers, a fact that caused an incurable bitterness in her. While living in Madrid
she met and later married the Galician historian
Manuel Murguía. The couple lived in various places throughout Castile
, but Rosalía never felt tied to the region and ultimately managed to settle the family in Galicia. The marriage was not happy and the couple underwent economic hardship as they raised six children. She died of cancer
in Iria Flavia
in 1885, and her remains were buried at Santiago de Compostela
, a suitable site for a lover of Galicia.
Though de Castro was not prolific in prose, she achieved notoriety with El caballero de las botas azules (The blue-booted cavalier) which had a philosophical and satirical bent. She is mostly recognized for her poetic contributions to Spanish literature. Her first books, La flor (The Flower, 1857) and A mi madre (To My Mother, 1863) possess some Romantic characteristics with Esproncedian
verses. Her three most memorable works are:
, given the decline of the Romantic movement and their contrary posture toward it.
, 1901), an ideological moderate, was a governor and parliamentarian. In his book Poética, he stated his intention to arrive at an "art of ideas". In this way, a poem would have a clearly
defined argument. He also tried to fulfill such ideas in the Humoradas, in the Doloras, and in the Pequeños poemas. The humoradas ("witticisms") were short poems written for the albums and fans of his friends. One of them goes:
The doloras had philosophical ambitions, as in ¡Quién supiera escribir! (Who knew how to write) and El gaitero de Gijón (The piper of Gijón). In Pequeños poemas, (Short poems), 31 brief compositions, Campoamor describes the trivialities of the soul of woman, as in El tren expreso (The Express Train). Modernist thinking considers Campoamor as a symbol of the anti-poet, because of coarse, banal thinking such as this.
, 1834–Madrid
1903). He was also a governor and parliamentarian, and a minister as well. He wrote the play El haz de leña (The bundle of firewood), whose plot deals with the mysterious death of don Carlos, son of King Philip II of Spain
. His nost notable petical works are La última lamentación de lord Byron (The last lamentation of Lord Byron), a long soliloquy on the miseries of the world, the existence of a superior, omnipotent being, politics, etc., and La visión de Fray Martín (The vision of Friar Martin), in which Núñez de Arce portrays Martin Luther
contemplating, from a rock, the nations that followed in his wake.
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
arrived late and lasted only for a short but intense period, since in the second half of the 19th century it was supplanted by Realism
Spanish Realist literature
Spanish Realist literature is the literature written in Spain during the second half of the 19th century, following the Realist movement which predominated in Europe....
, whose nature was antithetical to that of Romantic literature.
Traditional and Revolutionary Romanticism
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
in Scotland, Chateaubriand in France, and the Duke of Rivas
Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas
Don Ángel de Saavedra y Ramírez de Baquedano, 3rd Duke of Rivas , was a Spanish poet, dramatist and politician born in Córdoba...
and José Zorrilla in Spain. It was based on the ideology of the restoration of absolute monarchy in Spain, which originated after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, and defended the traditional values represented by Church and State. On the other hand, other Romantics, as free citizens, fought the entire established order in religion, art, and politics. They proclaimed the rights of the individual over and against society and the law. They represented "revolutionary" or "liberal" Romanticism, and their most notable members were Lord Byron, in England, Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
, in France, and José de Espronceda
José de Espronceda
José Ignacio Javier Oriol Encarnación de Espronceda y Delgado was a famous Romantic Spanish poet.-Life:Espronceda was born in Almendralejo, at the Province of Badajoz. As a youth, he studied at the Colegio San Mateo at Madrid, having as teacher Alberto Lista...
, in Spain. The movement's three underlying ideas were: the quest for and justification of "irrational" understanding, which reason denies, Hegelian dialectic, and historicism
Historicism
Historicism is a mode of thinking that assigns a central and basic significance to a specific context, such as historical period, geographical place and local culture. As such it is in contrast to individualist theories of knowledges such as empiricism and rationalism, which neglect the role of...
.
Costumbrism
Costumbrism focused on contemporary life, largely from the point of view of the "common" people, and expressed itself in pure, correct language. The principal author in the Costumbrist style was Ramón de Mesonero RomanosRamón de Mesonero Romanos
Ramón de Mesonero Romanos , Spanish prose-writer, was born at Madrid.At an early age he became interested in the history and topography of his native city...
, situated on the margins of Romanticism, and in an ironic position in relation to it. Costumbrism, born out of Romanticism, but as a manifestation of nostalgia for the values and customs of the past, contributed to the decadence of the Romantic movement and the rise of Realism, as it became bourgeois and turned into a style of description.
Historic context
The Romantic period encompasses the first half of the 19th century, a time of high political tension. The conservatives defended their privileges, but the liberals and progressives fought to supplant them. This opened the way for the laity and Freemasonry to enjoy great influence. Traditional Catholic thought defended itself against the freethinkers and the followers of the German philosopher Karl C. F. KrauseKarl Christian Friedrich Krause
Karl Christian Friedrich Krause was a German philosopher, born at Eisenberg, Thuringia.-Education and Life:...
. The working class unleashed protest movements with anarchist and socialist tendencies, accompanied by strikes and violence. While Europe experienced significant industrial development and cultural enrichment, Spain presented the image of a somewhat backward country that was always apart from the rest of Europe.
Characteristics of Romanticism
- Rejection of NeoclassicismNeoclassicismNeoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
. Faced with the scrupulous rigor and order with which rules were observed in the 18th century, the romantic writers combined the genres and verses of distinct media, at times mixing verse and prose; in the theater the rule of three unities (place, space and time) was despised, and they alternated the comic with the dramatic.
- Subjectivism. Whatever the type of work, the passionate soul of the author poured into it all of its feelings of dissatisfaction with a world that limited and frustrated the expression of its longings and worries, in relation to love, society, and country alike. They identified nature with spirit, and expressed it as melancholy, gloom, mystery, and darkness, by contrast with the neo-Classicists, who barely showed interest in the natural world. Cravings for passionate love, the desire for happiness and the possession of the infinite, caused in the Romantics a disheartenment, an immense disappointment that sometimes brought them to suicide, as in the case of Mariano José de LarraMariano José de LarraMariano José de Larra was a Spanish romantic writer best known for his numerous essays, as well as his infamous suicide...
. - Attraction of the nocturnal and mysterious. The Romantics situated their sorrowful and disappointed feelings in mysterious or melancholic places, such as ruins, forests, and cemeteries. In the same manner they felt attracted toward the supernatural, that which escapes logic, such as miracles, apparitions, visions from beyond the grave, the diabolical, and witchcraft.
- Flight from the world. Their disgust toward the bourgeois society that they were forced to live in caused the Romantics to try to turn their back on their circumstances, imagining past eras in which their ideals prevailed, or taking inspiration from the exotic. By contrast with the neo-Classicists, who admired Greco-Roman antiquity, the Romantics preferred the Middle AgesMiddle AgesThe Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and the RenaissanceRenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
. Their favorite modes of expression were the novel, legends, and historical drama.
Beginnings
RomanticismRomanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
came to Spain through Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
and Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
.
In Andalucía, the Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
in Cádiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, Juan Nicolás Böhl de Faber
Juan Nicolás Böhl de Faber
Juan Nicolás Böhl de Faber was a German lover of Spanish literature and culture. He was the father of Spanish/Swiss novelist Cecilia Böhl de Faber, aka "Fernán Caballero"....
, father of novelist Fernán Caballero
Fernán Caballero
Fernán Caballero was the pseudonym adopted from the name of a village in the province of Ciudad Real by the Spanish novelist Cecilia Francisca Josefa Böhl de Faber....
, published a series of articles between 1818 and 1819 in the Diario Mercantil (Mercantile Daily) of Cádiz, in which he defended Spanish theatre of the Siglo de Oro, and was widely attacked by the neo-Classicists. Against him were José Joaquín de Mora and Antonio Alcalá Galiano, who argued from a traditionalist, antiliberal, and absolutist point of view. Böhl de Faber's ideas were incompatible with theirs (since they were still tied to the Age of Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
), despite the fact that they represented European Literary Modernism.
In Catalonia, El Europeo was a journal published in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
from 1823 to 1824 by two Italian editors, one Englishman, and the young Catalans Bonaventura Carles Aribau
Bonaventura Carles Aribau
Bonaventura Carles Aribau was a Spanish writer, politician and economist....
and Ramón López Soler
Ramón López Soler
Ramón López Soler was a journalist and writer of the Spanish Romantic Movement. He died while very young, before developing a large body of original work. Along with Buenaventura Carlos Aribau, he founded the magazine El Europeo, which drew upon the collaborations of Englishman Ernesto Kook and...
. This publication defended moderate traditionalist Romanticism following Böhl's example, totally rejecting the virtues of Neo-Classicism. An exposition of the Romantic ideology appeared for the first time in its pages, in an article by Luigi Monteggia, titled Romanticismo.
Poetry
The romantic poets created their works in the midst of a fury of emotions, forming verses out of whatever they felt or thought. Critics have found in their works a lyricism of great power, but at the same time vulgar, uninspiring verse.Some of the characteristics of Romantic poetry are:
- The I, the inner self. José de EsproncedaJosé de EsproncedaJosé Ignacio Javier Oriol Encarnación de Espronceda y Delgado was a famous Romantic Spanish poet.-Life:Espronceda was born in Almendralejo, at the Province of Badajoz. As a youth, he studied at the Colegio San Mateo at Madrid, having as teacher Alberto Lista...
, setting down in his Canto a Teresa a painful confession of love and disappointment, managed with great skill to translate his feelings into poetry. - Passionate love, with its sudden and total surrenders and quick abandonments. The agony and the ecstasy.
- Inspiration by historical and mythical subjects.
- Religion, though frequently it is through a revolt against consequent compassion, even to the extent of exalting the devil.
- Social vindication, value placed on marginalized people, such as beggars
- Nature, displayed in all its manifestations and variations. Romantics often gave their poems mysterious settings, such as cemeteries, storms, the raging sea, etc.
- SatireSatireSatire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, frequently associated with political and literary events.
It was also a sign that a new spirit was inspiring the creation of verse. By contrast with the monotonous neoclassic repetition of songs and lyrics, poets proclaimed their right to use all existing variations on meter, to adapt those from other languages, and to innovate where necessary. In this respect, as in others, Romanticism prefigured the modernist audacities of the end of the century.
José de Espronceda
Almendralejo
Almendralejo is a town in the province of Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain. It is situated 59 km south-east of Badajoz, on the main road and rail route between Mérida and Seville. , it has a population of 33,975. There was a battle and massacre here in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.Sights...
, Badajoz
Badajoz
Badajoz is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain, situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana, and the Madrid–Lisbon railway. The population in 2007 was 145,257....
. He founded the secret society of Los numantinos, whose aim was to "demolish the absolutist government". Because of his involvement with this society, Espronceda was imprisoned. At age 18 he fled to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
and joined with a group of liberal exiles. There he met Teresa Mancha, the woman with whom he lived in London. After an act of political agitation, he returned to Spain in 1833. He lived a dissipated life, full of incidents and adventures, which caused Teresa Mancha to leave him in 1838. He was at the point of marrying another lover, when in 1842 he died in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
.
- Batallas, tempestades, amoríos,
- por mar y tierra, lances, descripciones
- de campos y ciudades, desafíos
- y el desastre y furor de las pasiones,
- goces, dichas, aciertos, desvaríos,
- con algunas morales reflexiones
- acerca de la vida y de la muerte,
- de mi propia cosecha, que es mi fuerte.
- Battles, tempests, love affairs,
- by sea and land, deeds, descriptions
- of countryside and cities, challenges
- and the disaster and furor of passions,
- enjoyments, happiness, successes, deliriums,
- with some moral reflections
- about to life and to death,
- of my own harvest, that is my strength.
Espronceda worked in the principal literary genres, such as the historical novel, with Sancho Saldaña o El castellano de Cuéllar (1834), and the epic poem, with El Pelayo, but his most important work was his poetry. He published Poesías in 1840 after returning from exile. It is a collection of poems of different types, which brings together his youthful neoclassic poems with other, more intense, Romantic works. These last were the most important, and elevated marginalized types: Canción del pirata (Song of the Pirate), El verdugo (The Executioner), El mendigo (The Beggar), and Canto del cosaco (Song of the Cossack). His most important works were El estudiante de Salamanca (1839) and El diablo mundo:
- El estudiante de Salamanca (1839): This composition consists of some two thousand verses of different lengths. It narrates the crimes of don Félix de Montemar, whose lover Elvira dies of heartsickness when he abandons her. One night, he sees her ghost and follows it through the streets and contemplates his own burial. In the house of the dead, he marries the corpse of Elvira, and dies.
- El diablo mundo: This work was never finished. It consists of 8,100 verses of various meters, and it seems to be an epic of the human life. The second canto (Canto a Teresa) occupies the better part of the poem, and in it he evokes his love for Teresa and laments her death.
Other poets
In spite of the brief period during which romantic lyric poetry thrived in Spain, there arose other notable poets who deserve mention, such as the BarcelonaBarcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
n Juan Arolas
Juan Arolas
Juan Arolas was a Spanish poet and writer....
(1805–1873), the Galician Nicomedes Pastor Díaz (1811–1863), Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga was a 19th century Cuban writer.-Life:Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga, widely known as la Avellaneda, was born in Santa María de Puerto Príncipe , Cuba...
(1814–1873) and Pablo Piferrer (1818–1848). Piferrer, in spite of writing only in Spanish, was one of the precursors of the romantic movement in Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
.
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga (March 23, 1814 – MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
February 1, 1873) was a Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n writer and poet of the 19th century. Although Cuban, she lived most of herlife in Spain. She wrote various poems, plays, and novels. Her most famous work is an antislavery novel called Sab (novel).
Carolina Coronado
Carolina Coronado (AlmendralejoAlmendralejo
Almendralejo is a town in the province of Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain. It is situated 59 km south-east of Badajoz, on the main road and rail route between Mérida and Seville. , it has a population of 33,975. There was a battle and massacre here in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.Sights...
, 1823–Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, 1911) merits special mention. She spent a great part of her childhood in the Extremadura
Extremadura
Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz. It is bordered by Portugal to the west...
n countryside, and from a very young age showed a talent for poetry. She married an American diplomat and lived in various foreign countries. Family misfortune prompted her to seek solitude and retreat in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, where she died in 1911. Her most important work is Poesías (1852).
Prose
During the Romantic period, there was a great interest in literary fiction, in particular, adventure and mystery novels; however, Spanish output of this type was scanty, limited to translations of foreign novels. More than a thousand translations circulated in Spain before 1850, in the historic, romantic, chivalrous, and melodramatic genres, representing writers such as Alexandre Dumas, pèreAlexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
, Chateaubriand, Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
, and Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
. Spanish prose essentially consisted of the novel, scientific or scholarly prose, journalism, and the intense development of costumbrismo.
During the first quarter of the century, four distinct types of novels developed: moral and educative novels, romances, horror stories, and anticlerical novels. The most purely Romantic of these is the anticlerical novel. However, the Romantic influence would shape, principally, the historical novel.
Historical novels
The historical novelHistorical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
developed in imitation of Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
(80 of his works had been translated), author of Waverley
Waverley (novel)
Waverley is an 1814 historical novel by Sir Walter Scott. Initially published anonymously in 1814 as Scott's first venture into prose fiction, Waverley is often regarded as the first historical novel. It became so popular that Scott's later novels were advertised as being "by the author of...
, Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe is a historical fiction novel by Sir Walter Scott in 1819, and set in 12th-century England. Ivanhoe is sometimes credited for increasing interest in Romanticism and Medievalism; John Henry Newman claimed Scott "had first turned men's minds in the direction of the middle ages," while...
, and other novels of adventure set in the Scottish and English past. Spanish historical novels fall into two categories: liberal and moderate. Within the liberal school existed both anti-clerical and populist currents. On the other hand, the moderate school produced, on occasion, novels of exalting traditional and Catholic values. The most notable Spanish authors are:
- Enrique Gil y Carrasco (Villafranca del BierzoVillafranca del Bierzothumb|250px|Castle of Villafranca.Vilafranca del Bierzo is a village and municipality located in the comarca of El Bierzo, in the province of León, Castile and León, Spain.It is one of Galician speaking councils of Castilla y León....
), 1815–BerlínBerlínBerlín is a municipality in the Usulután department of El Salvador.-Overview:The municipality of Berlín is made up of an urban center and 17 cantons or villages...
1846. A lawyer and diplomat, he was the author of El señor de Bembibre, the best Spanish historical novel, written in imitation of Walter Scott. - Francisco Navarro Villoslada (1818–1895), who wrote a series of historical novels when the romantic genre was in decline and RealismLiterary realismLiterary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
was coming to be at its height. His novels were inspired by Basque traditions, and were set in the medieval era. His most famous work is Amaya, o los vascos en el siglo VIII (Amaya, or the Basques of the 8th century), in which the Basques and the Visigoths ally themselves against the Muslim invasion. - It is also worth mentioning the contributions to the historical genre made by Mariano José de LarraMariano José de LarraMariano José de Larra was a Spanish romantic writer best known for his numerous essays, as well as his infamous suicide...
, Serafín Estébanez CalderónSerafin Estebanez CalderonSerafín Estébanez Calderón was a Spanish author, best known by the pseudonym of El Solitario. He was born at Málaga. His first literary effort was El Listen verde, a poem signed "Safinio" and written to celebrate the revolution of 1820...
and Francisco Martínez de la Rosa.
Scholarly writing
The majority of these works originated from the discussions in the assembly that adopted the Constitution of CádizSpanish Constitution of 1812
The Spanish Constitution of 1812 was promulgated 19 March 1812 by the Cádiz Cortes, the national legislative assembly of Spain, while in refuge from the Peninsular War...
. The most representative authors were Juan Donoso Cortés (1809 † 1853) and Jaime Balmes Urpía (1810 † 1848):
- Juan Donoso CortésJuan Donoso CortésJuan Donoso Cortés, marqués de Valdegamas , Spanish author, political theorist, and diplomat, was born at Valle de la Serena...
came from the liberal school, though later he defended Catholic and authoritarian ideas. His most important work is the Ensayo sobre el catolicismo, el liberalismo y el socialismo (Treatise about Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism), published in 1851. His style has a solemn yet compelling tone, and provoked lively debates. - Jaime Balmes, however, belongs in the conservative, Catholic camp. Of his prolific output, El protestantismo comparado con el catolicismo en sus relaciones con la civilización europea (Protestantism compared with Catholicism in their relations with European civilization) (1842) and El criterio (1845) stand out.
Costumbrist vignettes
Between 1820 and 1870, Spain developed the literatura costumbrista (literature of manners), which manifested itself in the cuadro de costumbres, or vignette of everyday life, a short prose article. These works were normally restricted to descriptive text, keeping argument to a minimum. They described the lifestyle of the era, a popular custom, or a personal stereotype. In many cases (as in the articles of Larra), the articles contain considerable satire.Costumbrismo (or costumbrism) arose out of the Romantic desire to emphasize the different and the peculiar, inspired by the French affinity for the same genre. Thousands of articles of this type were published, thus limiting the development of the novel in Spain, since narration and individual characters predominated in that genre, while costumbrist vignettes were limited to generic descriptions of personality types (bullfighter, chestnut seller, water carrier, etc.). Large anthologies of such vignettes were compiled, such as Los españoles pintados por sí mismos (Spaniards painted by themselves), (published in two volumes in 1843–1844, reprinted in one volume in 1851). Notable authors represented in this work are the madrileño Ramón Mesonero Romanos and the Andalusian Serafín Estébanez Calderón
Serafin Estebanez Calderon
Serafín Estébanez Calderón was a Spanish author, best known by the pseudonym of El Solitario. He was born at Málaga. His first literary effort was El Listen verde, a poem signed "Safinio" and written to celebrate the revolution of 1820...
.
Ramón de Mesonero Romanos
Ramón Mesonero Romanos (1803–1882) was born and died in MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. He belonged to the Spanish Academy and was a gentle bourgeois. His ideas were anti-Romantic and he was a great observer of the life around him. He was famous under the pseudonym El curioso parlante (The talking bystander).
His principal literary production was in the costombrist tradition; however, he wrote Memorias de un setentón (Memories of a 70-year-old), an allusion to the people and events he knew between 1808 and 1850. His costumbrist works were collected in the volumes Panorama matritense and Escenas matritenses.
Serafín Estébanez Calderón
Calderón (1799–1867) was born in MálagaMálaga
Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe...
and died in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. He was known as El solitario (The solitary one), and held high political office. Though known for his conservatism, in his youth he was a liberal. He published various poems and a historical novel, Cristianos y moriscos (Christians and Moors), though his most famous work is a collection of costumbrist vignettes Escenas analuzas (Andalucían scenes) (1848), containing descriptions such as El bolero, La feria de Mairena, Un baile en Triana, and Los Filósofos del figón.
Journalism: Mariano José de Larra
Throughout the 19th century, the role of the newspaperNewspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
is decisive. The Barcelona publication El Europeo (The European) (1823–1824) published articles about romanticism and, through the publication, Spain came to know the names of Byron, Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
and Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
. However, the press was also an arm of the political fight. In this sense, we must emphasize the political satire press of Trienio Liberal (El Zurriago, La Manopla), where there appeared not only social themes, but also customism outlines which were clear precedents of Larra's production.
After the death of Fernando VII in 1833, many important changes occurred in journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
. The emigrants after the absolutist reaction of 1823 returned and together with the new generation (that of José de Espronceda
José de Espronceda
José Ignacio Javier Oriol Encarnación de Espronceda y Delgado was a famous Romantic Spanish poet.-Life:Espronceda was born in Almendralejo, at the Province of Badajoz. As a youth, he studied at the Colegio San Mateo at Madrid, having as teacher Alberto Lista...
and Larra) they would mark the style of the era, though they had learned much in their years of exile from the advanced presses of the English and the French.
In 1836, the French Girardin initiated in his newspaper La Presse a custom which would have a staggering and lasting success: that of publishing novels by delivery. The Spanish press, always with their eyes on the press of their neighbors, hurried to copy this initiative; however, the height of this era in Spain would be between 1845 and 1855.
Mariano José de Larra, El pobrecito hablador (The poor little talker)
Mariano José de Larra (Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, 1809 † id., 1837), son of a liberal exile, soon conquered fame as a journalist. His character was less than agreeable. Mesonero Romanos, his friend, spoke of "his innate mordacidad, which carried few sympathies". At twenty he married, but the marriage failed. With total success as a writer, at 27 years of age, Larra committed suicide with a pistol to the head, it seems, for a woman with whom he maintained an illicit love affair.
Though Larra is famous for his newspaper works, he also worked in other genres, like poetry, short neoclassics and satire (Sátira contra los vicios de la corte, or "Satire against the vices of the court"); the theatre, with the historical tragedy Macías; and finally, the historical novel, with El doncel de don Enrique el Doliente, about a Gallego troubador who kills a husband blinded by jealousy.
Larra's Newspaper Articles
Larra wrote more than 200 articles, behind the façade of diverse pseudonyms: Andrés Niporesas, El pobrecito hablador and above all, Fígaro. His works can be divided into three groups: customs, literary articles y political articles.
- In the customism articles, Larra satirized the form of Spanish life. He felt a great pain for his imperfect mother country. Emphasis should be placed on Vuelva usted mañana ("Come back tomorrow" - a satire of public officials), Corridas de toros ("Bull races"), Casarse pronto y mal ("Get married soon and badly", with autobiographic undertones) and El castellano grosero ("The crude Castilian", against the crudity of the countryside).
- His French education prevented him from fostering his neoclassic tastes, and this is reflected in his literary articles, where he criticized the romantic works of the era.
- In his political articles, his progressive, liberal education is clearly reflected, with hostile articles about absolutism and traditionalism. In some of these, Larra reveals his revolutionary exultation, as in the article which says "Asesinatos por asesinatos, ya que los ha de haber, estoy por los del pueblo" ("Murders by murders, since we must have them, I am for those of the people").
Theatre
Neo-classical theatre did not manage to have much effect on Spanish tastes. At the beginning of the 19th century, works from the Siglo de Oro became popular. These works were disdained by the neo-Classicists for not following the rule of three parts (action, place, and time) and for mixing comic and dramatic aspects. Nevertheless, these works were successful outside Spain, precisely because they did not conform to the neo-Classical ideal.Romanticism triumphed in the Spanish theatre with La conjuración de Venecia (The Venetian Conspiracy), by Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, El Trovador (The Troubador), by Antonio García Gutiérrez
Antonio García Gutiérrez
Antonio García Gutiérrez was a Spanish Romantic dramatist.After having studied medicine in his native town, he moved to Madrid in 1833 and earned a meager living by translating plays of Eugène Scribe and Alexandre Dumas, père...
, and Los amantes de Teruel (The Lovers of Teruel), by Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch
Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch
Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch , was a Spanish dramatist. He was the Director of the National Library of Spain until he retired in 1875.-Biography:...
. But the key event was in 1835, when Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino (Don Álvaro, or the Power of Fate), by the Duke of Rivas, had its premiere.
Drama was the most developed of the theatrical genres. All works contained lyrical, dramatic, and fantastical elements. Freedom ruled in all aspects of the theatre:
- Structure: The rule of the three unities, imposed on Spanish literature of the Enlightenment, disappeared. Dramas, for example, could have five acts in verse, or in prose and mixed verse, with variable metre. If in neo-Classical works stage directions were unacceptable, this did not prevail in Romanticism, where they occurred frequently. The monologue took on new importance, becoming the principal means of expressing a character's internal struggle.
- Setting: Theatrical action gained dynamism by using a variety of settings in the same production. Authors set their works in places typical of Romanticism, such as cemeteries, ruins, solitary countrysides, prisons, etc. Nature corresponded to the feelings and states of mind of the characters.
- Plot: Romantic theatre tend to have plots with legendary, adventurous, knightly, and historical-national themes, with love and freedom as typical elements. Frequent motifs were nocturnal scenes, duels, shadowy, mysterious characters, suicides, and displays of gallantry or of cynicism. Events occurred at a dizzying speed. The point of drama was not to enlighten, as the neo-Classicists intended, but rather to move.
- Characters: The number of characters in a play increased. The masculine hero was usually brave and mysterious. The heroine was innocent and faithful, but having an intense passion. But both were marked for a fatal destiny; death is liberation. More importance was given to the dynamism of the action than the psychology of the characters.
Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas
Ángel de Saavedra y Ramírez de Baquedano (Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
, 1791 † Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, 1865) struggled against the French invasion as a young man and gained political prominence as a progressivist. He was condemned to death for his liberal views but managed to escape to England.
In Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
he met an English critic who taught him to appreciate Classical theater and set the stage for him to become a Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
. He lived in France during his exile, and returned to Spain a decade later in 1834. By his return, the Neo-classical liberal had morphed into a conservative Romantic.
Ángel de Saavedra held a number of important public posts. Like many contemporary writers, he began by adopting a neo-classical aesthetic in the lyrical
Lyric poetry
Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat...
(Poesías, 1874) and dramatic genres (Lanuza, 1822). He gradually incorporated Romantic elements into his work as can be seen in works like El desterrado. His conversion became complete in Romances históricos.
Rivas' fame is largely based on his work Leyendas and especially Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino, a play which premiered in the Teatro del Príncipe (the modern-day Teatro Español) in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
in 1835. 1,300 spectatores attended and witnessed the first Spanish Romantic drama, featuring such novelties as combining prose and verse.
José Zorrilla
Born in Valladolid
Valladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...
, 1817 and died in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, in 1893. He started his career in literature by reading verses at the funeral of Larra, with which he earned great fame. He married a widow sixteen years younger than him, but the marriage failed and, fleeing from her, he went to France and then to Mexico in 1855, where the emperor Maximiliano named him director of the National Theater. Upon returning to Spain in 1866 he was greeted with enthusiasm. He married again and, with constant monetary penuries, he had no other remedy but to sell his works unprofitably, like Don Juan Tenorio. The courts granted him a pension in 1886.
Works
The literature of Zorrilla is prolific. His poetry reaches a zenith with Readings, which are small dramas sung as narration in verse. The most important of these readings are Margarita la Tornera and To a good judge, a better witness.
However, his recognition is owed more to his dramatic works. Dramas that stand out include The Shoemaker and the King, about the death of the king don Pedro; Traitor, Confessor, and Martyr, about the famous baker of Madrigal, which came to pass by way of don Sebastián, king of Portugal; Don Juan Tenorio (1844), the most famous of his works, represents a tradition in many Spanish cities at the beginning of November. It discusses the theme of the famous joker of Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, written about previously by Tirso de Molina
Tirso de Molina
Tirso de Molina was a Spanish Baroque dramatist, poet and a Roman Catholic monk.Originally Gabriel Téllez, he was born in Madrid. He studied at Alcalá de Henares, joined the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy on November 4, 1600, and entered the Monastery of San Antolín at Guadalajara,...
(17th century) and other national and foreign authors.
Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, escritor de transición (Writer of transition)
Martínez de la Rosa (1787 † 1862), born in Granada. As a politician, he intervened fervently in the Cortes de Cádiz. Because of his liberal ideals, he suffered the pain of imprisonment. He emigrated to France and was named chief of the government in 1833 on his return to Spain. His politics of "right means" failed among the extremists on the left and the right. His contemporaries gave him the nickname "Rosita la pastelera" (Rosita the baker), though he had been imprisoned, exiled and attacked in his fight for a much-desired freedom.His first works are full of neoclassicism, such as La niña en casa y la madre en la máscara ("The girl in the house and the mother in the mask"). Later, as he began to practice "right means", adopting the new, latent aesthetic, he wrote his most important works: Aben Humeya y La conjuración de Venecia ("The conspiracy of Venice").
Antonio García Gutiérrez
Gutiérrez was born in Chiclana, CádizCádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, in 1813 and died in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, in 1884. From an artisan family, he dedicated himself to words and, short on resources, enlisted in the army. In 1836 he released El trovador ("The troubador"), a work which evoked an enthusiastic response from the public, though it obligated him to bid farewell to his current situation, instituting in Spain an effective custom from France. Thanks to his success he could rise above the economic difficulties with which he lived. On the explosion of the "Gloriosa", he joined with the revolutionaries, with a hymn against the Borbones that became very popular.
Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch
Hartzenbusch was born and died in MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
(1806–1880). Son of a German cabinetmaker and an Analucian mother, he dedicated himself at first to his father's profession, but later consecrated himself to the theatre, where he obtained rotund success with his most famous work, Los amantes de Teruel ("The lovers of Teruel") (1837). He continued to publish stories, poems and custombrist articles.
Manuel Bretón de los Herreros
Herreros was born in QuelQuel
Quel may refer to:* QUEL query languages, a relational database access language* Quel, La Rioja, a municipality in La Rioja, Spain...
, Logroño
Logroño
Logroño is a city in northern Spain, on the Ebro River. It is the capital of the autonomous community of La Rioja, formerly known as La Rioja Province.The population of Logroño in 2008 was 153,736 and a metropolitan population of nearly 197,000 inhabitants...
, in 1796 and died in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, in 1873. He accepted his literary fate at a very young age, with works like A la vejez viruelas ("To the ancient smallpox"), Muérete y verás ("Die and you will see") and El pelo de la dehesa ("The hair of the meadow"). He satirized Romanticism, though some of its characteristics appear in his comedies, as in Muérete y verás.
Postromanticism
During the second half of the nineteenth century, the movement's pre-existing interests in history and legend entered a new stage, and poetry became more sentimental and intimate. This change was due to the influence of German poetry and a renewed popular interest in Spanish poetry. The Postromantic school departed significantly from its other European contemporaries, with the exception of Heinrich HeineHeinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
's German poetry.
Poetry continued to be Romantic, while prose and theater adhered more to Realism. Romantic poetry slowly lost some of its popularity due to its concentration on emotive forces. Narration
Narrative poetry
Narrative poetry is poetry that has a plot. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be simple or complex. It is usually nondramatic, with objective regular scheme and meter. Narrative poems include epics, ballads, idylls and lays.Some narrative...
declined in favor of lyricism
Lyric poetry
Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat...
, and poems became more personal and initimate. Rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
became more scarce as lyricism increased, and common themes were love and passion for the world in all of its beauty. Romantics began to experiment with new metric forms and rhythms. The homogeneity that the Romance movement enjoyed was transformed into a plurality of poetic ideas. In sum, post-Romanticism represented a transition between the Romanticism and Realism.
The most well-known poets of this period were Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Gustavo Adolfo Domínguez Bastida, better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, was a Spanish post-romanticist writer of poetry and short stories, now considered one of the most important figures in Spanish literature. He adopted the alias of Bécquer as his brother Valeriano Bécquer, a painter, had...
, Augusto Ferrán
Augusto Ferrán
Augusto Ferrán y Forniés was a Spanish poet of the Postromantic period.-Biography:Ferrán was born in Madrid on 7 July 1835 to well-to-do parents of Catalan and Aragonese descent. The family business was in manufacturing gilded moldings...
, and Rosalía de Castro
Rosalía de Castro
María Rosalía Rita de Castro , was a Galician romanticist writer and poet.Writing in the Galician language, after the Séculos Escuros , she became an important figure of the Galician romantic movement, known today as the Rexurdimento , along with Manuel Curros Enríquez and Eduardo Pondal...
. They were not particularly well-received in their contemporary society, the utilitarian and unidealistic Restoration, and were admired much less than writers who chose contemporary social themes like Ramón de Campoamor and Gaspar Núñez de Arce
Gaspar Núñez de Arce
Gaspar Núñez de Arce was a Spanish poet, dramatist and statesman.He was born at Valladolid, where he was educated for the priesthood. He had no vocation for the ecclesiastical state, plunged into literature, and produced a play entitled Amor y Orgullo which was acted at Toledo in 1849...
, though the latters have little critical relevance.
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Born in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
in 1836, Bécquer was orphan
Orphan
An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...
ed and raised by his godmother. He dreamed of becoming a sailor
Sailor
A sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...
but found his calling as a writer. At 18 years of age he moved to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
where he suffered hardships while trying to achieve literary success. At 21 he contracted tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
which would eventually carry him to the grave. He fell desperately in love with Elisa Guillén, and she returned his affections, but the couple soon separated in a taxing process for the poet. In 1861 he married Casta Esteban and worked as a columnist with a politically conservative slant. He later secured a monthly income of 500 pesetas
Spanish peseta
The peseta was the currency of Spain between 1869 and 2002. Along with the French franc, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra .- Etymology :...
(a large sum for the time) while working as a novel critic, but he lost the job in the revolution of 1868
Glorious Revolution (Spain)
The Glorious Revolution took place in Spain in 1868, resulting in the deposition of Queen Isabella II.An 1866 rebellion led by General Juan Prim and a revolt of the sergeants at San Gil barracks, in Madrid, sent a signal to Spanish liberals and republicans that there was serious unrest with the...
. He separated from his not-so-faithful wife, became disillusioned and lived a dirty and Bohemian
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
lifestyle. In 1870 his inseparable companion and brother Valeriano died. Bécquer reconciled with Casta but passed away mere months later in 1870 in Madrid and was buried along with his brother in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
.
Bécquer's prose work is contained within Leyendas, a work of twenty-one stories that are dominated by themes of mystery and the afterlife in true Romantic
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
fashion. He also wrote Cartas desde mi celda, a collection of chronicles composed during his stay at the Veruela monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
. In a similar manner, all of Bécquer's poetry is collected in Rimas. The 79 poems are short, have 2,3, or 4 stanza
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
s (with rare exceptions), generally employ assonant
Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences, and together with alliteration and consonance serves as one of the building blocks of verse. For example, in the phrase "Do you like blue?", the is repeated within the sentence and is...
rhyme, and are written in free verse
Free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
.
Rosalía de Castro
Born in Santiago de CompostelaSantiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...
in 1837, de Castro was the bastard child of unmarried lovers, a fact that caused an incurable bitterness in her. While living in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
she met and later married the Galician historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
Manuel Murguía. The couple lived in various places throughout Castile
Castile (historical region)
A former kingdom, Castile gradually merged with its neighbours to become the Crown of Castile and later the Kingdom of Spain when united with the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre...
, but Rosalía never felt tied to the region and ultimately managed to settle the family in Galicia. The marriage was not happy and the couple underwent economic hardship as they raised six children. She died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in Iria Flavia
Iria Flavia
Iria Flavia or simply Iria in Galicia, northwestern Spain, was a Celtiberian port, the main seat of the Caporos, on the road between Braga and Astorga. The Romans rebuilt the road as via XVIII or Via Nova and refounded the Celtiberian port as Iria Flavia to complement Vespasian...
in 1885, and her remains were buried at Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...
, a suitable site for a lover of Galicia.
Though de Castro was not prolific in prose, she achieved notoriety with El caballero de las botas azules (The blue-booted cavalier) which had a philosophical and satirical bent. She is mostly recognized for her poetic contributions to Spanish literature. Her first books, La flor (The Flower, 1857) and A mi madre (To My Mother, 1863) possess some Romantic characteristics with Esproncedian
José de Espronceda
José Ignacio Javier Oriol Encarnación de Espronceda y Delgado was a famous Romantic Spanish poet.-Life:Espronceda was born in Almendralejo, at the Province of Badajoz. As a youth, he studied at the Colegio San Mateo at Madrid, having as teacher Alberto Lista...
verses. Her three most memorable works are:
- Cantares gallegos: This work was developed during Rosalía's stay in Castile while she longer for her homeland of Galicia. In Castile she felt like an exile because, according to her, there was little respect things Galician. Cantares gallegos was a work of simple poems with popular themes and rhythms. She felt nostalgia for her homeland and desired to return:
- Airiños, airiños aires,
- airiños da miña terra;
- airiños, airiños aires,
- airiños, levaime a ela.
- She also vented her anger toward Castile, which she considered an exploiter of the poor laboring Galicians:
- Premita Dios, castellanos,
- castellanos que aborrezco,
- qu'antes os gallegos morran
- qu'ir a pedirvos sustento.
- Follas novas (Hojas nuevas): In the prologue of this work, Rosalía explains that her book is the product of pain and disappointment. She does not sing of the physical Galicia in these poems, but rather of her own suffering and the suffering of Galician people. She also deals with ubi sunt, in which she expresses her regret and anger over being stripped of happiness and past illusions.
- Aquelas risas sin fin,
- aquel brincar sin dolor,
- aquela louca alegría,
- ¿por qué acabóu?
- En las orillas del Sar: Many critics consider this work to be the apex of Rosalía's poetry. It is the only one of the three major novels to be written in Castilian SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. At the time, it was held in low esteem outside of Galician territory, but the Generation of 98 brought the poems back into the limelight. In Las orillas del Sar she makes confessions about her private life, love and pain, human injustice, faith, death, eternity, etc.
Antiromantic poets
These poets could also be considered adherents of RealismLiterary realism
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
, given the decline of the Romantic movement and their contrary posture toward it.
Ramón de Campoamor
(Navia, Asturias, 1817–MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, 1901), an ideological moderate, was a governor and parliamentarian. In his book Poética, he stated his intention to arrive at an "art of ideas". In this way, a poem would have a clearly
defined argument. He also tried to fulfill such ideas in the Humoradas, in the Doloras, and in the Pequeños poemas. The humoradas ("witticisms") were short poems written for the albums and fans of his friends. One of them goes:
- En este mundo traidor
- nada es verdad ni mentira;
- todo es según el color
- del cristal con que se mira.
- In this treacherous world
- nothing is either truth or lie;
- everything depends on the color
- of the crystal that one looks through.
The doloras had philosophical ambitions, as in ¡Quién supiera escribir! (Who knew how to write) and El gaitero de Gijón (The piper of Gijón). In Pequeños poemas, (Short poems), 31 brief compositions, Campoamor describes the trivialities of the soul of woman, as in El tren expreso (The Express Train). Modernist thinking considers Campoamor as a symbol of the anti-poet, because of coarse, banal thinking such as this.
Gaspar Núñez de Arce
(ValladolidValladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...
, 1834–Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
1903). He was also a governor and parliamentarian, and a minister as well. He wrote the play El haz de leña (The bundle of firewood), whose plot deals with the mysterious death of don Carlos, son of King Philip II of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
. His nost notable petical works are La última lamentación de lord Byron (The last lamentation of Lord Byron), a long soliloquy on the miseries of the world, the existence of a superior, omnipotent being, politics, etc., and La visión de Fray Martín (The vision of Friar Martin), in which Núñez de Arce portrays Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
contemplating, from a rock, the nations that followed in his wake.
See also
- Spanish Romantic writers: List of Romantic authors.
- RomanticismRomanticismRomanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
: General view of the movement. - Spanish literatureSpanish literatureSpanish literature generally refers to literature written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the state of Spain...
: Evolution of Spanish literature.