SPANISH LITERATURE.

ROLCAM · Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:23 am Post subject: SPANISH LITERATURE.

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 Diaz 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. See CID, THE.

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 Provencal troubadours of southern France. The early poetry of two related dialects, Galician and Portuguese, was modeled on Provencal 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, 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 Stuniga. 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) Inigo Lopez 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 Fernandez 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 Marti Joan de Galba. The long novel of chivalry called Amadis of Gaul, known since the 1300's, was printed, probably for the first time, in 1508. Part of it was written by Garci Ordonez (or Rodriguez) de Montalvo. See AMADIS 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 Valdes.

Poetry. During the early 1500's, Juan Boscan and Garcilaso de la Vega introduced the meters, verse forms, and themes of Italian Renaissance poetry, which soon dominated Spanish poetry. But Cristobal 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 Acuna and Gutierre de Cetina, but also to the Portuguese poets Francisco Sa de Miranda and Luiz de Camoes. Camoes' great epic poem Os Lusiadas (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 Leon, Pedro Malon de Chaide, and Francisco de la Torre. Poets of the school of Seville included Fernando de Herrera, Baltasar de Alcazar, Francisco de Rioja, Juan de Jauregui, 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 Leon, a professor at the University of Salamanca who was persecuted by the Inquisition. Leon 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 Zuniga'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' 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 picaro (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, Bartolome 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 Amadis 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 Guzman de Alfarache (first part, 1599; second part, 1604) by Mateo Aleman. Guzman 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 Lopez de Ubeda created a female rogue in La picara Justina (1605). Vicente Espinel wrote Marcos de Obregon (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' 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 Deceiver 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 Alarcon, Juan Perez de Montalban, Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla, and Agustin 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 (see 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 Gracian represented this trend.

Culteranismo was a movement led by Luis de Gongora. The movement was also known as gongorismo. Gongora created lyric poetry full of color, imagery, and musical linguistic effects. His long and complex poems, 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 Calderon 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. Calderon dramatized the dreams and realities of life in a brilliant work, Life Is a Dream (1635). The theme of honor and the conflict between love and jealousy were topics often explored by Calderon. His historical and religious dramas showed his versatility. Calderon'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. Calderon 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 Age of Reason 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.

Ignacio de Luzan supported the neoclassical ideas of reason, proper behavior, and moral sense in Poetics (1737), a work that attempts to systematize literary principles. Benito Jeronimo 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).

Few Spanish writers of the time wrote novels. The only novel of note was History of the Famous Preacher, Friar Gerund de Campazas (first part, 1758; second part, 1768) by the Jesuit Jose Francisco de Isla. Two of Spain's most important writers during the 1700's were Jose 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 (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 Nicolas Fernandez de Moratin and his son, Leandro Fernandez de Moratin; Vicente Garcia de la Huerta; and Jose Cadalso.

The 1800's. Spanish authors continued the neoclassical style during the early 1800's. Leandro Fernandez de Moratin was the most accomplished writer of neoclassical comedy. His most famous play was The Maiden's Consent (1806). The poet Manuel Jose Quintana belonged to the neoclassical school. His odes and long poems had a strong patriotic sentiment. Two of the best poets, Juan Melendez Valdes and Nicasio Alvarez de Cienfuegos, wrote lyrical works that displayed refined tastes. The works of Juan Nicasio Gallego resembled those of Quintana. Manuel Breton de los Herreros wrote satirical, realistic comedies in the manner of the younger Moratin.

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.

Angel 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 Garcia Gutierrez scored a triumph with his historical tragedy The Troubadour (1836). Francisco Martinez de la Rosa and Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch wrote plays that reflected the rebellion, melancholy, and passion of Spanish romanticism. Jose 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' A New Play (1867) and in Jose Echegaray y Eizaguirre's The Great Go-Between (1881). A concern for social justice, evident in Juan Jose (1895) by Joaquin Dicenta, highlighted the Spanish stage of the late 1800's.

Romantic prose had its greatest stylist in Mariano Jose 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 Jose de Espronceda and Gustavo Adolfo Becquer. 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. Becquer'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, Ramon de Campoamor and Gaspar Nunez de Arce, represented a reaction to romantic passion. Campoamor wrote short philosophical and skeptical poems that he called doloras and humoradas. Nunez de Arce expressed an aggressive patriotism in War Cries (1875). Rosalia 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 Angel Guimera.

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, Ramon de Mesonero Romanos, and Serafin Estebanez Calderon (known as El Solitario). Mesonero, who called himself El Curioso Parlante, wrote articles about Madrid and published them in several collections. Estebanez 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 Bohl de Faber, who wrote under the name of Fernan Caballero, brought costumbrismo to the novel in The Seagull (1849). Pedro Antonio de Alarcon 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 Jimenez (1874). His novels and literary criticism reflected his sophisticated spirit.

Realistic regional novels dominated the second half of the 1800's. Jose Maria de Pereda's The Upper Cliffs (1895) was a costumbrista novel about life on Spain's northern coast. Marta and Maria (1883) by Armando Palacio Valdes 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 Bazan wrote The Ulloa Estate (1886), a sparkling narrative of local traditions and politics in the interior of Galicia. Vicente Blasco Ibanez 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, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1916).

The literary critic Leopoldo Alas, who wrote under the name of Clarin, 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 Perez Galdos. Galdos 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. Galdos 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. Galdos 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 Jose Martinez Ruiz, who called himself Azorin, included delicate and melancholic descriptions of Spanish landscape and history. Pio Baroja became a leading Spanish novelist of the early 1900's. He showed sensitive heroes shifting between failure and triumph in Zalacain 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 Ramon Maria del Valle-Inclan 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 Ramon Menendez Pidal, Americo Castro, Tomas Navarro Tomas, and Jose Fernandez Montesinos. They continued the work of Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo, the great scholar and critic of the late 1800's.

Two fine novelists succeeded the Generation of 1898. Gabriel Miro wrote extremely lyrical prose, and Ramon Perez 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 Jose 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 Ruben Dario 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 Martinez 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 Ramon Jimenez. Jimenez 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 Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero wrote amusing plays about Andalusian life. The plays of Jose Maria Peman and the verse dramas of Eduardo Marquina dealt patriotically with Spanish national themes. The costumbrista plays of Carlos Arniches and the farces of Pedro Munoz Seca pleased audiences of the time.

An outstanding figure of the period was the dramatist and poet Federico Garcia Lorca. He wrote three intensely lyrical tragedies of rural life--Blood Wedding (1933), Yerma (1934), and The House of Bernarda Alba (1936).

The Generation of 1927. During the 1920's and 1930's, several poets turned to the traditional ballad or to complex, colorful gongorism for inspiration. These poets, who celebrated the 300th anniversary of Luis de Gongora's death in 1627, became known as the Generation of 1927. They included Pedro Salinas, Jorge Guillen, Leon Felipe, Gerardo Diego, Federico Garcia Lorca, Damaso Alonso, Luis Cernuda, Rafael Alberti, and Vicente Aleixandre.

In the 1930's, Miguel Hernandez, Leopoldo Panero, Luis Rosales, Luis Felipe Vivanco, and German Bleiberg 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 Ramon Gomez de la Serna and Benjamin Jarnes.

Spanish literature today. The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) caused a break in Spanish literature. Some writers, notably Garcia 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 Ramon 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 Jose Cela was published, followed by Carmen Laforet's existential novel Nothing (1944) and Cela's The Hive (1951).

Many young authors emerged in the 1950's. Their work was initially characterized by social realism but 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 Sanchez Ferlioso, Time of Silence (1962) by Luis Martin Santos, Ana Maria 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 Marse, the four-volume Antagonia (1973-1981) by Luis Goytisolo, The Truth About the Savolta Case (1975), by Eduardo Mendoza, and Carmen Martin Gaite's The Back Room (1978).

The theater was represented by playwrights who wrote in a wide variety of styles. Miguel Mihura wrote hilarious farces of everyday life. 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. Jose Martin Recuerda wrote powerful studies of values in Spanish society.

Poets who began writing after 1939 tended toward simpler forms of expression than those favored by the poets of the Generation of 1927. Jose 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. Some poets, including Claudio Rodriguez and Carlos Bousono, were less interested in social realism. The newest generation of poets, known as the novisimos, rejected social concerns, instead displaying interest in more personal, intimate, and intellectual matters. Guillermo Carnero and Luis Antonio de Villena were poets of this younger generation.
_________________
Roland Camilleri

Moderator

Sydney , Australia.

Curious98 · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 4:17 pm Post subject: Altamira

In as much as you are so interested in Spanish culture, I’ll try to complement your excellent article on Spanish Literature with other articles on different aspects of our culture.

In this respect, one of the most extraordinary examples of primitive, or actually, prehistoric art, in Europe is without any question the Altamira paintings.

Altamira (Spanish for 'high view') is a cave in Spain famous for its Upper Paleolithic cave paintings featuring drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and human hands. It is located near the town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain, 30 km west of the city of Santander, on the Cantabric sea. The cave with its paintings has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO

The cave is 270 meters long, and consists of a series of twisting passages and chambers. The main passage varies from two to six meters high. The cave was formed through collapses following early karstic** phenomena in the calcareous rock of Mount Vispieres.
**(The Karstic topography is a three-dimensional landscape shaped by the dissolution of a soluble layer or layers of bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite. These landscapes display distinctive surface features and underground drainages, and in some examples there may be little or no surface drainage. Some areas of karstic topography, such as southern Missouri and northern Arkansas in the USA, are underlain by thousands of caves).

Archaeological excavations in the cave floor found rich deposits of Upper Solutrean (c. 18,500 years ago) and Lower Magdalenean (between c. 16,500 and 14,000 years ago) artifacts. The cave was occupied only by wild animals in the long period between these two occupations. The site was well positioned to take advantage of the rich wildlife that grazed in the valleys of the surrounding mountains as well as permitting the occupants to supplement their diet with food from nearby coastal areas. Around 13,000 years ago a rock fall sealed the cave's entrance preserving its contents until its eventual discovery which was caused by a nearby tree falling and disturbing the fallen rocks.
Human occupation was limited to the cave mouth although paintings were created throughout the length of the cave. The artists used charcoal and ochre or haematite to create the images, often scratching or diluting these dyes to produce variances in intensity and creating an impression of chiaroscuro. They also exploited the natural contours in the cave walls to give a three-dimensional effect to their subjects. The Polychrome Ceiling is the most impressive feature showing a herd of bison in different poses, two horses, a large doe and a possible wild boar.
This art is dated to the Magdelenean occupation and as well as animal subjects also included abstract shapes. Solutrean images include images of horses, goats and handprints created from the artist placing his hand on the cave wall in spraying paint over it leaving a negative image of his palm. Numerous other caves in northern Spain and in the south of France contain Palaeolithic art but none is as advanced or well-populated as Altamira.
In 1879, amateur archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola was led by his five-year-old daughter to discover the cave's drawings. The cave was excavated by Sautuola and archaeologist Juan Vilanova y Piera from the University of Madrid, resulting in a much acclaimed publication in 1880 which interpretated the paintings as Paleolithic in origin. The French specialists, led by Gabriel de Mortillet and Emile Cartailhac, were particularly adamant in rejecting the hypothesis of Sautuola and Piera, and their findings were loudly ridiculed at the 1880 Prehistorical Congress in Lisbon. Due to the supreme artistic quality, and the exceptional state of conservation of the paintings, Sautuola was even accused of forgery. A fellow countryman maintained that the paintings had been produced by a contemporary artist, on Sautuola's orders.
It was not until 1902, when several other findings of prehistoric paintings had served to render the hypothesis of the extreme antiquity of the Altamira-paintings less offensive, that the scientific society retracted their opposition to the Spaniards. That year, Emile Cartailhac emphatically admitted his mistake in the famous article, "Mea culpa d'une sceptique", published in the journal L'Anthropologie.
Sautuola, having died 14 years earlier, did not live to enjoy the restitution of his honor.
Further excavation work on the cave was done by Hermilio Alcalde del Río in 1902-04, the German Hugo Obermaier in 1924-25 and finally by Joaquín González Echegaray in 1981.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the paintings were being damaged by the damp breath of large numbers of visitors. Altamira was completely closed to the public in 1977, and reopened to limited access in 1982. Very few visitors are allowed in per day, resulting in a three-year waiting list. A replica cave and museum were built nearby and completed in 2001 by Manuel Franquelo and Sven Nebel, reproducing the cave and its art. The replica allows a more comfortable view of the polychrome paintings of the main hall of the cave, as well as a selection of minor works. It also includes some sculptures of human faces that are not to be visited in the real cave.
I have been fortunate enough to visit with my wife in the early 60s the original cave and I stood there completely flabbergasted at the sight of such beautiful paintings still rather undamaged. A few years, on occasion of its inauguration we visited again the replica and I must say that Franquelo and Nebel have done a terrific job exactly reproducing every single detail and color. So for the profane like us it does not make any difference from the original except knowing that we are contemplating a copy.

There are other replicas in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain (Madrid), in the Deutsche Museum in Munich (completed 1964), and in Japan (completed 1993).
Several painters were influenced by the Altamira cave paintings. After a visit, Picasso famously exclaimed "after Altamira, all is decadence".
Some of the polychrome paintings at Altamira Cave are well known in Spanish popular culture. The logo used by the autonomous government of Cantabria to promote tourism to the region is based on one of the bison in this cave. Bisonte (Spanish for 'Bison'), a Spanish brand of cigarettes of the 20th century, also used a Paleolithic style bison figure along with its logo.
The Spanish comic character and series Altamiro de la Cueva, created in 1965, are a clear consequence of the fame of Altamira Cave. The comic series depicts the adventures of a group of prehistoric cavemen, shown as modern people, but dressed in pieces of fur, a bit like the American Flintstones.
The rock band Steely Dan wrote the song "The Caves of Altamira" for their 1976 album, The Royal Scam.
There have been several accounts of how Sautola discovered the cave.

The final official one, confirmed by his daughter, is this one:

“On a summer's day in 1879, an amateur anthropologist and his eight-year old daughter were exploring the area around Santillana del Mar, when they came across an opening to a cave. It had been exposed a few years previously by a landslide provoked by heavy rains. A hunter had chanced upon it the year before, but finding no bears or wolves, he continued on his way. Intrigued, father and daughter lit their charcoal lamps and climbed in through the entrance. As the anthropologist scoured the floor for bones and arrowheads his daughter looked up to the cave's ceiling and exclaimed, “Look Dad, they're cows! ( Mira, Papá, son bueyes )” .

What they saw now forms part of Spanish and World culture. The Altamira site is one of the greatest collections of cave paintings ever discovered. One critic called the cave the “Sistine Chapel of the Quaternary”. The paintings of bison, red deer, boar and horses date from 14,000 years ago, and were saved from the ravages of time and erosion by an earlier landslide, which left them entombed and protected. Experts were amazed at the life-like details and something remarkably akin to perspective, supposedly “invented” during the Renaissance. The animals appear to come to life through the careful use of the uneven surface of the walls. Everything is achieved with just three colors: ochre, red and black. In particular, the bison of Altamira have become an essential element in Spanish iconography like Velazquez's Manias and the roadside Torso of Osborne.

Claude