Literature (3)

The 98 Generation

The authors that belong to this group were born between 1864 and 1875, have a similar education and common way of thinking. They marked a turning point in the history of Spanish literature and their name refers to the '98 disaster when Spain lost its last colonies. Their spiritual guide is Miguel de Unamuno.
Authors
Their favourite genre was prose. All of them wrote important essays, but Unamuno and Antonio Machado were poets too. They were sceptical and unconformist. They were influenced by European philosophers such as Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard and by authors like the US romantic writer E. Allan Poe and the Norwegian dramatist Ibsen.

• Pio Baroja (1872-1956) - El árbol de la Ciencia
• Ruben Dario (1867-1916) - Cantos de vida y esperanza
• Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) - Romancero del destierro, Niebla
• Ramón del Valle-Inclán (1866-1936) - Sonatas, Tirano Banderas
• José Martínez Ruiz – Azorín (1873-1967) – La ruta de Don Quijote
• Antonio Machado (1875-1939) - Campos de Castilla, Soledades
• José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) – La deshumanización del arte

The '27 Generation

Its most important members were: Pedro Salinas (1892-1951), Jorge Guillén (1893-1984), Gerardo Diego (1896-1987), Federico García Lorca (1898-1936), Vicente Aleixandre (1898-1985), Dámaso Alonso (1898-1990), Luis Cernuda (1902-1963) and Rafael Alberti (1902-1999). Federico García Lorca - Romancero Gitano, La casa de Bernarda Alba.

Postwar Literature.
The '30ies prose and the exile novel
The novel of this decade is looking for a stronger commitment. Its authors are interested in politics and try to get closer to their public, by dealing concrete issues like the civil war and their condition of exile writers. Good examples are Ramón J. Sender, Max Aub, Francisco Ayala, Rosa Chacel.
Postwar novel The first years after the civil war were especially hard for Spanish writers. They couldn't write freely because of "Franquismo" and all of their works had to pass under censorship and many of them were prohibited for being critical against the government. They had to disguise their ideas under an apparently traditional style, sometimes comical. Just in the late '40, some authors, such as C. José Cela, Carmen Laforet and Miguel Delibes tried to break this barrier by publishing highly innovative works.
Social Realism The Spanish novelists of the '50ies were highly committed and critical. They were interested in their environment and in the difficult situation of their country and compatriots. In 1951 Cela published La Colmena, a real masterpiece of the social Realism. 1954 can be considered the climax of this tendecy, thanks to many good authors that have their works printed in this year. (Ana Mª Matute, Ignacio Aldecoa, Jesús Fdez. Santos, Juan Goytisolo, Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, Carmen Martín Gaite and Juan García Hortelano).

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