Spanish Literary Movements: Romanticism to Contemporary Trends

Spanish Literary Movements: From Romanticism to Contemporary Trends

• Romanticism

Characteristics, Influences, and Themes

- Individualism - Bible - Solitude

- Solitude due to misunderstanding - Middle Ages - Emotions

- Desire for freedom - Baroque - Dynamic nature

- Irrationality - Victor Hugo - Impossible love

- Idealism - Alexandre Dumas - Unattainable freedom

- Metaphysical anguish - Goethe

- Evasion - Lord Byron

- Nationalism

Theatre Characteristics:

- Principle of freedom

- Breaks the three Aristotelian unities: long stories, multiple settings, extended plots

- Polymetry and mixing of genres

- Between 3 and 5 acts

- Hero: mysterious, in love, reciprocated, tragic destiny that affects others

- Themes: impossible love and freedom

Jose Zorrilla: Don Juan Tenorio is inspired by The Trickster of Seville by Tirso de Molina

Parts: 1st - introduction, seduction, and abduction of Inés; 2nd - transformation of Don Juan

Don Juan vs. Zorrilla's Don Juan

1. Maintain classic lines of the myth

  - Character opposed to norms

  - Kills Inés's father

- Is condemned - Repents for love

2. Tragic ending 2. Saves his soul thanks to Inés

Jose de Espronceda

1. Lyrical poems: moral, exalt freedom, pompous style and minor art

2. Narrative poems

Jose de Larra: Articles

1. Costumbrista, political, literary

2. Structure: intro + core + reflection, reflection + final drama or surprise

- Careful and direct style

- Everyday anecdotes

- Style close to the essay

- Expresses feelings and experiences

Bécquer

1. Rimas: lyrical, posthumous publication

- Themes - Characteristics

- Literary creation - Brevity

- Optimistic love - Simplicity

- Deceitful love - Popular elements: assonance and repetition

- Solitude - Subjectivism

1. Rimas: lyrical, posthumous publication

- Themes - Characteristics

- Literary creation - Brevity

- Optimistic love - Simplicity

- Deceitful love - Popular elements: assonance and repetition

- Solitude - Subjectivism

• Realism

Novel characteristics:

- Interest in reality and the everyday

- Treatment of themes specific to their time

- Search for objectivity and verisimilitude

- Critical presence of the author

- Omniscient narrator

- Sober and simple style

- Reflects the speech of the characters

Benito Pérez Galdós

1. Episodios Nacionales: 46 novels in 5 series of 10 volumes and 1 of 6 novels. Reconstructs the history of Spain from the 19th century from the Battle of Trafalgar to the beginning of the Restoration.

2. Early novels: raise the conflict between progressive and conservative ideas that, in his opinion, prevented the modernization of the country. La Fontana de Oro

3. Contemporary Spanish novels: recreate in detail the society of the time and its characters are much more psychologically complex than the protagonists of the first novels. Fortunata y Jacinta

4. Idealistic novels: composed from 1889, they deal with themes of a moral and spiritual nature. Nazarín

Leopoldo Alas: La Regenta

- Scandal due to social criticism (there were characters based on people from Oviedo) and anti-clericalism

- Technically perfect: 2 parts in 15 chapters, linked to each other

   1. Slow (3 days) - setting and characters

   2. Fast (3 years) - actions

Style:

- Accuses Oviedo of being hypocritical, mediocre, and vulgar

- Realistic because of: free indirect style, interior monologue, and determinism: characters have to choose their destiny

• Modernism

Definition: artistic movement that emerged at the end of the 19th century that reacted against realism, accusing it of being prosaic and crude

Influences:

- Romanticism - French Literature

- North American: Allan Poe - Parnassianism

- Spanish: Bécquer - Symbolism

Characteristics:

- Aestheticism: beauty is sought above all else

- Evasion of reality: placing their works in remote settings both in space and time

- Themes: love, sexuality, eroticism, and patriotism

- Symbolism

Generation of 98: Characteristics:

- Little difference in age between the youngest and the oldest

- Despite their diverse backgrounds, they have similar ideologies

- They were friends and held gatherings at the Ateneo de Madrid, coinciding in magazines and newspapers

- They participated in the tribute to Larra

- They were affected by the end-of-century crisis and the disaster of 1898

- They broke with the realistic language, renewing it by making it simpler, more expressive, and appropriate

- They all consider the Castilian landscape as a reflection of the soul of Spain

- They all rebel against backwardness

- They defend traditional values and patriotism

Influences:

- Gonzalo de Berceo - Jorge Manrique - Romancero - Cervantes - Quevedo - Enlightenment thinkers - Larra

Miguel de Unamuno: Nivola: novel + mist, characteristics:

- They move away from realism, suppressing descriptions

- Abundance of dialogues

- Minimal action

- Presents existential problems of the protagonist

- Use of interior monologue

Pío Baroja: The Tree of Knowledge: 53 chapters in 7 parts

- Criticism: scarce cultural environment, little interest from the government, human cruelty, vulgarity, individual Spanish character, sexual repression, false patriotism, sterile bohemianism and romanticism, and the poor allow themselves to be exploited

- Characteristics:

- Criticism of Spain

- Intrahistory: wide gallery of insignificant characters

- Existential: Andrés tries to find meaning in his life, he looks for it in religion, science, philosophy, even in love, but none of this gives him happiness or peace

- Frustrating love: love leads to marriage, this to children, and these to responsibilities

- Style: anti-rhetorical, little action because many reflections appear

+ Dialogues: direct, brief, agile, dense in content, interior monologue abounds, and external narrator, clear, simple, and precise language

Valle-Inclán: characteristics of the esperpento:

It is a renewal of the theatrical genre, it is a new aesthetic and a new vision of the world characterized by the distortion of reality

- Parody and deformation of reality

- Dosification of the characters that are presented as puppets, some animalized

- Humanization of objects

- Mixture of different levels of language

- Urban settings and cinematographic simultaneity

- Absolute criticism of everything

- Stage directions: constitute true modernist texts

Generation of 14 (Novecentismo)

- Intellectualism - Europeanist desire - Search for pure art

Generation of 27:

- They met in 1927 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Góngora's death

- Free verse - Use of metaphors - Intellectual, hermetic, original, and self-sufficient poetry

+ Influences: - Romancero - Cancionero - Manrique - Garcilaso

- Góngora - Bécquer - Modernism - Avant-garde - JR Jiménez - Ideas of Ortega y Gasset

+ Greguerías by Ramón Gómez de la Serna:

Humor + metaphor: consists of a single phrase expressed briefly and that transmits in an original and sharp way philosophical, lyrical, or other kinds of thoughts

Juan Ramón Jiménez: Stages:

- Sensitive: modernist influence. Highlights the sonority of the verse and the presence of symbols and modernist motifs: the sunset, the moon. Great importance is given to musicality and adjectivation. Platero y Yo

- Intellectual: begins with the publication of Diario de un poeta recién casado. Characterized by formal nudity and the presence of more complex themes. Addresses issues such as solitude, death, and eternity. Eternidades

- Sufficient or true: writings during his American exile. Seeks transcendence through perfection and beauty. Identifies the search for perfection and poetic purification with the search for God. En el otro costado

Federico García Lorca: Stages:

- 1st: Romancero Gitano: popular, traditional, themes: desire, rebellion, and death

- 2nd: Poet in New York: influenced by the avant-garde, free verse, and surrealist images

The House of Bernarda Alba: he calls it a drama because it mixes realistic language and certain comic expressions in the mouth of Poncia with the final catastrophe, the suicide of the youngest daughter

+ Themes:

- Appearances and honor - Traditional social pressure that affects women - Passion and desire - Death - Struggle for freedom

+ Place: a single space, the living room of Bernarda's house, closed, symbolizes mourning, repression, transmits an asphyxiating sensation to the viewer. Part in the exterior is not seen, which represents passions, eroticism

+ Language: very fluid and intense, short sentences, give it speed and reflect the popular speech of Andalusia.

+ Characters:

- Ma Josefa = madness + truth

- Magdalena = would have preferred to be a man, submissive and protective

- Amelia = timid + submissive

- Martirio = lives frustrated because her mother did not let her marry

- Adela = rebellion, freedom, passion

- Poncia = confidence with everyone, represents popular knowledge

- Pepe = man as an object of desire

+ Symbols:

- Moon = death, eroticism, and fertility - Water = freedom, life/death, repression

- Blood = death, life, sex - Horse = masculine eroticism

- Cane = authority and power

- Colors: black: mourning, oppression; white: life

• Lyric Genre 1940s

+ Rooted poetry: writers of optimistic Falangist ideology

- Themes: death, beauty, love, landscape

- More ideological: religion, purity, homeland

- Classic forms: sonnet

- Representatives: Leopoldo Panero and Luis Rosales

+ Uprooted poetry: poets who see the reality of Spain as pain and suffering

- Themes: 1st - the human being and the anguish of living from an intimate point of view. 2nd - religion

- Classic forms: they reject them through free verse

- Language: more colloquial and precise

- Representative: Dámaso Alonso

1950s + Social poetry:

It is an evolution of uprooted poetry as if those poets who reflect their anguish open their eyes, see the injustices of others and the anguished people.

+ Generation of the 50s:

- Group of poets who begin in social poetry

- Arises because they feel the need to deal with other themes based on their experience of life

- Intimate themes: the passage of time, friendship, childhood, love

- They reflect on the everyday through an ironic and nonconformist point of view

- Free verse, more refined themes, and move away from the colloquial and sonorous tone

+ 1970s: the Novísimos:

- A group of poets who renewed poetic language through the creation of an aesthetic and minority poetry loaded with cultural references

• Novel 1940s: begins with the publication of The Family of Pascual Duarte by Cela, the tremendismo

+ 1950s: Cela's book The Hive, current of the social novel

- The narrator tries to reflect the facts objectively and reproduces the dialogues as if he had recorded them previously

- The novel does not focus on a single protagonist, but on the life of a group of characters that constitute a collective protagonist

- The descriptions of characters and environments portray everyday life with critical intention and reach great importance in the narration

+ 1960s: Experimental Novel: inaugurated by Luis Martín Santos with Time of Silence:

- Multiple narrative point of view (perspectivism)

- Division into sequences, separated by a blank space

- Kaleidoscopic technique, different stories are combined

- Time does not appear in chronological order, there are time jumps

- Use of the 2nd person self-reflective and interior monologue

- Strange elements are added (diagrams, advertisements, reports)

- New reader who collaborates, who carries out an active and creative reading

+ Blas de Otero = I Ask for Peace and the Word, 1950s and social lyrical poetry

+ Miguel Delibes: novel of all kinds: Five Hours with Mario, experimental novel

+ Antonio Buero Vallejo: Story of a Staircase, social theater

+ The Hive:

- New narrative elements, sequences

- Objectivism

- Collective character

+ Style:

- Mixes tones, is very ironic, counteracts it with very beautiful characters

- Accumulation of adjectives, repetitions, parallelisms to make the prose have more rhythm

- The sequences begin with the name of the person who stars in them, thus Cela orders the story in a way, disordered and in 3 days

+ Dialogues:

- To characterize the characters

- To make the action advance

- To support the sensation of objectivism of the narrator who prefers to give voice to his characters rather than be the one in 3rd person who characterizes them and gives his opinions, ideas, feelings.

English Grammar and Usage Exercises

Translate into English:

1. We have been going out for 5 years and we have just started living together.
2. We have been going out for five years and we have just begun to live together.
3. I haven't read the book yet.
4. I haven’t read the book yet.
5. We broke up last year but we call each other every week.
6. We split up last year but we phone each other every week.
7. I had a great time at Carlos's birthday party.
8. I had a great time at Carlos’s birthday party.
9. I enjoyed myself a lot at Carlos’s birthday party.
10. You look sad, what has he been telling you?
11. You look sad. What has he been telling you?
12. He has been talking about his problems.
13. He has been talking about his problems.
14. I already know it.
15. I already know it.
16. Neither my sister nor my mother look like my grandmother.
17. Neither my sister nor my mother look like my grandmother.
18. My mother-in-law and my father-in-law are both lovely.
19. My mother-in-law and my father-in-law, both, are charming.

Correct these sentences:

1. We are both from Romania.
2. We are both from Romania.
3. Both of us live in Zaragoza.
4. Both of us live in Zaragoza.
5. We met in Barcelona last summer.
6. We met in Barcelona last summer.
7. I fell into the river.
8. I fell into the river.
9. They had a great time at the swimming pool.
10. They enjoyed themselves a lot in the swimming pool.
11. They enjoyed the swimming pool a lot.
12. They live by themselves.
13. They live by themselves.
14. These are my friends' clothes.
15. These are my friends' clothes.

Put the verbs in the correct form.

How long have you been writing to your pen-friend? (write) For three years.

• I can’t carry this case. It’s too heavy

• Don’t worry! I will help you (help)
• You won’t catch the bus if you don’t hurry. (not catch)
• If you won the lottery, how would you spend your money? (win)
• After five minutes, he realized that he had seen the film before (see)
• Her new book will be published next year (publish)
• While I was cutting the grass, it started to rain. (cut, start)
• Would you mind opening the window? (open)
• Our teachers make us do a lot of homework. (do)
• If she had missed the bus, she would have phoned us. (miss)

Complete with one or two words.

• Do you eat much chocolate?
• Yes, I eat a lot. I love it.
• I’ve never been able to play chess, but I’d like to learn.
• I’d like a car which never breaks down.
• I’m the youngest. My two brothers are both older than me.
• This film’s awful – in fact it’s the most awful film I’ve ever seen!
• The doctor told me not to worry.

Finish the second sentence so that it means the same:

• The restaurant is closed because they’re redecorating it.

The restaurant is closed because it is being redecorated.

• “I’ve never been to New York”

She said that she had never been to New York.

• What time does the bus leave?

He asked me what time the bus left.

• It isn’t compulsory to wear a helmet on a bike.

You don’t have to wear a helmet on a bike.

• Don’t be late!

My father told me not to be late.

Correct these sentences:

1. I enjoyed myself a lot in the park.
2. I haven’t seen the film yet.
3. Both of us live in Madrid.
4. He is always tired.
5. I drink a lot of tea.
6. Going out with my friends is great.
7. We can dance.
8. You are friends, aren’t you?
9. I didn’t use to travel abroad every summer.
10. I’m used to getting up early.
11. Could you tell me where your school is?
12. He said to me I was a good friend.
13. He told me not to touch the picture.
14. If I had known you were going to come, I would have prepared a great dinner.
15. This film is terrifying.
16. Juan Carlos is the tallest boy in my class.

Translate these sentences and write them into the passive voice.

1. Hitchcock directed The Birds.
2. The Birds was directed by Hitchcock.
3. Brad Pitt starred in my favorite film.
4. My favorite film was starred by Brad Pitt.
5. The producer has paid for the special effects.
6. The special effects have been paid by the producer.
7. Estopa will not write the soundtrack.
8. The soundtrack won’t be written by Estopa.
9. The main actress is not performing the moving scene.
10. The moving scene isn’t being performed by the main actress.

Write these sentences in reported speech.

1. It’s a three-star hotel.
2. She said (that) it was a three-star hotel.
3. What’s the time?
4. The tourist asked us what the time was.
5. Open your case, please!
6. The customs officer asked me to open the case.
7. I’ve just come back from Rome.
8. She told me (that) she had just come back from Rome.
9. Don’t move!
10. The man told us not to move.
11. Do you want a double room?
12. She asked us if I wanted a double room.
13. I’ll do it immediately.
14. The receptionist said he would do it immediately.
15. Where have you been?
16. He asked me where I had been.
17. Do you smoke?
18. He asked me if I smoked.

Put the verbs in the correct form.

• • I have known Carla since 1988. (Know)
  • We met when we were at school (meet)
  • We want to share a flat but we haven’t found one yet. (not find)
  • She has been learning English for three years. (learn)
  • She hates getting up early. (get up)
  • She’d like to go to Morocco next summer. (go)
  • She always wears jeans or trousers, never skirts. (wear)
  • We are having dinner together tonight. (have)

Complete the questions

You look tired. What have you been doing? (do)

Cleaning the kitchen. I started this morning and I haven’t finished yet.

Have you ever been to New York? (be)

No, never, but I’d like to.

When did you go to bed last night? (go)

Quite early – about 10.30. I was really tired.

How long have you been learning English? (learn)

Since last year. I need it for my job.

How often do you go to the cinema? (go)

About once a week. I love seeing new films.

What are you reading at the moment? (read)

A really good novel by Ruth Rendell. I’ve nearly finished it.

Present simple or continuous?

1. Hello! What are you doing here? (do)

1. I am waiting for my girlfriend. She’s a nurse. She works in the hospital over there. (wait, work)

1. Where’s Karl from?
2. He looks German, but I think he’s Swedish. (look, think)
3. He speaks very good English, doesn’t he? (speak)

1. What is your brother doing? (do)
2. He’s a computer programmer, but he doesn’t like the work very much. He is looking for a new job. (not like, look for)
3. What kind of job does he want? (want)
4. Well, he is doing a part-time course in journalism at the moment, in the evenings. He’d like to work for a newspaper. (do)

1. I am going on holiday tomorrow. (go)
2. Where are you going? (go)
3. To Amsterdam. My wife’s Dutch, so we go there every year to visit my mother-in-law. (go)
4. Are you flying? (fly)
5. No, we are going by car. (go)
6. When are you coming back? (come)
7. Next Sunday.

1. What are you doing tonight? (do)
2. I am meeting some friends. We always meet on Friday night. (meet, meet)

1. Right, it’s 1.30. I will go for lunch now. (go) Are you coming? (come)
2. No, I want to finish this letter that I am writing. It’s urgent. I need to send it before 2.00. (want, write, need).

Translate into English:

1. My lookalike didn't use to impersonate different people.
2. My lookalike used to pretend to be different people.
3. Are your children used to getting up early?
4. Are your children used to getting up early?
5. There are no more billboards on the roads.
6. There are not advertisements on the roads any more.
7. I have already met his girlfriend.
8. I have already met his girlfriend.
9. Teachers make them study a lot.
10. Teachers make them study a lot.
11. She doesn't let him wear makeup.
12. She isn’t allowed to wear make up.
13. Students are allowed to play football.
14. Pupils are allowed to play football.
15. Lawyers could help them.
16. Lawyers could help them.
17. The hero won't be able to do anything.
18. The hero won’t be able to do anything.
19. Have you been able to sail?
20. Have you been able to sail?
21. Being able to ride a horse is my dream.
22. Being able to ride a horse is my dream.
23. You want to be able to speak a foreign language very well.
24. You want to be able to speak a foreign language very well.
25. Their unemployed parents were able to buy his present.
26. Their unemployed parents were able to buy his present.

Correct these sentences if necessary:

1. I hate playing the piano but I love playing football.
2. The last boys will come next month to study Maths.
3. This book is worth reading.
4. Shall we help you?
5. It’s hot here, I will open the window.

Complete with the correct form of future

1. I might go to France this summer, but I’m not sure. (go)
2. I am seeing some friends tonight. We’re going out for dinner. (see)
3. Have you got any plans for your holiday?

1. B) Yes, I am going to the South of France. (go)
2. I’m really thirsty.
3. Shall I go and make some tea? (go)

If I have time, I will go to the bank. (go)

I might see Susana tonight. I’m not sure. (see)

First and second conditional

1. If he wasn’t so mean, he_would______ pay us a better salary. (pay)
2. She won’t be able to buy it unless you lend her some money. (lend)
3. If you _spoke____ to your parents, I’m sure they’d understand. (speak)
4. If he_found____________ a better job, he’d be happier. (find)
5. Don’t buy it if you _don’t like___________ it. (like)
6. What ___will_____ she__do_____ if she finds out? (do)
7. If we don’t book early, we __won’t be able to get tickets. (not be able to)
8. If I inherited a fortune, I _wouldn’t work_______________. (not work)

Must, have to, should. Rewrite the sentences using the correct form:

It’s not necessary to leave a tip in a restaurant.

You__don´t have to leave…________________

It’s not a good idea for you to eat so much junk food.

You_shouldn´t…._________________________

It’s important that you remember to check the oil and water!

You__must….____________________________________________

You aren’t allowed to take photos in the museum.

You___mustn´t…___________________________________________

I advise you to stop for coffee in the motorway.

You_should…._____________________________________________

Driving on the left is compulsory in Britain.

You__must…____________________________________________

Past Perfect or past simple?

When we ___opened____________ the door, we __saw________ that somebody ____was steraling________our TV. (open, see, steal)

The police _arrived________ after the thieves _had gone_. (arrive, go)

I_didn´t want _ to go to the show because I_had seen_it before    ( not want, see)

Just after she __had closed____________ the front door she ______realized______ that she__left_________ the keys inside. ( close, realize, leave)

We ____got________ to the cinema late. The film __had started___________ ( get, start)

Complete with who, which, where, whose or – (= not necessary).

1. My mother, _who_______ is eighty, is still very fit.
2. Is he the man __whose____ burglar alarm is always ringing?
3. Is that the shop ___where__-______ you bought that dress?
4. The girl___who_______ was sitting opposite you was the manager’s daughter.
5. That’s the restaurant_________ I told you about.
6. The car, __which_____ has automatic gears, only costs $5,000.
7. He’s going to marry a girl who_________ works at his office.
8. What’s the name of the boy __________ you met on holiday?

The passive. Rewrite these sentences.

• Hitchcock directed Psycho.

Psycho__was directed by Hitchcock____________________

• In Spain they dub most foreign films.

In Spain most foreign films___are dubbed_____

• They will shoot the film in three months.

The film__will be shot in there months_____________________

• They are making the film in Budapest.

The film __is being made in Budapest___________________

• They have already chosen the cast.

The cast_has already been chosen_______________________

• Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the music for Evita.

The music for Evita_was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber______

Correct these sentences if necessary.

1. I had not seen that film yet.
2. You mustn’t drive if you have drunk alcohol.
3. The teachers of ESO, who are 24, are very friendly.
4. I don’t like the boys who are always playing jokes.
5. That is the girl I bought an ice-cream.
6. You mustn’t look at your English book in this exam.
7. When I got up, I put my clothes on
8. I arrived home at ten o’clock.
9. The main characters were played by several actors.

Translate into English:

• La película se desarrolla en España.

The film takes place in Spain_________________________________

• La actriz fue nominada con dos Oscars.

The actress was awarded with two Oscars________________________

• Mi piso se compró hace dos años.

My flat was bought two years ago_________________________

• Las películas solían ser hechas sin sonido.

The films used to be made without sound_________________

• El colegio va a ser comprado por un hombre muy rico.

The school is going to be bought by a very rich man_________

• Quiero ver al periodista que ha escrito este libro.

I want to see the journalist who has written this book._________

• Vosotros no podéis fumar en un colegio.

You mustn’t smoke in the school__________________

• Él no debería haber dicho eso.

He shouldn’t have said that____________