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Romanticism arrived late and lasted only for a short but intense period, since in the second half of the 19th century it was supplanted byRealism, whose nature was antithetical to that of Romantic literature.
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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 wasRamón de Mesonero Romanos, 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.
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Romanticism came to Spain throughAndalusia andCatalonia.
In Andalucía, thePrussianconsul inCádiz,Juan Nicolás Böhl de Faber, father of novelistFernán Caballero, published a series of articles between 1818 and 1819 in theDiario Mercantil (Mercantile Daily) of Cádiz, in which he defended Spanish theatre of theSiglo de Oro, and was widely attacked by the neo-Classicists. Against him wereJosé Joaquín de Mora andAntonio 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 theAge of Enlightenment), despite the fact that they represented European Literary Modernism.
In Catalonia,El Europeo was a journal published inBarcelona from 1823 to 1824 by two Italian editors, one Englishman, and the young CatalansBonaventura Carles Aribau andRamón 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 byLuigi Monteggia, titledRomanticismo.
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:
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 inPajares de la Vega, located nearAlmendralejo,Badajoz. He founded the secret society ofLos numantinos, whose aim was to "demolish the absolutist government". Because of his involvement with this society, Espronceda was imprisoned. At age 18 he fled toLisbon 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 inMadrid.
- 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 life, death, and
- my forte: My own personal harvest.
Espronceda worked in the principal literary genres, such as the historical novel, withSancho Saldaña o El castellano de Cuéllar (1834), and the epic poem, withEl Pelayo, but his most important work was his poetry. He publishedPoesías 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), andCanto del cosaco (Song of the Cossack). His most important works wereEl estudiante de Salamanca (1839) andEl diablo mundo:
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In spite of the brief period during which romantic lyric poetry thrived in Spain, there arose other notable poets who deserve mention, such as theBarcelonanJuan Arolas (1805–1873), theGalicianNicomedes Pastor Díaz (1811–1863),Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (1814–1873) andPablo Piferrer (1818–1848). Piferrer, in spite of writing only in Spanish, was one of the precursors of the romantic movement inCatalonia.
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga (March 23, 1814 –Madrid February 1, 1873) was aCuban writer and poet of the 19th century. Although Cuban, she lived most of her life in Spain. She wrote various poems, plays, and novels. Her most famous work is an antislavery novel calledSab (novel).
Carolina Coronado (Almendralejo, 1823–Lisbon, 1911) merits special mention. She spent a great part of her childhood in theExtremaduran 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 inLisbon, where she died in 1911. Her most important work isPoesías (1852).
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 asAlexandre Dumas, père,Chateaubriand,Walter Scott, andVictor Hugo. Spanish prose essentially consisted of the novel, scientific or scholarly prose, journalism, and the intense development ofcostumbrismo.
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.
Thehistorical novel developed in imitation ofWalter Scott (80 of his works had been translated), author ofWaverley,Ivanhoe, and other novels of adventure set in the Scottish and English past. Spanish historical novels fall into two categories: liberal and moderate. Within theliberal school existed both anti-clerical and populist currents. On the other hand, themoderate school produced, on occasion, novels exalting traditional and Catholic values. The most notable Spanish authors are:
The majority of these works originated from the discussions in the assembly that adopted theConstitution of Cádiz. The most representative authors were Juan Donoso Cortés (1809–1853) and Jaime Balmes Urpía (1810–1848):
Between 1820 and 1870, Spain developed theliteratura costumbrista (literature of manners), which manifested itself in thecuadro de costumbres, orvignette 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 (orcostumbrism) 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 asLos 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 themadrileñoRamón de Mesonero Romanos and the AndalusianSerafín Estébanez Calderón.
Ramón Mesonero Romanos (1803–1882) was born and died inMadrid. 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 pseudonymEl curioso parlante (The talking bystander).
His principal literary production was in the costombrist tradition; however, he wroteMemorias 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 volumesPanorama matritense andEscenas matritenses.
Calderón (1799–1867) was born inMálaga and died inMadrid. He was known asEl 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 vignettesEscenas analuzas (Andalucían scenes) (1848), containing descriptions such asEl bolero,La feria de Mairena,Un baile en Triana, andLos Filósofos del figón.
Throughout the 19th century, the role of thenewspaper was decisive. The Barcelona publicationEl Europeo (The European) (1823–1824) published articles about romanticism and, through the publication, Spain came to know the names ofByron,Schiller andWalter Scott. However, the press was also an arm of the political fight. In this sense, we must emphasize the political satire press ofTrienio 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 ofFernando VII in 1833, many important changes occurred injournalism. The emigrants after the absolutist reaction of 1823 returned and together with the new generation (that ofJosé 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 newspaperLa 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 tragedyMacías; and finally, the historical novel, withEl 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.
Neo-classical theatre did not manage to have much effect on Spanish tastes. At the beginning of the 19th century, works from theSiglo 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 withLa conjuración de Venecia (The Venetian Conspiracy), byFrancisco Martínez de la Rosa,El Trovador (The Troubador), byAntonio García Gutiérrez, andLos amantes de Teruel (The Lovers of Teruel), byJuan Eugenio Hartzenbusch. But the key event was in 1835, whenDon 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:
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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.
InMalta he met an English critic who taught him to appreciate Classical theater and set the stage for him to become aRomantic. 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 Romantic and moderate liberal.[1][2]
Ángel de Saavedra held a number of important public posts. Like many contemporary writers, he began by adopting a neo-classical aesthetic in thelyrical (Poesías, 1874) and dramatic genres (Lanuza, 1822). He gradually incorporated Romantic elements into his work as can be seen in works likeEl desterrado. His conversion became complete inRomances históricos.
Rivas' fame is largely based on his workLeyendas and especiallyDon Álvaro o la fuerza del sino, a play which premiered in the Teatro del Príncipe (the modern-dayTeatro Español) inMadrid in 1835. 1,300 spectatores attended and witnessed the first Spanish Romantic drama, featuring such novelties as combining prose and verse.
Born inValladolid, 1817 and died inMadrid, 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, likeDon Juan Tenorio. The courts granted him a pension in 1886.
Works
The literature of Zorrilla is prolific. His poetry reaches a zenith withReadings, which are small dramas sung as narration in verse. The most important of these readings areMargarita la Tornera andTo a good judge, a better witness.
However, his recognition is owed more to his dramatic works. Dramas that stand out includeThe 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 ofSeville, written about previously byTirso de Molina (17th century) and other national and foreign authors.
Martínez de la Rosa (1787–1862), born inGranada. As a politician, he intervened fervently in theCortes of 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 asLa 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 yLa conjuración de Venecia ("The conspiracy of Venice").
Gutiérrez was born inChiclana,Cádiz, in 1813 and died inMadrid, in 1884. From an artisan family, he dedicated himself to words and, short on resources, enlisted in the army. In 1836 he releasedEl 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.
Hartzenbusch was born and died inMadrid (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.
Herreros was born inQuel,Logroño, in 1796 and died inMadrid, in 1873. He accepted his literary fate at a very young age, with works likeA la vejez viruelas ("To the ancient smallpox"),Muérete y verás ("Die and you will see") andEl pelo de la dehesa ("The hair of the grove"). He satirized Romanticism, though some of its characteristics appear in his comedies, as inMuérete y verás.
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 ofHeinrich Heine'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 oflyricism, and poems became more personal and intimate.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 wereGustavo Adolfo Bécquer,Augusto Ferrán, andRosalía 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 likeRamón de Campoamor andGaspar Núñez de Arce, though the latters have little critical relevance.
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Born inSeville in 1836, Bécquer wasorphaned and raised by his godmother. He dreamed of becoming asailor but found his calling as a writer. At 18 years of age he moved toMadrid where he suffered hardships while trying to achieve literary success. At 21 he contractedtuberculosis 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 500pesetas (a large sum for the time) while working as a novel critic, but he lost the job in therevolution of 1868. He separated from his not-so-faithful wife, became disillusioned and lived a dirty andBohemian lifestyle. In 1870 his inseparable companion and brotherValeriano died. Bécquer reconciled with Casta but died months later in 1870 in Madrid and was buried along with his brother inSeville.
Bécquer's prose work is contained withinLeyendas, a work of twenty-one stories that are dominated by themes of mystery and the afterlife in trueRomantic fashion. He also wroteCartas desde mi celda, a collection of chronicles composed during his stay at the Veruelamonastery. In a similar manner, all of Bécquer's poetry is collected inRimas. The 79 poems are short, have 2,3, or 4stanzas (with rare exceptions), generally employassonant rhyme, and are written infree verse.
Born inSantiago de Compostela in 1837, de Castro was the bastard child of unmarried lovers, a fact that caused an incurable bitterness in her. While living inMadrid she met and later married theGalicianhistorian Manuel Murguía. The couple lived in various places throughoutCastile, but Rosalía never felt tied to the region and ultimately managed to settle the family inGalicia. The marriage was not happy and the couple underwent economic hardship as they raised six children. She died ofcancer inIria Flavia in 1885, and her remains were buried atSantiago de Compostela, a suitable site for a lover of Galicia.
Though de Castro was not prolific in prose, she achieved notoriety withEl 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) andA mi madre (To My Mother, 1863) possess some Romantic characteristics withEsproncedian verses. Her three most memorable works are:
- Airiños, airiños aires,
- airiños da miña terra;
- airiños, airiños aires,
- airiños, levaime a ela.
- Premita Dios, castellanos,
- castellanos que aborrezco,
- qu'antes os gallegos morran
- qu'ir a pedirvos sustento.
- Aquelas risas sin fin,
- aquel brincar sin dolor,
- aquela louca alegría,
- ¿por qué acabóu?
These poets could also be considered adherents ofRealism, given the decline of the Romantic movement and their contrary posture toward it.
(Navia,Asturias, 1817–Madrid, 1901), an ideological moderate, was a governor and parliamentarian. In his bookPoética, he stated his intention to arrive at an "art of ideas". In this way, a poem would have a clearlydefined argument. He also tried to fulfill such ideas in theHumoradas, in theDoloras, and in thePequeños poemas. Thehumoradas ("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.
Thedoloras had philosophical ambitions, as in¡Quién supiera escribir! (Who knew how to write) andEl gaitero de Gijón (The piper of Gijón). InPequeños poemas, (Short poems), 31 brief compositions, Campoamor describes the trivialities of the soul of woman, as inEl tren expreso (The Express Train). Modernist thinking considers Campoamor as a symbol of the anti-poet, because of coarse, banal thinking such as this.
(Valladolid, 1834–Madrid 1903). He was also a governor and parliamentarian, and a minister as well. He wrote the playEl haz de leña (The bundle of firewood), whose plot deals with the mysterious death of don Carlos, son of KingPhilip II of Spain. His most notable poetical works areLa 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., andLa visión de Fray Martín (The vision of Friar Martin), in which Núñez de Arce portraysMartin Luther contemplating, from a rock, the nations that followed in his wake.
