TheGeneration of '98 (Spanish:Generación del 98) was a group ofnovelists,poets,essayists, andphilosophers active inSpain at the time of theSpanish–American War (1898), committed to cultural and aesthetic renewal, and associated withmodernismo.
The name was coined byJosé Martínez Ruiz (commonly known as "Azorín") in his 1913 essays titled "La generación de 1898", alluding to the moral, political, and social crisis in Spain produced by the loss of the colonies ofCuba,Puerto Rico, thePhilippines, andGuam after defeat in the Spanish–American War that same year. HistorianRaymond Carr defines the Generation of '98 as the "group of creative writers who were born in the seventies, whose major works fall in the two decades after 1898".[1]
The intellectuals included in this group are known for their criticism of the Spanish literary and educational establishments, which they saw as having characteristics of conformism, ignorance, and a lack of any true spirit. Their criticism was coupled with and heavily connected to the group's dislike for theRestoration movement that was occurring in Spanish government.
The group that has become known as The Generation of '98 was affected by several major events and trends in Spanish history. According to Carr's definition of the group, most of them were born in the 1870s.[1] These men were especially informed by Spain's defeat and humiliation in the Spanish–American War in 1898, which crystallized into two distinct political movements,Republicanism andCarlist Monarchism, marked by the oscillation of power (a zeal for reform characterized these years of Spanish history):
The first intellectual criticism took place at the dawn of the Restoration movement. In 1875, the minister for development, Manuel Orovio (1817–1883), sought to reinforce traditional "Spanish values" such as the dogma of contemporarySpanish Catholicism by an edict known as theDecreto Orovio.
This "crackdown" was a response to various attempts, notably but not exclusively by the intellectual elite listed below, to introduce some form of liberal democracy both in Spanish academic life and in the wider society.
Several progressive professors were dismissed from theCentral University of Madrid for promoting the ideas ofKarl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781–1832), a German philosopher who advocatedKrausism.
In 1876, these dismissed professors, led byFrancisco Giner de los Ríos, founded theInstitución Libre de Enseñanza (ILE), orThe Free Educational Institution, a secular private educational institution that started with university-level instruction and later extended its activities to primary and secondary education.
Their work constituted an indirect repudiation of the official instruction of the time, which they had found ineffective, insufficient, and subject to suffocating control by political and religious interests. The Institution departed from this norm by stressing the importance of intellectual freedom and moral self-improvement.
The Generation of '98 intellectuals objected to the meticulously organized structure of the Restoration system of government and the corruption that it fostered. After Spain's bloody and decisive defeat in the Spanish–American War, which resulted in thousands of dead Spaniards and the loss of all of Spain's remaining colonies in the Americas and the Pacific, these writers were prompted to voice their criticism. They agreed on the urgency of finding a means, in areas of thought and activity separate from politics, of rescuing Spain from its catatonic state.
The writers, poets and playwrights of this generation maintained a strong intellectual unity, opposed theRestoration of the monarchy in Spain, revived Spanish literary myths, and broke with classical schemes ofliterary genres. They brought back traditional and lost words and always alluded to the old kingdom ofCastile, with many supporting the idea ofSpanish Regionalism.
Often, literature produced by these writers conveyed themes of nostalgia for the past glory of Spain, especially its traditions and landscape. Conversely, they also present criticisms of the sociopolitical situation during that era, drawing conclusions about factors that caused the decline of Spain. As such, common characteristics of these works involved a minimalistic writing style, employingthird person narration and a heavy dependence on dialogue instead of descriptions to advance the narrative. Many writers also experimented with new forms of genres, asMiguel de Unamuno did in conceptualizing thenivola.[2]
Most texts in this literary era were produced in the years immediately after 1910 and are generally marked by the justification ofradicalism andrebellion. Examples of this are the last poems incorporated to "Campos de Castilla", ofAntonio Machado;Miguel de Unamuno's articles written during theFirst World War or in the essayistic texts ofPío Baroja.
The criticism of the "Generation of '98" today from modern intellectuals is that the group was characterized by an increase of egoism, and by a great feeling of frustration with Spanish society and politics.
Some of the key intellectual minds of the Generation of '98 include:
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