● Minor representatives of this generation are G. Diego, who published his Antología in 1931, and J. Larrea, who, having discovered surrealism, moved permanently to Paris and even began to write in French. The first period of the poetic activity of the Generation of ’27 closes with two extraordinary books of poetry: Romancero gitano (1928) by F. García Lorca and Sobre los ángeles (1929) by R. Alberti. 7.4 The years of the Republic. In 1931, the second Spanish Republic was born from the dissolution of the Primo de Rivera regime and the repercussions of the general crisis of capitalism. The ruling group of the new regime was made up mostly of republican and socialist intellectuals. The ‘Republic of Intellectuals’ gave great importance to cultural activity, as an essential moment in the formation of consensus for government action. Spanish writers were very sensitive to the change in the climate on the international and national levels. The theater received great impetus, among others J. Benavente, Nobel laureate for literature (1922). In fiction, a strand of social and committed novel was inaugurated which attempted to connect directly to the ongoing social conflict. First J. Arderius, J. Díaz Fernández, CM Arconada and others, towards the end of 1928, wrote, in open controversy with the Revista de Occidente group, novels directly used as a denunciation of the patriotic rhetoric and the absurdity of the colonial wars; then, in the early 1930s, A. Carranque de Ríos, I. Acevedo and others interpreted the presence of the proletariat with novels featuring this super-individual entity embodied in ‘positive’ heroes.
● The civil war broke this group of writers in two, in the sense that he separated their activity as social storytellers of the 1930s from that which they later carried out as writers in exile starting in 1939. This is the case of RJ Sender, the most authentic and rich of these storytellers. But poetry remained the most fertile and significant ground of the literary activity of the 1930s in Spain. Three magazines characterized this period: Cruz y raya, Octubre and Caballo verde para la poesía. Cruz y raya came out from April 1933 to June 1936 on the initiative of a group of writers from various backgrounds. From June 1933 to April 1934, the six issues of Octubre were published by R. Alberti, MT León and others, including But poetry remained the most fertile and significant ground of the literary activity of the 1930s in Spain. Three magazines characterized this period: Cruz y raya, Octubre and Caballo verde para la poesía. Cruz y raya came out from April 1933 to June 1936 on the initiative of a group of writers from various backgrounds. From June 1933 to April 1934, the six issues of Octubre were published by R. Alberti, MT León and others, including But poetry remained the most fertile and significant ground of the literary activity of the 1930s in Spain. Three magazines characterized this period: Cruz y raya, Octubre and Caballo verde para la poesía. Cruz y raya came out from April 1933 to June 1936 on the initiative of a group of writers from various backgrounds. From June 1933 to April 1934, the six issues of Octubre were published by R. Alberti, MT León and others, including E. Prados, A. Serrano Plaja, L. Cernuda, A. Machado. And finally Caballo verde para la poetry, born in 1935 on the initiative of M. Altolaguirre, is part of the presence in Spain of P. Neruda starting from 1934, presence destined to strongly influence the young poets. The outcome of the civil war was destined to extinguish the creative fervor that had characterized the Spanish literary twentieth century until 1939. 7.5 Franco’s age. Towards the end of the 1940s some non-conformist youth magazines began to appear in the context of the regime’s organizations, with the coverage of the more liberal Falangists (J. Ruiz Giménez; P. Laín Entralgo): in Madrid La hora (1948- 49) and in Barcelona Laye (1950-54). Slowly the ranks of the literary discourse were reviving. In opera too, the war represented an interruption of the creative process. Of the Generation of ’27 only V. Aleixandre y Merlo (Nobel Prize for literature in 1977) and D. Alonso remained at home., both masters for young poets. In the early 1940s there was a regression with respect to the wealth and originality of the previous decades. The poem published between 1943 and 1946 by the group of Juventud creadora in the magazine Garcilaso directed by J. García Nieto appears to be all well-made, albeit devoid of originality. But in 1944 two important books came out, Aleixandre’s Sombra del Paraíso and D. Alonso’s Hijos de la ira, which inaugurated a new trend, moving away from Garcilaso’s formalism and opening up to existential problems. From 1944 to 1951 the Espadaña magazine was published in León, a magazine that became the spokesperson for this new existentialist trend. In 1952 an Antología Consultada de la joven poesía española was published which presented as the best poets of that period C. Bousoño, G. Celaya, V. Crémer, V. Gaos, J. Hierro, R. Morales, E. de Nora, B. de Otero and JM Valverde.
● In the 1950s, poetry was characterized on the whole by a strong accentuation of the social theme. Among the poets of these years we can mention those of the so-called Barcelona school, JA Goytisolo, C. Barral, J. Gil de Biedma, for whom the instrumental value of poetry tends, however, to fade in favor of a deeper knowledge of man and reality. In the novel the recovery was slower; in exile RJ Sender, F. Ayala continued to write, and novels about war were published, such as those of M. Aub: Campo cerrado (1943), Campo abierto (1944, published in 1951), Campo de sangre (1945). These works, however, did not circulate in Spain. Starting in 1945, the Barcelona Nadal Prize and then other literary prizes stimulated storytellers to write, present and publish their works. C. Laforet, a novel that made an impression for the dryness with which the young author describes a female experience. Meanwhile, in 1942, with La familia de Pascual Duarte it was revealed what will be one of the greatest Spanish writers of the postwar period, CJ Cela, Nobel Prize for literature in 1989.
● Immediately after 1950, the immediate effects of the civil war ceased, much more was translated and published in Spain, giving rise to a revival of cultural life in every field (figurative, cinematographic, narrative), while the novel revealed influences from the North American novel and Italian neorealism. In 1951 La colmena di Cela marked the beginning of this recovery. In 1952 Juegos de manos by J. Goytisolo was released, followed by Duelo en el Paraíso (1954). In Barcelona lived and worked in those years L. Goytisolo, brother of Juan, and AM Matute, author of Los Abel (1948) and Pequeño teatro (1954) as well as of other numerous and remarkable novels. In Madrid lived and published I. Aldecoa, M. Delibes, which after La sombra del ciprés es alargada (1947), Aún es de día (1949), El camino (1951), will continue to publish almost one novel a year; the writer C. Martín Gaite; J. Fernández Santos. In 1955 R. Sánchez Ferlosio won the Nadal prize for El Jarama, one of the most valid novels in post-war Spanish fiction. Towards the end of the 1950s a group of Madrid storytellers (A. López Salinas, J. López Pacheco, A. Ferres) began to write and theorize a ‘realist novel’, in which the denunciation of the working conditions and the moral condemnation of the bourgeoisie. Critical realism persisted for a long time, as the novels Señas de identidad by J. Goytisolo and Últimas tardes with Teresa by J. Marsé still demonstrate in 1966. In the 1960s, new journals were born in Spain (Cuadernos para el diálogo, 1964; Ruedo ibérico, 1965; J. Ferrater Mora). In 1962, Tiempo de silencio, the beautiful novel by the psychiatrist L. Martín Santos (who died two years later) seems to be the revelation of a new type of narrator.
● In the theater F. Arrabal writes mostly in French and in the Spanish theatrical circles the influence of A. Artaud alternates with that of P. Weiss. Also L. Olmo, J. Martín Recuerda, and F. Nieva, perhaps one of the most innovative voices of these years, wrote in the 1960s, without however often being able to see their works represented or published. Towards the end of the decade, authors of strictly experimental theater appear: they are A. Miralles and J. Ruibal.
