University of Nebraska - Lincoln
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Spanish Language and Literature
Modern Languages and Literatures, Department of
1-1-2011
Generation of 1914 in Spain
Iker Gonzalez-Allende
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected]
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Gonzalez-Allende, Iker, "Generation of 1914 in Spain" (2011). Spanish Language and Literature. Paper 85.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/modlangspanish/85
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World Literature in
Spanish
A N ENCYCLOPEDIA
Volume 2: G-Q
Maureen lhrie and Salvador A. Oropesa, Editors
L h ABC-CLIO
Santa Barbara, California
Denver, Colorado
Oxford, England
Generation of 19 14 in Spain
The novel La voluntad (1902; The Will)
links to this early Baroja; its protagonist
returns to his rural roots after charting a
path from a decadent Madrid and an obsolete Toledo, reflecting well the crisis of
turn-of-the-century youth who cannot find
their place between the old Spain and the
challenges of modernity.
Antonio *Machado (1875-1939) started
writing rnodernista poetry but soon eliminated it from his first books. earnpos de
Castilla (1912; Fields of Castile 2007)
presents an eclectic poem collection that
includes the noted Alvargonz6lez ballad, a
reworking of the Cain and Abel story;
coplas (songs) in which the poet employs
a symbolist tone in an attempt to find
Spain's soul; and an extraordinary selfportrait that incarnates Spanish liberalism
as he searches in a timeless Castile for the
quintessence of Spain. In prose, the eponymous Juan de Mairena (1936; Eng. trans.,
1963) stands as Machado's alter ego-a
civic intellectual who tries to dissect Spain.
This final incarnation of Machado's evolving thought was a mythic defender of
Spain's Popular Republic (193 1-1936);
Machado's closeness to the revolution
within the Republican side and his
extraordinary erotic poems to "Guiomar"
made him a champion of liberal Spain
against fascism. The death of Unamunofollowing Fascist harassment-at
the
beginning of the Spanish Civil War
(1936-1939), Machado's death in exile at
the civil war's conclusion, and the sterility
of literary production by Baroja and Azorin
in Francoist Spain document the end of the
so-called Silver Age of Spanish letters.
Salvador A. Oropesa
1
See also Madrid in Literature; Spain and SelfIdentity in the Nation.
Work About:
J ~ h n ~Ebberta.
~ n , Crossfire:
and the Novel in Spain, 1900-1934.
Press
Kentucky ,2009.
Johnson, Roberta. Gender and Nation in
the Spanish Modernist Novel. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press,
2003.
Lima,
The
World of
Valle-Inclbn. Rochester, NY: Tamesis,
2003.
Generation of 19 14 in Spain
This group of Spanish writers wrote in the
period between modernism and the Generation of 1898 and the 1920s avant-garde
tendencies. It has also been called novecentismo (in Catalan noucentisme) to refer
to these authors' different, innovative
understanding of literature and art.
"1914" was chosen to label this generation
because it marked the outbreak of World
War I and because JosC "Ortega y Gasset,
the movement's main figure, delivered a
talk that year on old and new politics.
These writers, generally universityeducated members of the bourgeoisie, proposed to examine reality from a rational,
intellectual, and objective point of view.
Thus, they rejected 19th-century *romanticism and the emphasis on feelings and subscribed to an aesthetic based on Greek and
Roman classicism. In some works a preoccupation for Spain arises, but unlike their
439
440
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Generation of 1927 in Spain
"Generation of 1898 predecessors, they sustain a more positive attitude, relying on
Europeanism and cosmopolitism as solutions to national problems. These writers
searched for "pure art," that is, a dehumanized art intended to produce aesthetic pleasure. At the same time, they paid special
attention to form and literary style in writings. Consequently, their works addressed
cultured readers, not the popular audience,
believing that a select intellectual minority
should lead the nation's masses.
The essay, the Generation of 1914's
preferred genre, was cultivated by Ortega
y Gasset, Eugenio d'*Ors, AmCrico
*Castro Quesada, Claudio Sinchez Albornoz, Gregor-0 Marafibn, and Manuel
"Azaiia, president of Spanish Second
Republic. The primary journals and newspapers used to propagate their ideas include
Espafia (1915-1924), El So1 (1917-1936)
and Revista de Occidente (1923-present).
Foremost novelists of this generation
were Gabriel *Mir6, known for detailed
descriptions and lyrical prose, and Ram6n
*PCrez de Ayala, whose characters tend to
embody ideas or attitudes. Wenceslao Fernindez F16rez wrote mainly humoristic
novels; Ram6n *Gbmez de la Serna displayed a critical, sarcastic stance in his
prose; while Benjamin *JarnCs focused
more on philosophical and psychological
issues. All these authors renovated the
novel as a genre, overcoming realism
through intellectualism, lyricism, irony,
and humor. Jacinto Grau also included forma1 innovations in his plays. In poetry,
Juan Ram6n "JimCnez searched for transcendence through simplification of the
form. In conclusion, the Generation of
1914 writers showed in their works an
interest both in rational concepts and in
cultivation of the language.
Iker Gonzalez-Allende
By:
Ortega y Gasset, JosC. The Revolt of the
Masses. Trans. anon. New York: Norton,
1994.
PQez de Ayala, Ram6n. Prometheus: The
Fall of the House of Limdn; Sunday
Sunlight. Poetic Novels of Spanish Life.
Trans. Alice Hubbard. Whitefish, NY:
Kessinger, 2007.
Work About:
Fuentes, Juan Francisco. "La generaci6n
de 1914: La rebeli6n de las elites."
!nsula: Revista de Letras y Ciencias
Humanas 48.563 (1993): 7-8.
Rebollo Sinchez, Fhlix. "El periodismo
literario de 10s ensayistas y narradores
novecentistas." Espe'culo: Revista de
Estudios Literarios 18 (2001). http://
www.ucm.es/info/especulo/numero 181
rebollo.htm1.
!
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Generation of 1927 in Spain
A group of youngsters from all over Spain
converged in Madrid in the early 1920s,
especially at the "Residencia d e Estudiantes, a progressive and liberal cultural
institution linked to the University of
Madrid and the Instituci6n Libre de
Enseiianza. The ideal of the Residencia
minored that of liberal intelligentsia like
philosopher and editor JosC *Ortega y
Gasset. They shared a strong conviction
1