Spanish Literature

Choose a text from the Spanish so called “poesía novísima” or from other late expressions of Spanish contemporary poetry discussed in class and analyse it in relation to its author and the historical and cultural context. Try to compare and contrast the chosen text with at least another author/work treated in the second part of the module.
In this essay, I will be discussing the social, historical and cultural aspects of ‘poesia novísimos’, a wave of poets that emerged in the 1970s, especially after the death of General Franco in 1975. During the dictatorship of General Franco, poetry was used as a means of propaganda. Creativity was restrained by the rampant censorship of the regime. However, towards the end of the regime, there began to be some opposition to the ruling elite. Poets and writers were openly critical about the regime. The writings of the time were more subversive and openly defiant.   A whole generation would grow up ignorant of both the classic literature of Spanish and Western Europe. In addition, politics kept people from reading works from authors of the ‘other side’ or leftist works. Equally important was the censorship of works from both Antonio Machado and Federico García Lorca has died and countless others had left the country.
There have been many different types of poetry and literary movement in Spain since the beginning of the 20th Century. The Existential Poetry that was popular after the Spanish Civil War (1940-1950). The Civil War and its traumatic aftermath prompted the abandonment of pure poetry for simpler approaches. Formal discipline, devotion to clarity through direct imagery, and a reduced vocabulary were stressed, and the social and human content increased. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was a move towards social realism in poetry, known as poesia social.   These “Social” poets shared utilitarian views of their art. Poetry became a tool for changing society, the poet being merely another worker struggling toward a better...