TheDon Quixotecomedown:
Spain in the Enlightenment
Spanish literature slumped after the Golden Age.The
18 thcentury Enlightenment making waves in France
failed to engulf creative writing south of the Pyrenees.
Any writers of note taking their cue from the new
mode of thinking did so through satire or in essay form,
discussing how the Enlightenment could or should
influence literature. Even then, the might of the Catholic
Church stopped anyone getting too carried away
with ideas about rationale or man’s pursuit of earthly
happiness. Against the odds, a couple of noteworthy
writers did emerge. José Cadalso y Vazquez wrote
poetry and satire but is best remembered forNoches
lúgubres(1798), a dark, pessimistic dialogue between a
gentleman and a gravedigger first published, like many
works of the era, serialised in a newspaper. Gaspar
Melchor de Jovellanos was another who, swayed by the
Enlightenment, impressed with his prose. HisDiarios
(1790-1801) offer a highly respected slice of Spanish life
and thought at the close of the 18thcentury.Sticking to the rules:Neoclasicismo
Spain’s 18thcentury take on Neoclassicism was
similarly understated. Roughly contemporaneous with
the Enlightenment, the impetus again came from
France. And, once again, theory took up as much paper
as practice. Ignacio de Lúzan famously pored over the
structures of verse inLa Poética(1737), lambasting the
free form of Golden Age greats and calling for a return
to classical correctness and metre. His suggestions
bore little in the way of quality Spanish poetry.77- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
The Inquisition banned
the prose of French
Enlightenment writers
like Voltaire, Diderot
and Rousseau.2.1.4 In Cervantes’ shadow: from Romantics to Realists