78- 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
What was Romanticism?
The Enlightenment nudged literature toward reason, toward a more
scientific appraisal of man’s role in the world, while Neoclassicism imposed
rigid constraints. Romanticism reacted: hang the rules – be imaginative,
be subjective, let your emotionally fraught hero set the crazy world to rights.
Spectral forests, wind battered cliffs and ivy clad ruins were chosen as
backdrops, while a rose tinted medieval world often provided the historical
context.Themes were always emotional, sometimes confronting
melancholy or death, but more often concerned with love and beauty.
Romanticism was a Europe-wide phenomenon that hit Spain later than
elsewhere, not taking hold until the 1820s. Its reign was brief, lasting no
more than 30 years. Poetry and drama flourished, while prose, despite the
surging popularity of the historical novel, looked more to foreign authors
like Victor Hugo and Sir Walter Scott in translation than to homegrown
talent. In return, foreign authors saw a wild, untamed Spain as the perfect
setting for many of their Romantic works.
Three big Romantic poets
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer.The crown prince of Spanish Romantic writers
only gained recognition after his death fromTB aged 34. His poetry, best
read in the collectedRimas(published in 1871, a year after his death),
reflects a fretful life of love, loneliness and despair. Bécquer also wrote
prose, adeptly paralleling his own Spain with a vision of the Middle Ages
in hisLeyendas(1871), a collection of legends.
José de Espronceda.The prolific Espronceda wrote verse with a rangy
Romantic edge, twisting lyrical tales of love, betrayal and the supernatural.
His best wasEl estudiante de Salamanca(1836-7), a spin on the original
lady-killer epic,Don Juan. He died, aged 32, after a furtive, politically
subversive life.
Carolina Coronado.The Extremaduran poet and novelist, married
to a US diplomat, was preoccupied with love, nature and oppression.
Much read across Spain during her own lifetime, her poetry is collected
inPoesías(1852).