The "Silver Age"

These Spaniards produced their great works during the first and second centuries, called the "Silver Age".

Seneca (4 BCE-65 CE especially exhibits a particularly Spanish sensibility with his emphasis on honor, his wit and that courageous perseverence in the face of ill fortune that lies at the heart of stoicism.
Seneca wrote all types of literature including poetry, essays and plays. There is much in his writing that happens to coincide with modern attitudes of existentialism. His grandiose disdain for the mob and patrician aloofness, especially in his political writings, are at once very Roman and very Spanish.
Seneca also reveals a profound religious attitude which is thought by many to make him a forerunner of Christian writers. This is one of the several reasons he is the most influential writer of antiquity as regards the literature of the peninsula.
During the transition from the Roman to the Visigothic periods there was considerable disruption and warfare. The presence of a foreign culture had its bad effect on literature which, at any rate, was not the long suit of the Visigoths. After the northern invaders converted to Christianity, however, on May 8, 589, and the country was unified by a common faith, an appropriate poetry began to appear in Toledo and Zaragoza. In Sevilla San Isidoro wrote his famous encyclopedia which combined ancient and pagan thought under the single unifying principal of Christianity.

The Arab Period

When the Muslims came they brought with them the seeds of one of the world's great literatures. Forbidden to represent humanity in pictorial art the Muslims, like the Jews who came with them and from whom they had copied the iconoclastic prohibition, had concentrated heavily on the literary arts. Classical Arabic prose and verse was already in a state of development and was to reach new heights in Spain. Added to these were the great poems of the Spanish Jews such as Judah Ha-Levi, Samuel Ha-Nagid and Solomon lbn Gvirol. These, however, since their poetry was in Hebrew, had a smaller influence on Spanish Literature. In their storks as translators, however, the Spanish Jews added greatly to the fund of literature available to the Spanish.
Notable also are the philosophic works of the Jew Moses Ben Maimon of Cordoba, whose "Guide to the Perplexed" is a classic of rational thought.
Recent discoveries of romantic verse written in Spanish during the eleventh century have now set the beginnings of Spanish written literature much earlier than had been supposed. These stanzas are in imitation of the Arabic folk-poetry, meant to be sung to music and concentrating heavily on love.

The "Middle Age"

During the early Middle Ages the writers in Castillian were concerned mainly with love and war, producing epic poems that were common to the European Middle Ages. The most famous of these in Spain is the "Poems de Mio Cid", about the legendary warrior, El Cid, a mercenary soldier of great valor. The poem seems to have been written or compiled about 1140, and of 3,700 verses.
Due to the prominence of the Galician city, Santiago de Compostela, in the Catholic Religion, Galician was imposed as the language for literature during the thirteenth century. A lyric poetry developed in this language which later had an influence on Castilian Literature.
One of the major works of the period is the collection of songs, "Cantagas de Santa Maria", which somewhat belies its pious title by being a collection of love lyrics devoted largely to buxom country lasses, rambunctious farmers' daughters and the like.
The "Cantagas de Santa Maria" are credited to the Castillian King, Alfonso el Sabio (The Wise], a learned and energetic monarch who believed in the education of his people. His prose chronicle, "Cronica General", is the first genuine attempt to record history in Spain. Similar chronicles followed on its heels.
One of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages wrote in the fourteenth century. He was the Archpriest of Hita, author of "EI Libro de Buen Amor" (Book of Good Love], a somewhat unexpected sort of book to come from a Churchman, with its ribald humor, Chaucerian tone and Spanish wit.
The "Libro de Buen Amor" also makes wide use of the play on words, a characteristic of much later Spanish Literature. It is vulgar and elevated at the same time, and one of its main characters, "Trotaconventos" (go-between] is a type who recurs often in later works. Trotaconventos is a busybody, a sort of panderer, who sticks his long nose into everyone else's business, especially business involving love.
The book also pioneers in having a clergyman who gets involved with women. This frank attitude toward the clergy is especially Spanish and reveals the attitude the Spaniards have long had towards their religion, believing strongly in the Church but always aware that its caretakers were human beings and not above reproach.
Some excellent poetry of the late Middle Ages is contained in a vast anthology of verse composed by Court poets and compiled for King Juan II. The anthology is known as the "Cancionero de Baena" and includes the work of at least two fine poets, Juan de Mena, an Andalucian, and Marques de Santillana, a Castillian. The latter wrote some delightful "serranillas", similar in style to the French or Galician "pastourelles" and describing country life. Once again the verse concentrates heavily on buxom country wenches and their love habits.
The literary transition from Medieval to Renaissanca occurs from the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Fernando and Isabella, to the time of their grandson Carlos.
The greatest work of this period was the novel, "La Celestina", written by Fernando de Rojas, thought to be a converted Jew from certain references and tones in the book. "La Celestina" also uses "Trotaconventos" as a prominent character. It has been called the first European Novel.

The "Golden Age"

The "Golden Age", the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, is, as its name suggests, the greatest period in Spanish Literature as well as the other arts. Influenced by the Renaissance and reacting to the Reformation, Spain produced a wealth of prose, poetry and drama.
The publication of a collection of works by two poets, Boscan and Garcilaso, stimulated poetry into new forms and new subject matter. Sonnets and other Italian forms were used, the poetry made more use of the Castillian language, and the subjects ranged from love over to patriotism, nature and metaphysical speculation.
This expansion encouraged others such as the humanist poet of the early sixteenth century, Fray Luis de Leon, who wrote of the arts, science, classics, and ranged over as yet unsung realms of human experience. Religious writers of the Golden Age include San Juan de la Cruz (St. John of the Gross], Fernando de Herrera (The Divine], and Santa Teresa de Avila, founder of the Carmelite Order.
Fiction at this time consisted largely of "Books of Chivalry", informative on the customs of the time but lengthy, repititious and dull and destined to be satirized in "Don Quixote". Pastoral novels and the particularly Spanish genre called "picaresque" novel also flourished The best known of this last is "La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes", of unknown authorship, which relates in a very down-to-earth manner the adventures of a young boy in his attempt to better his station in life, the usual subject of the form. "La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes" is quite bawdy in parts and seems to dwell on the seamier side of life, describing ailments, pimples and so forth with great attention to detail.
A new element entered Spanish Literature with the appearence of "Guzman de Alfarache", by Mateo Aleman, which had a strong influence on the picaresque form through its propensity to moralizing at great length. In "Guzman" there are whole chapters devoted to moralizing. This was followed by a spate of similar moralizing novels.

Don Quixote

Suddenly arising alone from this rather unrewarding period is the greatest of Spanish books, "Don Quixote", by Cervantes.
The book is so well known that little need be said of it here. The lean figure of the Knight of La Mancha and his stout alter ego, Sancho Panza, have found their way to every corner of the globe, being translated into every language of educated people. Thoroughly Spanish, yet at the same time universal, it is one of those books ranked with the classics of the world, a symbol of the ineffable qualities Spanish Culture bequeathed to the West.
Other writers of the Golden Age, Gongora, Quevedo and Gracian, produced some of the most complex writings of Spain.
Gongora, an Andalucian, in particular developed more and more toward obscurity. His style of poetry took romance poetry up to more sophisticated levels, called "culteranismo". His two major poems written in this style are "The Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea", and "Solitudes". He Latinized the syntax of his poetry and used many Latin words while his metaphors became increasingly difficult to comprehend.
Quevedo seems to have been aware that Spain was in the decline and employed satire and pessimism, evident in prose works such as the picaresque novel "La Vida del Buscon" and especially in his nightmarish work, "Suenos" (Visions). Quevedo also wrote some beautiful love sonnets.
Gracian was an essayist and a Jesuit who wrote on various virtues. His allegorical novel, "EI Criticon", is one of the better known of Spanish Classics.
By the eighteenth century the creative spark seems to have grown dim. The first half of the century was characterized by preoccupation with the new French ideas, especially political liberalism, which conflicted with Spanish tradition and confused the culture as well as the politics of the country.
The prose of the century was dry and academic, relieved only by the appearance of "Fray Gerundio" by the Jesuit, Padre Jose Francisco de Isla.
Eighteenth century poetry is represented by the "light" verse of Juan Melendez Valdes, about flowers and the like, and lacking deep thought.

The Romantic Period

The nineteenth century ushered in the liberals, many of them returning exiles. This was the Romantic Period in Spain as elsewhere, and the Spanish Romantics were Angel de Saavedra, whose best-known poems are romances on historical themes; Josh de Espronceda, moody, melencholic revolutionary and Josh Zorrilla, the most popular of nineteenth century poets.
Two major poets emerged during this century: Rosalia Castro, who wrote many poems in her native Galician, and Gustavo Adolfo Becquer. Both were influenced by the popular poetry of the time, the "Coplas", little, two or three line stanzas normally sung and reflecting the regions in which they were composed.
The nineteenth century was also a fertile one for prose, producing two important men: Mariano Josh de Larra and Benito Perez Galdos. The first was a satirist and journalist, whose hard-driving works pointed out the anachronisms and absurdities of the Spain of his day. His own attention to the failings of his country eventually drove him to despair and he shot himself before the age of 30.
Galdos was a formidable writer, often called the Spanish equivalent of Dickens and still too little known outside Spain. His output was immense: his series of historical novels, known as the "Episodios Nacionales", contain 46 volumes. Apart from these he wrote more than 30 novels, of which the best include "Doria Perfecta". "Gloria", "Fortunata y Jacinta" and "Misericordia".
Galdos' books are long and heavy. They are on the liberal-leaning side showing great sympathy to the unfortunates. They usually take place in cities, one of the major reasons Galdos is so often compared to Dickens.
Other outstanding productions of the nineteenth century were "EI Sombrero de Tres Picos" of Antonio de Alarcon, the inspiration for Manuel de Falla's famous ballet of the same name, and the works of the Valencian, Vicente Blasco lbanez. lbanez' novels include the famous "Sangue y Arena", on bullfighting, and books on Valencian folk life.
Spain's major scholar and critic, Marcelino Menendez Pelayo, also belongs to the nineteenth century.

The 20th Century

In the twentieth century, by far the dominent literary and intellectual phenomenon was the much-heralded "Generation of 98", a group of poets, essayists, musicians, artists and others. Many of these were pupils of, and others inspired b% the teacher and educational reformer, Don Francisco Giner de los Rios.
Giner was a man who believed that only through the slow, painstaking education of the Spanish People could the country come to grips with its problems. He wanted to shut the door on the heroic conception of Spain. The loss of the last vestiges of empire in Cuba and the Philippines was a welcome thing to the men of this group, who believed that now it would be possible to begin building a new Spain.
The greatest of these in the realm of philosophy was without a doubt Miguel de Unamuno, who believed in the arrival at truth only through the conflict of opposed ideas and urges. His best-known work is "The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Peoples". He also was a political writer, who wrote with a cutting pen against the dictator Primo de Rivera. He eventually became an exile in Paris.
Ortega y Gasset was another of these men, strongly influenced by German Philosophy, especially the thought of Kant.

In Granada an artistic group gathered whose members used to have music and poetry sessions. The music was quite often written for the occasion by Falla, while the poetry was that of a young Andalucian named Federico Garcia Lorca.

Lorca was a true folk-poet who transformed and uplifted the ballad and folk-song until it could express modern thought. His poems are filled with gypsies, violence and night-rides.

Spain lost a great talent when, in 1936, Lorca was shot to death at the age of 37.

Antonio Machado, writing after Lorca, was a very different type of poet though also an Andalucian. He expressed the more cynical, austere side of the Spanish character and chose as his symbolic home the vast plain of Castilla rather than the lush gardens of Andalucia. His best known volume of verse is "Campos de Castilla" His forte was a dry wit and use of paradox.

Another great poet of our century was Juan Ramon Jimenez, writer of delicately crafted verse, who left Spain to live and write in America.

Other names which must be mentioned are the poets . Pedro Salinas, Damaso Alonso, Rafael Alberti and Luis Cernuda, who went into exile in England.

The two main novelists of the century were Ramon del Vallelnclan and Pio Bareja.

Today's Spain is claiming a new spate of creative literary work. Certainly it is too early to say which of these present talents will emerge with international critical respect. At the moment the name of Dr. Luis Martin Santos stands out in connection with the novel "Tiempo de Silencio"; Carlos Rojas for his "Auto de fe", published in 1968, and Ana Maria Matute.
Among younger writers, of whose future development only time will tell, are the iconoclastic Teresa Barbero, who protests strongly the role of women in Spanisn Society; Ramon Nieto, who writes of the pitfalls of tourism and the generational conflict, and Francisco Umbral, heavily influenced by American Literature and spokesman for Spain's hippies. Clearly there are new thoughts and styles afoot in Spain and one can only hope that this country, which gave so much of literary greatness to the world, will continue to contribute its unique rivulets to the mainstream of European thought.

Drama

The drama in Spain was less developed than some of the other arts, though it did give to the world the great name of Lope de Vega, and the conception of Don Juan.
The earliest drama in Spain are the liturgical plays of the Middle Ages, called "misterios", or "autos". The tourist is fortunate in being able to view these Medieval plays, as they are still performed in many small towns of Spain (see Fiesta Calendar].
Also at the roots of Spanish drama are the bucolic plays, simple dialogues between shepherds or peasants. Two early dramatists who wrote these were Juan del Encira and Gil Vicente.
Popular theatre in Madrid during the late Middle Ages consisted of "pasos", prose sketches with stock. comic figures. The basis for this was laid by a Sevillian, Lope de Rueda.
Bursting onto this tame scene with a veritable torrent of plays was the great Spanish dramatist, Lope de Vega (1562-1635]. His unbelievable output includes some 1500 works, about 500 of which are in existence today.
One of his best known plays is the more serious "Fuenteovejiena".
The immortal figure of Spanish Drama is, of course Don Juan, who ranks among the bullfighter and the warrior as a model for behavior in the peninsula. Stran" gely enough, he was created by a churchman, a Friar of Toledo named Gabriel Teilez who used the pen name, Tinso de Molina. His play is called "EI Burlador de Sevilla".
A popular dramatic subject of this period was the situation of two sets of lovers who must overcome difficulties to resolve seemingly impossible difficulties.
Two other dramatists sharing the laurals of this time were Juan de Alarcon and Pedro Calderon de la Barca, known more usually as Calderon.
Calderon is known outside of Spain best through his play "La Vida es Sueno" (Life is a Dream], which has been translated into and performed in English.
Perhaps his greatest accomplishment, however, was laying the seeds for a particularly Spanish form, the Zarzuela, or musical comedy, of which he wrote several. The form was, in the nineteenth century, to become quite popular. Calderon's specimens were based on mythological subjects.
Ramon de la Cruz, an eighteenth century playwright, reacted against the dry classicism that intervened between the Golden Age and his own. He wrote popular plays and Zarzuelas with popular figures rather than mythological.
In the nineteenth century, as we have mentioned, the Zarzuela came into its own, and was a particular phenomenon" of Madrid. Most of them are set in Madrid itself, though a few range into the provinces. The most famous are "Gigantes y Cabezudos" and "La Verbena de la Paloma o El Baticario y Ins Chalupas y Celos Mal Reprimidos". Many are recorded.
It was also during the nineteenth century, in 1844, that "Don Juan Tenorio" was written by the poet Josh Zorrilla y Moral. This version of Tinso's play took Spain by storm and still has its effect on the Spanish imagination.
The beacon of the modern period in drama was, of course, Federico Garcia Lorca, whose writing has been described above.