The main CHARACTERISTICS of the REALISTIC novel in Spain

Realism was an artistic and literary current that emerged in the early nineteenth in response to the current of Romanticism. The artists bet on a new vision of art in which society was examined with a magnifying glass and where romantic fantasies and daydreams were put aside. In Spain, Realism had a sovereign influence on the letters and, therefore, such prominent authors emerged as is the case of Benito Pérez Galdós. To better understand the realistic footprint in our country, in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to discover characteristics of the realist novel in Spain. We started!

Index

1. Introduction to the realist novel in Spain
2. Costumbrismo, one of the characteristics of the realist novel
3. Characters as archetypes of society
4. Popular environments, another characteristic of the realist novel
5. The profession of writer
6. Other important characteristics of the realist novel
7. Realism and Naturalism in Spain

We are in the XIX, a historical period that draws on the influence of the Enlightenment and scientific methodology. The premises of the science and reasoning They also moved to the artistic field, thus making artistic and literary works another source of knowledge.

The Realism arose as a response to this new way of understanding art and, with this, the previous movement that bet on fantasy and focused on the "I" was shelved: the Romanticism. Now the objective pursued by literature is not to express feelings or speak from subjectivity, but rather to seek rtreat reality reliably to analyze it in detail and get to know it better.

Within the genres of Realism, the novel was the most important. During Romanticism, poetry was the genre most cultivated for its great lyrical and emotional possibilities; But now the literati were looking for a genre that was more narrative and that would allow us to describe reality in a meticulous and objective way. For this reason, the novel was the genre par excellence.

In Spain some of the most prominent realist authors were Benito Pérez Galdós and Leopolodo Alas Clarín. Both intended to make a portrait of Spain and Spanish society in an objective way and with the will to get to know the different types of people who lived in the country and to know better what the reality was current. In Spain it is considered that the origin of Realism is given with the publication in 1881 from "The disinherited" by Galdós, a work that is inspired by "L'Assomoir" by Zola.

Realism is often confused with Naturalism but it is important to emphasize that Naturalism is a step beyond realistic philosophy; naturalists considered themselves scientists who, through the instrument of literature, managed to analyze their reality and contemporary life in more detail. A clear example of a naturalistic author is Emilia Pardo Bazán with the publication of "The throbbing question" in 1882.

Realism left a great mark on Hispanic letters and, in fact, in the so-called Generation of 98 many authors drank from the realistic source such as Baroja, Azorín or Ramiro de Maeztu.

But let's begin to discover what are the main characteristics of the realist novel in Spain. And for this we will begin by talking about a very widespread and abundant in this type of literature: costumbrismo.

The realistic literary works aimed to scrutinize reality and, for this, they placed the reader in everyday and habitual situations. Costumbrismo collects the most popular and traditional Spanish life to be able to relate how it was really lived at that time. In order to make this faithful portrait, the authors filled in the texts of very detailed descriptions both the spaces where the story took place and the characters who participated in it.

In this way, the reader could fully immerse himself in the reality of the moment and also meet the typical characters that used to be part of society.

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Another of the most outstanding characteristics of the realist novel in Spain is that the characters are not very well defined since they serve as archetypes of society. Characters that embody different sectors of the population are presented and this is done in a broad and generalized way without delving into the psychology or the depth of each one of them.

This causes blurred characters to abound that are used to fulfill a very specific purpose or to convey a very specific idea. They are not well-crafted characters but rather they are mere instruments to be able to relate the author's intention well and make his message clear.

Typical characters of the realist novel in Spain

In this sense, it is important to note that in the entire Spanish realist corpus there are some typical characters of the time. Here we leave you a list with the most frequent:

• The "cheesy" character: It was the character that appeared of the new bourgeoisie, of the workers who began to climb positions in social class and who, to appear superior class, imitated the ways of the aristocrats.
• The gentleman: It is about the new rich man, a character who is usually portrayed as classist and who had a great presence in Andalusia at the time. In almost all the novels of the XIX this character appears with negative connotations.

Continuing with this list with the characteristics of the realist novel in Spain we must not forget that the setting or the space in which the author placed his work was almost always of popular origin: provincial life, rural spaces, etc. There is also a trace of the world of the aristocracy in Spain but the main characters and the most outstanding actions usually take place in traditional spaces.

In addition, there was a great influence of Russian literature of the time as was the case of great authors such as Dostoevsky or Tosltoi. The Russian idealism that could be felt in these works tended to have a pessimistic character and with a strong religious connection, something that was implanted in Spain and gave way to a pessimistic view of reality and an anti-clerical feeling that emerged in the works of authors such as Juan Valera, Galdós and Clarín.

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In order to better understand what the realist novel was like in Spain, it is important that we take into account a very important fact: liberalism gave way to the profession of a new kind of writer that I could work in a way Independent, that is to say, without needing patrons, kings or bankers to be able to carry out their works.

This allowed the literati to be creatively independent following only the premises set by the laws and, of course, by the church. Novel readers also increased considerably in the 19th century as the illiteracy rate dropped and this opened doors for new readers.

To finish with this summary on Realism, it is important to know other characteristics that were also very influential in the artistic creation of the time. Here we leave you the most outstanding ones:

• Bourgeois class values: Another characteristic of the realist novel is that in these works there is a strong influence of the bourgeois class that had appeared thanks to the industrial revolutions. In these novels we can see that bourgeois values ​​are well reflected (individuality, materialism, the desire to move up the social ladder, etc.)
• Contraposition between rural and urban: This is one of the most common themes of Realism. The authors contrasted the life of the peasants with the life of the urbanites to reflect the great change that was being experienced in society due to the industrial revolutions. In this sense, we find authors who are more conservative and others who defend a more progressive ideology.
• Omniscient narrator: It is the favorite in realistic novels because it allows an objective description of what is being narrated without involving thoughts, ideas or judgments.
• Use of a popular language: In order to reflect in a real way what life was like in Spain, the authors began to reflect the language in their usual uses and, for this reason, these novels abound in dialogues with colloquialisms, with vulgarisms, etc.

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It is important to note that Realism and Naturalism they are not the same. Although they are movements that are closely related (Naturalism is a step beyond Realism), both contain very significant differences that are worth knowing.

On the one hand, Realism was a trend that took place during the 19th century and that has Galdós or Clarín as representatives. The basis for these novels is usually found in the Spanish picaresque as well as in Don Quixote. Realists often contextualize her works in popular and rural environments for, thus, to know fully how society lived with fewer possibilities.

Naturalism arises thanks to Emile zola, an author who defended the application of the scientific methodology in the literary field, thus considering the novel as a type of laboratory designed to observe reality and carry out different experiments with it. Emilia Pardo Bazán is one of the most outstanding naturalist authors of Hispanic literature.

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