GENERATION of 36: characteristics and authors

Have you ever heard of the Generation of '36? It is about a generation of writers and artists who are characterized by being part of the historical context of '36 and having a literary style marked by their time and by a similar ideology. It is not a generation as well known as the previous ones (the Generation of 98 or 27) since it is a group of authors more concise in time and more divided. However, to better understand the literature of the twentieth century in Spain, it is interesting to know better what this generation was, its members and the most outstanding characteristics of this group. Therefore, in this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to offer you a complete summary of the Generation of 36 its authors and characteristics so that you can better know what happened to literary creation in Spain during the Civil War and the postwar period.

Surely if we talk about the Generation of '98 Or the Generation of 27 you quickly know what we're talking about, right? At least some authors' names will sound like Unamuno, Machado, Lorca, etc. But what if we talk about the

Generation of '36? This group of literati it is not so well known in the history of literature and yet, they managed to make a very concise literary portrait of the political, social and emotional situation in Spain at the time.

To know what the Generation of 36 is, it is important that we know that this group is also known as the First Postwar Generation. It is a movement that arose between 1936 and 1941 and that it was composed of both poets, playwrights and novelists. As you can see from the date, we are in full Spanish Civil War(1936-39) and the early years of the Franco dictatorship, very important facts for the literary creation of the moment.

It is, then, a very short generation that included authors who they were born between 1905 and 1920Therefore, with the outbreak of the Civil War, they felt the social, economic and political consequences. The authors of the Generation of 36 reflected in their works what was happening in Spain at the time, emphasizing the division of society, the hardships that were experienced and censorship. The works of these authors they left the situation captured soul of the country, pain, misery and resignation that citizens had to adopt before literature and, also, before life.

War poetry in the Generation of '36

All this made the literary creation of the time very marked by war and pain. The war poetry It was very abundant among the members of the Generation of 36, verses that sought to raise awareness in the trenches. A great deal of propaganda poetry was also carried out on both sides and this led to two poetic tendencies:

• Ingrained poetry: it was the poetry created by the related to the regime Francoist and had a more positive tone and with a strong presence of nationalism and patriotic sentiment. The central themes were love, religion and family
• Uprooted poetry: It was the poetry cultivated by the anti-Franco poets and where the authors spoke about the anguish generated by the Franco dictatorship. Poems full of social criticism and deep pessimism

To continue with this summary of the Generation of 36 it is important that we try to encompass in a unified way the literary and artistic elements that shared the authors included in this movement. As we have already commented, we are before a group of authors who experienced first-hand the ravages of war and its As a result, therefore, in his writings some recurring themes appear such as war, censorship, misery, etc.

The characteristics of the Generation of '36 The most prominent are the following:

• Two poetic trends: As we have commented in the previous section, the poets of this generation were divided among those who cultivated the rooted poetry (followers of the new regime) and those who bet on rootless poetry (against Francoism)
• Preference for narrative: However, it is important to note that while the Generation of 27 preferred poetry for their literary motives, in the case of the Generation of '36 they opted more generally for narrative
• Committed literature: Due to the historical context in which the members of this generation found themselves, the literature they cultivated was a Literature that is socially committed and with a spirit, either critical, or of exaltation (depending on the ideology of every poet)
• More realistic and humanized style: the texts of the authors of the Generation of '36 also moved away from the literary dreams or the styles that were cultivated in the literary vanguards to bet on a very realistic literature in which everything that was happening in Spain was well portrayed
• Direct language: The authors of this movement put aside the most stylistic tendencies of the language to offer texts with a direct, brutal and real language. Thus, they fought against the aestheticism so abundant in the Generation of 27 to show a more simple, transparent and direct literature.
• Preoccupation with reality: We must not lose sight of the fact that we are in a very crude moment in the history of Spain and, therefore, the authors reflected in their texts a great concern for their reality and for the people who lived the same moment as they

And to conclude this summary of the Generation of 36 it is essential that we mention some of the names most prominent of the members of this movement since some of them are surely familiar to us. Ricardo Gullón was the critic in charge of drawing up the list with the authors of the Generation of 36 taking into account some criteria such as, for example, age, their connection in the literary field, the characteristics of their writings, etc.

According to the classification made by Gullón, we have that the most prominent authors of this generation are the following:

Miguel Hernandez

Maybe this is the best known author of all members of the Generation of '36. And it is that, for many critics, Hernández is the bridge that connects the Generation of 27 with that of 36 since his presence in the field of literature began at a very young age when Lorca and the other writers were succeeding in Spain. In the production of it we discover two very different stages: the first, influenced by Pablo Neruda and studied together with the members of '27, and the second, influenced by the war. "Viento del Pueblo", "Cancionero y Romancero de absences" and "Perito en Lunas" are some of the most applauded works by this writer.

Juan Gil Albert

He was born in 1904 in Alcoy and was part of a bourgeois family at the time. "The fascination of the unreal and the vibration of summer" It is the first work of his that was published in 1927; After this, he entered politics and in 1936 he founded the magazine Hora de España. His foray into the world of politics was very intense and, in fact, he organized the II International Congress of Antifascist Writers. After the war, he went into exile to Mexico, a country from which he continued to write both poetry and narrative for the magazine Taller, a publication directed by Octavio Paz.

Leopoldo Panero

Another of the most prominent Generation of 36 authors is Leopoldo Panero, who was born in 1909. In his works we can witness a great influence of themes such as family, religious doubt and the passage of time. He was a writer who opted for poetry and, therefore, in 1932 he published "Verses al Guadarrama". We know that he joined the rebel army and, from this time, we keep "Estancia Vacía", a work that reflects the most basic emotions of the human being.

Luis Rosales

He was a poet from Granada who was born in 1910. It was in Madrid where he met other members of the generation such as Leopoldo Panero. He was one of the most prominent authors within the rooted poetry, that is, the one related to the new regime. During the Franco regime he managed to become the secretary of the Escorial magazine and published some important works such as "Diario de una resurrección" or "La casa encendida".

Guillermo Diaz Plaja

And we end this list talking about Díaz Plaja, another important author of the Generation of '36 who cultivated, above all, a type of text that was oriented to didactics. The author was professor in language and literature and, therefore, his teacher personality is felt very strongly in his texts. He was born in Manresa in 1909 and some of one of his most outstanding works is "Soliloquy and Colloquium and Question of Limits".