Generation of '98
Generation of '98,
Spanish literary and cultural movement in the first two decades of the 20th cent. It was so named by Azorín (see Martínez Ruiz, JoséMartínez Ruiz, José, 1873?–1967, Spanish writer. He often used the pseudonym Azorín. A political radical in the 1890s, he moved steadily to the right.
..... Click the link for more information. ) in 1913 to designate a group of young writers who, in the face of defeat (1898) in the Spanish-American War, proclaimed a moral and cultural rebirth for Spain. Azorín's original list included Valle InclánValle Inclán, Ramón del
, 1866–1936, Spanish writer, a member of the Generation of '98. Valle Inclán was deeply influenced by foreign literary trends, especially by modernismo.
..... Click the link for more information. , UnamunoUnamuno, Miguel de
, 1864–1936, Spanish philosophical writer, of Basque descent, b. Bilbao. The chief Spanish philosopher of his time, he was professor of Greek at the Univ. of Salamanca and later rector there.
..... Click the link for more information. , Benavente y MartínezBenavente y Martínez, Jacinto
, 1866–1954, Spanish dramatist, b. Madrid. He was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known play is Los intereses creados (1907, tr.
..... Click the link for more information. , Baroja y NessiBaroja y Nessi, Pío
, 1879–1956, Spanish novelist from the Basque Country, member of the group of writers known as the Generation of '98. He left medicine to devote himself to literature and came to be the most popular Spanish novelist of the 20th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. , Ramiro de Maeztu, DaríoDarío, Rubén
, 1867–1916, Nicaraguan poet, originally named Félix Rubén García Sarmiento. A child prodigy, he gained a thorough knowledge of Spanish and French cultures through reading; it was then widened during many years abroad in both
..... Click the link for more information. , and Azorín himself. It has since been emended to include Ganivet and Antonio MachadoMachado, Antonio
, 1875–1939, Spanish poet of the Generation of '98. He spent most of his life in Castile and his best poetry was influenced by its sober and dramatic landscape. His Poesías completas appeared in 1936.
..... Click the link for more information. , as well as Ortega y GassetOrtega y Gasset, José
, 1883–1955, Spanish essayist and philosopher. He studied in Germany and was influenced by neo-Kantian thought. He called his philosophy the metaphysics of vital reason, and he sought to establish the ultimate reality in which all else was
..... Click the link for more information. , Pérez de AyalaPérez de Ayala, Ramón
, 1880?–1962, Spanish writer. He was educated at Jesuit schools, which he satirized in the novel A.M.D.G. (1910). His early realistic novels, among them The Fox's Paw (1912, tr. 1924), reveal ties with the Generation of '98.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Marañón. Darío is more often considered as the founder of modernismomodernismo
, movement in Spanish literature that had its beginning in Latin America. It was paramount in the last decade of the 19th cent. and the first decade of the 20th cent.
Modernismo derived from French symbolism and the Parnassian school.
..... Click the link for more information. . The group was concerned with defining the essential quality of Spain, studying its history and culture. In the austere life of Castile many of them discovered the key to the essence of Hispanicism. While they attacked aestheticism and the current adulation of the Austrian satiric poet Karl KrausKraus, Karl
, 1874–1936, Austrian essayist and poet, b. Bohemia. His satirical review the Fackel lashed out at hypocrisy, intellectual corruption, and the machine age. His voluminous works include Worte in Versen (9 vol., 1916–30, partial tr.
..... Click the link for more information. , they also represented cosmopolitan trends, including political liberalism. They greatly influenced the work of later Spanish writers.