Spanish Enlightenment Literature - Prose

Prose

The narrative is almost nonexistent in Spain during this period. Practically it is reduced to the Life of Diego de Torres Villarroel, or to the story Fray Gerundio de Campazas of Padre Isla.

Another modality of great influence in this time was the newspaper. Literary, scientific, or of curiosities, publications like the Newspaper of the Literate of Spain, The Censor or The Mail of Madrid contributed to spread the theories and the ideas of the moment in Spain, laying the principles of the Enlightenment.

On the contrary, the essay is the dominant genre. This educative and doctrinal prose shows a desire to approach the problems of the moment, tends to the reform of the customary and usually makes use of the epistolar form.

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