Spanish Realist Literature - Realism and Naturalism in Spain

Realism and Naturalism in Spain

In Spain, Realism installed itself with extreme facility, since a precedent in picaresque novels already existed. Furthermore, relevant themes were extant in that cornerstone of Spanish and world literature, Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. Realism reached its maximum splendor in the second half of the 19th century with authors such as Juan Valera, José María de Pereda, and Benito Pérez Galdós, although it never established a canon as rigorous as that produced by the school of Balzac.

• In the work of Galdós, and later in that of Clarín, Pardo Bazán, and Blasco Ibáñez, clear naturalistic influences exist, but without the scientific and experimental foundations that Émile Zola sought to imprint in his Realist works. They do share a spirit of subversiveness and struggle in the face of conservative ideology.

• The Realist novel generally reflects regional settings. For example, Pereda's novels take place in Cantabria, Juan Valera's in Andalusia, and Clarín's in Asturias. Benito Perez Galdós's tendency to set his stories in Madrid, an urban environment, is a notable exception.

Naturalism in Spain, as it did in France, also had its detractors, sometimes provoking great controversies. Naturalist Pedro Antonio de Alarcón carried on a fierce rivalry with José María de Pereda who, impassioned, once described Realism as immoral. The movements most exalted and ardent defenders were Benito Perez Galdós and Emilia Pardo Bazán, who provoked one of the most furious conflicts with her 1883 publication of La cuestión palpitante ("The Throbbing Question").