The Generation of '50 ( es, Generación del 50) relates to a Spanish literary movement of the mid-20th century, also known as the children of the civil war, and relates to writers born around the 1920s and published around the 1950s. They engendered a new lyrical preoccupation with language and incorporated

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

and

philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

techniques in their work in order to circumvent and undermine the strict

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

of the

Francoist State Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

. Many of the movement's initial features were influenced by the

Generation of '27 The Generation of '27 ( es, Generación del 27) was an influential group of poets that arose in Spanish literary circles between 1923 and 1927, essentially out of a shared desire to experience and work with avant-garde forms of art and poetry. ...

and

Generation of '98 The Generation of '98 ( es, Generación del 98), also called Generation of 1898 ( es, Generación de 1898, links=no), was a group of novelists, poets, essayists, and philosophers active in Spain at the time of the Spanish–American War (1898), comm ...

, notably Antonio Machado. In the second stage, when censorship relaxed somewhat novelists saw their role as provoking social reform by describing misery and injustice.

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

allowed, for the first time, members of the Generation of '50 to participate in

translation Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

s and commentaries of selected foreign authors such as

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National B ...

and Paul Celan. Most of these authors grouped into circles of friends meeting in

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

s and coffeehouses in the cities of

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. Significant members of Generation of '50 were

Ignacio Aldecoa José Ignacio Aldecoa e Isasi (24 July 1925 – 15 November 1969) was a Spanish writer. He was the nephew of the painter . Biography José Ignacio de Aldecoa e Isasi was born in Vitoria-Gasteiz on 24 July 1925, the first child of Simón de Aldec ...

, Carlos Barral, José Manuel Caballero Bonald, Eladio Cabañero, Alfonso Costafreda, Jesús Fernández Santos, Jaime Ferrán,

Antonio Gamoneda Antonio Gamoneda Lobón (born 30 May 1931) is a Spanish poet, winner of the Cervantes Prize in 2006. Biography Antonio Gamoneda was born in Oviedo, Asturias, on 30 May 1931. His father, also named Antonio, was a modernist poet who published ...

Juan García Hortelano Juan García Hortelano (14 February 1928 – 3 April 1992) was a Spanish writer. He was born in Madrid on Valentine's Day 1928. His father was a doctor. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, he was sent with his siblings to Cuenca, only returning ...

Jaime Gil de Biedma Jaime Gil de Biedma y Alba (13 November 1929 – 8 January 1990) was a Spanish post-Civil War poet. He was born in Nava de la Asunción on 13 November 1929. He stopped writing poetry some ten years before his death. He insisted that the charact ...

, Ángel González,

José Agustín José Agustín Ramírez Gómez (born 19 August 1944) is a Mexican novelist, short story writer, essayist and screenwriter. He is considered as one of the most influential and prolific Mexican writers of the second half of the 20th century. Caree ...

, Juan Goytisolo, Alfonso Grosso, Rafael Guillén,

José Hierro José Hierro del Real (born 3 April 1922 in Madrid, Spain – died 21 December 2002 in Madrid, Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Pl ...

(although some authors are of a slightly earlier period), Jesús López Pacheco,

Juan Marsé Juan Marsé Carbó (8 January 1933 – 18 July 2020) was a Spanish novelist, journalist, and screenwriter who used Spanish as his literary language. In 2008, he was awarded the Cervantes Prize, "the Spanish-language equivalent" to the Nobel ...

, Carmen Martín Gaite,

Ana María Matute Ana María Matute Ausejo (26 July 1925 – 25 June 2014) was an internationally acclaimed Spanish writer and member of the Real Academia Española. In 1959, she received the Premio Nadal for ''Primera memoria''. The third woman to receive the Ce ...

, Claudio Rodríguez, Carlos Sahagún, Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, Daniel Sueiro, José Ángel Valente among others.

References

Spanish literary movements Spanish culture Spanish poetry Francoist Spain {{lit-mov-stub

See also

References