Spanish literature developed over centuries and includes works in Castilian, Catalan, and Galician languages. Some of the earliest works date back to the 12th century with epic tales like "El Cantar del Mio Cid". Literature flourished during the Renaissance with Italian influences and religious works. The Golden Age saw masterpieces by Cervantes and others. Later centuries saw various literary movements and generations of writers despite censorship under Franco. Recent Spanish literature comments on modern society with global audiences.

2. • Spanish literature- the body of literary works
produced in Spain. Such works fall into three
major language divisions:
• Castilian
• Catalan
• Galician
 This article provides a brief historical account
of each of these three literatures and examines
the emergence of major genres.

3. • Castilian Spanish- is a term related to
the Spanish language, but its exact
meaning can vary even in that
language. In English, Castilian
Spanish usually refers to the variety of
European Spanish spoken in northern
and central Spain or as the language
standard for radio and TV speakers.

4. • Catalan- is a language spoken in
three regions of Spain: Catalonia,
Valencia and the Balearic Islands.
Outside Spain, it is the official
language of Andorra. It is also
spoken in some parts of France and
Italy.

5. • The Galician's (Galician:
Gallegos; Spanish: Gallegos) are a
national, cultural and ethno linguistic
group whose historic homeland
is Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian
Peninsula. Two Romance languages are
widely spoken and official in Galicia: the
native Galician, and Castilian.

6. • The history of Spanish literature can be traced
back centuries and it is clear that over this
time, Spanish literature has not only been
influenced by the events happening within
Spain and across the world, but has also
influenced the world itself. Spain has produced
some fantastic writers in all genres, many of
whom were instrumental in the developments
of some of the biggest literary movements. So
why not read on and find out more about the
history of Spanish literature.

7. • The history of Spain has been marked by all types of events,
wars, conquests, marriages, deaths... and literature has
played an important part in it. From the epic tale of the "Cantar
del Mio Cid" to the surrealism present in some of Cela's
works; from the amazing adventures of Don Quixote to the
many books recounting the horrors of the Spanish Civil
War, Spanish literature has had it's own way of influencing
history.
• Literature is a very important subject in all Spanish schools,
and this site is a guide to the evolution of Spanish literature
across the centuries.
• Spain is rich with talented writers, poets, playwrights... trust
us, the list goes on. One such literary master is Miguel de
Cervantes, the creator of the legendary Don Quijote, who has
been used in all aspects of Spanish culture. Lope de Vega is
another example of a Baroque master.

8. • Poetry is a strong force within Spain with many
examples proving the statement. What better
example than the Generation of 27, featuring the
exquisite work of Federico García Lorca, who had
been frequently associated with surrealist experts
Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel. If the Generation of
27 doesn't sound like the right group for you, then
how about the Generation of 98? Whether you are a
passionate connoisseur of the written word or a
passing visitor there will be something that will
spark your creativity in this section on Spanish
literature.

9. The beginnings
• The history of Spanish literature starts with "El Cantar del
Mio Cid" (12th century), an epic narrative that was
transmitted orally through the story tellers. However, the first
written testimonies of Spanish literature begin in the 13th
century with the Middle-Ages literature, which cultivated all
the genres in prose, poetry and theatre. The end of the
Middle Ages (sometimes known as pre-Renaissance period)
is a very prolific time for Spanish literature, with the
development of works like "Coplas a la muerte de mi padre"
(Jorge Manrique) and "La Celestina" (Fernando de Rojas).
• During the Renaissance the influence of Italy in Spain was
very strong, and thus the religious influence. During this
period there's a big production of religious works with
authors such as Fray Luis de Leon or San JUan de la Cruz.
Pastoral or didactic novels were also quite popular, and the
picaresque genre became popular with "Lazarillo de
Tormes"

10. • The Spanish Baroque coincides with
the Golden Age of Spanish literature, called
that way because of the great number of
excellent literary productions that appeared
in the period.
• Miguel de Cervantes is without doubt, the
ultimate Baroque author. His masterpiece,
the adventures of the mad knight "Don
Quixote", is considered the most important
book of the Spanish literature and one of the
most important in the Universal literature.
Other important authors in this period are the
poet Quevedo and the play writer Lope de
Vega.

12. • The Enlightenment period in Spanish literature can
be divided in three different periods: the post-
Baroque period, the Neo-Classical period and the
pre-Romanticism period. The Enlightenment
wants a break with the old concept of authority,
and thinks reason is more important than feeling
or emotions. This is why this period doesn't have a
strong poetry group. In prose, essays and didactic
texts are the most popular types of works,
especially among literates. Newspapers help to
spread the knowledge of other European countries
around Spain.

13. • The 20th century is a century of great change in Spain. There's not
a specific movement. Rather, every author develops his or her
own personal style. Novels become the most popular genre, and
social themes are very common, especially those related to life in
Spain during the Spanish Civil War and the following dictatorship.
There are three important generations of writers during the 20th
century that configure the Spanish literature of the
period: Generation of '98,Generation of '14 and Generation of '27.

14. • Spain's contribution to 20th-century art can be summed up in two
essential and revolutionary movements, Cubism and Surrealism.
• Spanish Cubism was a reaction to traditional modes of
representation, characterized by single viewpoint perspective. Pablo
Picasso and Georges Braque abandoned this premise, thereby
introducing the fourth dimension (time) in painting. The style was
characterized by its use of geometric shapes, interlocking planes and
austere colour range; it would also receive the influence of primitive
art, chiefly African tribal masks and Iberian pottery.
• Surrealism, which followed on from the radical anti-art movement
Dada, sought to explore and express the subconscious, both in
painting and in literature. The irrational imagery of dreams, drawing
largely on Freudian theories, would be an important source of
inspiration for Surrealist poets and painters, both representational
and abstract, as exemplified in the works of Salvador Dalí and Joan
Miró.

15. • Romanticism appears as a reaction against the strict rules of the
Enlightenment, and in opposition to it, it places more importance in
feelings than reason. Romanticism can be divided into two
different movements: traditional Romanticism (defends the
traditional values ​​represented by the Church and State) and liberal
Romanticism (fights the established order, religion, art and politics,
and claims the rights of individuals to society and the laws).
• Realism appears when literates have grown tired of the
subjectivism of Romanticism and are looking for something more
real. They were tired of the imaginative and colorful, and sought to
observe the people, society and and society contemporary
traditions objectively. Its goal was to present the truest portrait of.

16. • However all this focus on reason and logic couldn't
last, and Enlightenment literature was soon
overshadowed by Romanticism which preferred
feelings and emotions. Romanticist literature was
free and did not play by the rules that had governed
previous literary movements. Eventually however,
writers got bored of the movement, and turned
instead to a more realistic approach; hence the
birth of Realism in Spanish literature.
• Realist literature was designed to paint an accurate
portrait of society, and avoided the over imaginative
styles of Romanticism.

17. • One of the earliest told stories in Spain is that of 'El Cid' from the
12th century, which was an epic tale that was transmitted from
generation to generation by oral repetition. The first written works
though appeared in the 13th century when literature began to be
cultivated in all of its genres: theatre, poetry and prose. However
the real flourish for Spanish literature came with the Renaissance
period where there was a lot of Italian influence in Spain. Many of
the works produced during this time therefore had a heavy
religious tone as well, such as the works of Fray Luis de Leon and
San Juan de la Cruz.

18. • The 20th and 21st centuries have been a great time of change for
Spain, however Spanish literature has developed in a more
stunted manner. There are no great literary movements during
these years as each writer begins to develop their own individual
style. The Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship gave rise
to a number of generations of writers - Generation of '98,
Generation of '14 and Generation of '27 - who helped to develop
Spanish literature. Censorship was one of the major pressures on
Spanish literature under Franco as it meant writers had to be
much cleverer and more subtle in order to convey their true
feelings.

19. • In more recent times, Spanish literature again
has seen very little in the way of literary
movements. Many of the younger writers choose
to write in very realistic styles, commenting and
criticizing the modern society they live in.
However, with the spread of globalization, many
Spanish authors have had their works read by
much larger international audiences, hence there
are a number of Spanish language authors who
have made it on to the lists of top authors in the
world.

20. • One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish: Cien años de soledad)
is a 1967 novel by Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez that
tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family,
whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the town
of Macondo, the metaphoric Colombia.
• The widely acclaimed book, considered by many to be the author's
masterpiece, was first published in Spanish in 1967, and
subsequently has been translated into thirty-seven languages and
has sold more than 30 million copies.
• The magical realist style and thematic substance of One Hundred
Years of Solitude established it as an important, representative
novel of the literary Latin American Boom of the 1960s and
1970s, which was stylistically influenced by Modernism (European
and North American) and the Cuban Vanguardia (Vanguard)
literary movement.

21. • Spanish art history- is very exciting and the first
examples of Spanish art go back to the dawn of time.
For example, the cave paintings found in the Altamira
caves in Cantabria are considered to be the Sistene
Chapel of rock paintings and date back over 18,500
years. Today, many works remain in excellent condition
despite their age such as the Iberian sculptures from
Eastern Spain (the Dama de Baza and the Dama de
Elche), the Roman and Muslim art which can be found
throughout the peninsula, medieval churches, artwork
from the Baroque period and many other examples.