Spanish literature:
The Eighteenth Century
In the 18th cent. French neoclassicism exerted a powerful—and inhibiting—influence on Spanish literature. The Poética of Ignacio de Luzán reflected the academic principles of the epoch. An important essayist was Benito Gerónimo Feyjóo y Montenegro, a Benedictine who helped to usher the Enlightenment into Spain.
Three authors stood out as notable exceptions in the midst of a general decline in literary creativity: Leandro Fernández de Moratín, a writer of plays in the neoclassic vein; Ramón de la Cruz, author of popular playlets called sainetes; and the poet Juan Meléndez Valdés. While Manuel Quintana's patriotic verse was neoclassical in form, it anticipated romanticism in its emotion.
Sections in this article:
- Introduction
- Iberian Literature before Spanish
- Early Works in Castilian Spanish
- The Renaissance and the Golden Age of Spanish Literature
- The Eighteenth Century
- The Nineteenth Century and Romanticism
- Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Movements
- The Spanish Civil War to the Present
- Bibliography
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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