Spanish literature of the 20th century poses a major problem in terms of periodisation, with many conflicting proposals offered; it seems close to impossible to single out an aesthetic literary trend generally accepted as prevailing or even to specify temporal borderlines for any given period, regardless of its would-be name. The periodisation accepted here is focused on breakdown of traditional structures and extreme instability, entangled in conflict and eventually producing confrontation. Harboring a concept of violent clash as unavoidable outcome of current crisis, from the late regeneracionistas to the personalities of the Second Republic, is at times dubbed "catastrofismo". In terms of the Carlist theme, this period differs from Modernism very clearly; the interest in Carlism deteriorated, and during
Primoderiverismo and the
Second Republic the motive almost disappeared from literature, save for some noventayochistas continuing their older threads. The
Civil War produced a brief spate of literature intended to mobilise support for the belligerent parties, including the Carlists.
Interwar novel: great names Among great writers from the 1898 generation Baroja kept writing along the lines he had developed during Modernism, and at least in terms of the Carlist thread the late novels from
Memorias de un hombre de acción released in the 1920s/30s and
Zalacaín of 1908 form the same homogeneous opus. Unamuno has abandoned the Carlist motive, though he kept tackling the phenomenon in his treaties and studies. Some scholars claim that in case of Valle-Inclán one can speak of a new quality, resulting from his experiences during the First World War. Initially when in his role of a war correspondent Valle-Inclán posed as a Carlist-like patriarch, touring the frontlines in red beret and semi-military gear, but many students claim that war changed his perspective on grandeur and glory. They maintain that Valle-Inclán abandoned his earlier reportedly genuine Carlism and turned towards new ideas, perhaps somewhat attracted by the appeals of both Fascism and Communism.
El ruedo ibérico (1927–1932) is viewed as increasingly saturated with grotesque and farcical Carlism; the change is sealed when Marqués de Bradomín eventually abandons legitimism. One of few rare cases of Carlism featured as key motive in writings of a literary giant who did not come from a Hispanic culture is
The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad (1919). The Polish-English writer claimed he had been himself involved in smuggling arms for the rebels along the
Mediterranean coast during the Third Carlist War, yet historians of literature do not agree whether these claims should be taken seriously. However, he must have at least witnessed Carlist conspiracy in Southern France of the early-1870s and some suspect even a flaming love affair with Carlist motives in the background.
The Arrow of Gold seems heavily based on these juvenile experiences, yet Carlism serves mostly as a background evoking an atmosphere of mystery. It is difficult to find either particular sympathy or particular hostility for the movement, yet many scholars claim that the key protagonist considered Conrad's alter-ego was cynically used by Carlist conspirators. On the other hand, the mysterious heroine he falls in love with, Doña Rita, is a Carlist, though this seems to have little to do with the love affair. Overall, the novel is considered a treaty on "emotional boundary between people"; Conrad has never again displayed any literary interest in Spanish issues. Carlism attracted also another English writer, at that time yet to become eminent,
Graham Greene. Either in the late 1920s or in the very early 1930s he wrote
The Episode, the novel which traced the experiences of an idealistic young man against very loose background of revolutionary turmoil in the 19th-century Spain; the narrative contained non-marginal Carlist threads. The novel has never been published, but some of its threads and protagonists were recycled in
Rumour at Nightfall (1931), the work considered Greene's "first Catholic novel", set during the First Carlist War. The novel's torrid action focuses upon a love affair and jealous relationship of two Englishmen, which dominates over potentially exciting political action. The protagonists become infatuated with a beguiling Catholic woman, highly resemblant of Conrad's female protagonist Doña Rita, the role of Carlism is to evoke moral dilemmas related to "intense spirit of religious devotion". The novel was fairly popular and in 1921 it served as a screenplay for a movie of the same title, perhaps the first one featuring the Carlist theme. A legitimist sympathiser Jules Laborde fathered
Une vengeance carliste (1927), set during the Third Carlist War. In
Nazi Germany Johannes Reinwaldt released a novel
Der Königsthron (1937), set during the First Carlist War. Carlist themes featured also in third-rate sensational prose, e.g.
Don Jaime was a protagonist of
Piętno przekleństwa (1924), a novel in Polish by a Russian author
Nikolay Breshko-Breshkovsky. Distant Carlist echoes reverberate in
II figlio del pastore (1930) by
Lorenzo Viani, a novel based on infant recollections of the author from
Viareggio. Amongst the Spanish novelists
Gabriel Miró is a writer counted among Generación de 1914. He is worth noting because his Oleza novels, e.g.
El abuelo del rey (1915), provide a veiled discourse on tradition and change with Traditionalism present in the background. Moreover, in his later novels some of his Carlist personalities, like Don Alvaro from
Nuestro Padre San Daniel (1921) and
El obispo leproso (1926) escape the usual scheme and provide an ambiguous and rather mysterious point of reference. Due to his Carlist motives, some scholars consider Miró one of key writers who formed the Carlist literary image.
Estanislao Rico Ariza, active under the pen-name "Francisco de Paula Calderón", was a Carlist militant involved in clashes with the
Anarchists. Banking on his first-hand experience he released a unique novel on Anarchist terrorism,
Memorias de un terrorista: Novela episódica de la tragedia barcelonesa (1924); 12 years later he paid for it with his life.
Benedicto Torralba de Damas fathered
En los nidos de antaño (1926), a novel which in the Traditionalist realm earned him the prestige of "distinguido literato".
Dolores Gortázar, a Carlist militant active as a propagandist in the early 1920s, during the primoderiverista period was very popular as a novelist; however, she penned banal prose deprived of ideological threads.
Benjamin Jarnés penned his
Zumalacárregui, el caudillo romántico (1931) in a very peculiar way; his protagonist is presented as more than a military hero, a genius embodiment of individuality who could have been an icon of both the Carlists and the Liberals, "artista de la acción". Villaescusa excelled in historical prose with
La odisea de un quinto (1930), the Traditionalism-flavored novel set during the Third Carlist War; of similar genre,
Florentino Soria López released
Los titanes de la raza (1925), featuring exalted patriotism rather than Carlism.
Antonio Pérez de Olaguer commenced his later longtime literary career with a somewhat new genre, a grotesque novel
La ciudad que no tenía mujeres (1932). Among writers advancing clearly anti-Carlist views the one to be singled out is
Félix Urabayen, who set some of his novels in Navarre. In
El barrio maldito (1925) he portrays the province as held in reactionary grip of the Carlists, who themselves are traditionally presented as hyprocrytes; in
Centauros del Pirineo (1928) in a somewhat Barojian manner he hailed smugglers, who represent "sensibilidad fina, moderna, europea" as opposed to "elemento tradicionalista". In another Carlist stronghold, Catalonia, one has to note
Pere Coromines, whose anti-Carlist zeal climaxed in the novel
Silèn (1925); however, though a man of vehemently liberal convictions, he still preferred Carlist triumph to continuation of the corrupted Alfonsine monarchy. The future prime minister and president of Spain,
Manuel Azaña, in his
Fresdeval (1931) pictured Carlism as a half-dead relic – even if depicted with some melancholy – of old aristocratic Spain.
Drama and poetry Drama lost importance as political battleground already in the mid-19th century, yet echoes of Carlism-related debates were heard also among the playwrights. Among the spate of pro-
Republican theatrical pieces of the 1920s or even more militantly left-wing dramas of the early 1930s many contained more or less explicit Carlist threads. Because of its author a good example is
La corona (1931) by Manuel Azaña; it featured a Traditionalist, Aurelio, who first leads a coup against the legitime ruler and then murders a Liberal protagonist. Works written by the Carlists were far less popular, staged on local scenes, Carlist circulos or religious establishments. Within this realm a particular position was held by
Manuel Vidal Rodríguez, related to the Integrist breed of Traditionalism. In three first decades of the 20th century, he was contributing as a prosaist and publisher, though especially as a playwright; his dramas embrace religious topics in historical setting, like
La Reina Lupa (1924). His stand in the realm of letters, however, stemmed rather from his role as professor of
lengua y literatura castellanas in the
University of Santiago de Compostela. Sympathy for Carlism is clearly visible in early works of
José del Rio Sainz; they climaxed in his poema dramático
La amazona de Estella (1926), considered a Carlist homage. There were also a few, usually young people associated with Carlism who tried their hand as playwrights.
Antonio Pérez de Olaguer made his name within the Carlist realm of the early 1930s as a novelist and essayist, though he contributed also to drama. Together with
Benedicto Torralba de Damas he was the author of
Más leal que galante (1935), a fairly unique, explicit theatrical Carlist manifiesto which earned him the status of a party literary celebrity. Few militant and moralizing dramas classified as costumbrismo nostalgico were written by
Jaime del Burgo. Today plays like
Lealtad (1932),
Cruzados (1934),
Al borde de la traición (1936) are considered "ejemplos de teatro carlista tradicionalista”, with their key objective identified as presenting genuine Navarre and its customs as the fortress of traditional values. In poetry
Cristóbal Botella y Serra kept publishing poetry under pen-names in Integrist periodicals like
El Siglo Futuro until he died in unclear circumstances in the early 1920s. Another Carlist poetic offshoot was
Florentino Soria López, who abandoned Jaimismo and sided with the rebellious
Mellistas, later amalgamating into primoderiverista institutions. The old orthodox party executive
José Pascual de Liñán y Eguizábal also went on with poetic pieces, his classic verses praising traditional Spanish virtues, commenting ongoing events and honoring great men of Carlism. Some foreigners considered him "the best Spanish poet". A poet from the younger generation,
Manuel García-Sañudo, whose literary Carlist zeal carried him behind bars during the late Restoration years, moved from early lyrics of
Sonetos provincianos (1915) and
Romance de pobres almas (1916) to more belligerent strophes related to his assignment to Morocco.
Francisco Ureña Navas, a Carlist publisher from
Jaen, was locally recognized for his traditionalist poems, published in
Hojas y flores (1922); he was the leader of a local poetic grouping "El Madroño". Luis Carpio Moraga, a writer from
Baeza, wrote a sonnet in honour of the Carlist politician
Juan Vázquez de Mella a few days before the beginning of the
Spanish Civil War. Last but not least, on the vanguard end there was
José María Hinojosa, the young Carlist jefe in the
province of Málaga and contributor to Spanish
surrealist poetry; however, instead of Carlist themes he advanced somewhat icononoclastic vision. Hinojosa, along Ureña Navas, Torralba de Damas, Carpio Moraga and Rico Ariza, is among Carlist writers killed by their political opponents. In Gallego the Traditionalist poetry was contributed by
Enrique García-Rendueles; another author from Galicia who flavored some of his poems with Carlist threads was
Antonio Rey Soto.
War literature The 1936 outbreak of the warfare triggered a spate of literary works intended to mobilize support and sustain enthusiasm. Literary production of the
Republicans remained far lower than on the opposite side; in none of some 30 works identified there is a Carlist personaje worth noting, though some feature Carlist themes, like
A sangre y fuego by
Manuel Chaves Nogales (1937) or
Loretxo by Txomin Arruti (1937). Among the
nacionales there were at least 10 novels which featured the Carlists as major protagonists. They all fall into the wartime version of novela de tésis; written with clear moralizing objectives in mind they offer unelaborate narrative and sketchy Manichean personalities. This surge of novels glorifying Carlism lasted shortly and is at times dubbed the Carlist literary "swan song"; following the 1937
unification decree literature was increasingly tailored to fit in official propaganda, which permitted Carlist threads only when leading to amalgamation into
FET. The novel singled out as the most typical of Carlist literary vision of the war is
El teniente Arizcun by
Jorge Claramunt (1937); other candidates are
El Muro by
José Sanz y Díaz (1937)
Guerra en el frente, paz en las almas (1936),
Hágase tu voluntad (1937),
La Rosa del Maestrazgo (1939) by
Concepción Castella de Zavala;
Rosa-roja y flor de lis (1936),
La mochila del soldado (1937) by
Juan Bautista Viza, and the novels of
Jesús Evaristo Casariego:
Flor de hidalgos (1938) and especially
La ciudad sitiada (1939), the latter dubbed "patética apología del carlismo".
La promesa del tulipán by
Ignacio Romero Raizábal (1938) is slightly distinct as its protagonist is not the usual idealist but a sybarite who undergoes evolution before he volunteers to Requeté and finds reward, also in matters of the heart.
La enfermera de Ondárroa by Jorge Villarín (1938) untypically focuses on female figure, who dies with Viva Cristo Rey on her lips. Unlike a characteristically post-unificación work of Villarín and like Casariego, Pérez de Olaguer in short stories
Los de siempre (1937) and a novel
Amor y sangre (1939) advanced the Carlist cause up to the limits permitted by censorship, heroic Carlists are also protagonists of
Por mi Patria y por mi dama by
Ramón Solsona y Cardona (1938).
Triunfo and
En el gloria de amanacer by
María Sepulveda (both 1938) are samples of novels where the Carlists do not dominate, merged in a patriotic blend perfectly as expected by the regime. The Spanish Civil War triggered massive literary response abroad, yet most authors ignore Carlist threads; they are absent either in well-known works like
The Confidential Agent by
Graham Greene (1939) and
L’Espoir by
André Malraux (1945), or in most minor pieces, though there are exceptions. Definitely the most famous literary work written during or shortly after the Spanish Civil War,
For Whom the Bell Tolls of
Ernest Hemingway (1940), is only marginally related to the Carlist theme. A minor character lieutenant Paco Berrendo does not resemble a typical Carlist literary monster; also an anonymous mounted requeté, shot by Robert Jordan, is portrayed with compassion, resulting perhaps not that much from Hemingway's idea of Carlism but because of his fascination with Navarre. The Carlist theme attracted also few less-known writers, though. A novel of above-the-average literary quality is
Requeté by the French author Lucien Maulvault (1937). The work stands out for psychological undertones, unpredictable twists and turns of the plot and the overall tragic perspective. Sympathetic to the requeté effort rather than to Carlism as such, the novel laments the horror of civil war and seems pre-configuration of existentialist literature; others underline rather that it "articulates the aesthetics of engagement". == Francoism ==