Resignationism gave way to a harsh
and searching questioning, and questioning to denunciation and demand
for reform. The monarchy swayed this way and that, seeking to avoid both
the peril of too much yielding and the worse peril of not yielding
enough. The Church, on the defensive once more, prepared quickly for
stormy weather and sent hurried calls to Rome for help. Nor was all this
uproar on the political and practical side. Spanish letters, for years
sunk into formalism, revived with the national spirit, and the new books
in prose and verse began to deal vigorously with the here and now.
Novelists, poets and essayists appeared who had never been heard of
before--young men full of exciting ideas borrowed from foreign lands and
even more exciting ideas of their own fashioning. The national
literature, but lately so academic and remote from existence, was now
furiously lively, challenging and provocative. The people found in it,
not the old placid escape from life, but a new stimulation to arduous
and ardent living. And out of the ruck of authors, eager, exigent, and
the tremendous clash of nations, new and old, there finally emerged a
prose based not upon rhetorical reminiscences, but responsive minutely
to the necessities of the national life.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25