The Quarrel of Realism. Novel and Literary System in Spanish Narrative

Abstract

Drawing on the concept of “living criticism” coined by Antonio Candido (1957), these reflections start from the hypothesis that Spanish literary history has realism as the unmarked place of its narrative in the Castilian language. By reviewing the “decisive moments” of its novelistic tradition, this essay postulates that if realism appears repressed in Spanish narrators from the 19th century onwards (when an eminently liberal-conservative literary system is formed), it is due to the fact that this debate, left unaddressed, still remains in a state of “quarrel”.

Keywords: realism; Spanish narrative; literary system in Spain