Camilo José Cela's literary production is very varied, dominating a general negative concept of the world in his style. Above all, he is a virtuoso in command of the language. Although sometimes branded by critics as rhetorical and contrived, his style is the result of deep knowledge of the language, of its richness and expressive and rhythmic possibilities, with the usual handling of multiple registers: bitter harshness, torn humor, and poetic tone.

His creations are vigorous, where a cruel and bitter tone are the main characteristics of his realistic narrative and with a ruthless criticism against the ruin or ridiculous in the human being and in society.  Sometimes he collects anecdotes directly from reality to serve as the of his novels, and others he consciously distorts that reality to obtain a  satirical tone of the prose, very close to Quevedo's or the grotesque one of the bizarre Valle-Inclán. 

The multifaceted writer practices with a great diversity of structures in the construction of a novel, each one constituting a new technique and setting the standard of a model in itself. The novel La familia de Pascual Duarte (1942) was the prose of experimentation in bitterness, where the actions are accumulated in gruesome and torn writing, a narrative technique trend later named 'tremendismo'. In Pabellón de reposo (1944),  the action is reduced to its maximum expression, describing the illusions and anguish of the sick patients in a mental hospital. A few years later, La colmena (1951) was a new twist in Cela's prose, a prelude to what will be known as "social realism", in which the author reflects on daily life in a  harsh and endearing tone. Hundreds of characters briefly bustle through the pages of this novel,  sketched in quick notes with the background of post-war Madrid. 

Cela also wrote several short novels, stories, articles, essays, and travel books, where he presents with grace and a certain sadness, landscapes, towns, and the life of simple people. His work has been notorious in  Spanish letters since he began to write. His social concerns, his ideal of a novel as a testimony, and his craving for exploration and renewal are keynotes of his style, always maintaining a peculiar attitude between the prohibited, the marginal, the heterodox, and the official. A foul-mouthed sneer, his vital role was in some way that of a buffoon,  sarcastically criticizing hypocritical aspects of society, such as false pious women,  "caciques" disguised of well-intentioned rules, and many other influential forces of his time. 

La familia de Pascual Duarte

La colmena

Viaje a la Alcarria

Mazurca para dos muertos

Cristo versus Arizona

Oficio de tinieblas 5

Madra de boj

The novel is structured in fragments that add in a multitude of scenes the fragments of the life of the beings that make up the human hive that is the great city

Narrative

In 1970  was published the poetic anthology Nueve novisimos poetas españoles (Nine Newest Spanish Poets), giving the name to this literary movement that is made up of authors who for the most part did not experience the Spanish Civil War. These authors are more interested in writing for a consumer society,  themselves very influenced by elements of the more opulent society of consumerism,  such as comics, movies, and different types of modern music, particularly jazz, and rock. This is definitely a movement of renewal of the literary technique, with a detachment from the previous social realism and an approach to contemporary European and American literary trends. 

In prose, the change is announced by Martín Santos's novel, Tiempo de silencio, where the author makes compatible the still social denunciation with a technical renewal of style and experimentation. For these authors the subject is not as important as the style, placing themselves in a refreshing and avant-garde line. Some will experiment with surrealism, others with an aesthetic refinement that came to be called Venetian, and finally, others are attracted to a decadent and a neo-modernist aesthetic.

Post Civil War Generation

Gerardo Diego publishes  a book of poems,Alondra de verdad.

Camilo José Cela writes La familia de Pascual Duarte, a family story that reflects the existential pessimism that postwar Spain was experiencing.

Pio Baroja writes a recollection of his memories entitled Desde la última vuelta del camino.

Luis Rosales writes La casa encendida, a book of poems in which he   describes different vital stages under the philosophical background of the irreversibility of time and the existential pain of a life split into unrelated pieces.

Publication of Candide, by Voltaire. Candide is living a sheltered but indoctirinated life.

Albert Camus writes Le Étranger, an existentialist novel that reflects on the absurdity of life.

Alberto Moravia writes The conformist,  a daring novel pleading against the mechanisms of the totalitarian state.

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La colmena (1950)

By Camilo José Cela

Time Period: Post Civil War Generation

Genre: Narrative

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