Larra is perhaps the first Spanish author to write totally liberated from the patronage regime, within a still very rudimentary and capitalist society. He occupies an eminent place in Spanish literature for his hundreds of journalistic articles. His area of expertise is translations for theater and newspaper articles. It is in his articles that the author better expresses his particular personality, adapting himself to ever-changing political circumstances, writing with satirical and aggressive prose when the censorship allows, and otherwise reluctantly avoiding expressing his opinions. He is the first writer who, due to his independent personal attitude, can be considered rigorously modern.

Mariano José de Larra stubbornly displays his individuality. In this and in many other circumstances of his biography, such as his suicide, he is one of the highest exponents of Spanish Romanticism. He offers a continuous testimony of himself, struggling with the external reality that surrounds him. As a writer, he fights the organization of the State and many aspects of national politics,  such as absolutism and Carlism. He rebels at society, which he perceived as harsh,  selfish, and uneducated. He also attacked family life, an institution in which he blames his own frustrations.

His character brought him disagreement with the literature that was cultivated, in which he found a pitiful dependence on the foreign one. Nonconformist, he does not believe in literary dogmas or school recipes, but in the talent that a writer freely creates in the service of progress. He resentfully fights against what he considered the excessive sentimental style of the last neoclassical,  all about expression and nothing about ideas. It is his firm intention to break with the imitation of the literary language of previous centuries to obtain a  am more modern language, free of unnecessary and archaistic constraints. Under the belief that the language must evolve with time, Larra develops a personal style of extraordinary vigor, energy, and forcefulness, moldable to the continuous tension in which he writes. 

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Colección de artículos dramáticos, literarios, políticos y de costumbres (1835)

Humor

Literary journalism

Narrative Nonfiction

Social criticism

The word Romanticism refers to a cultural and political movement that had its heyday in the first half of the 19th century and that affected both Spain and other European and American countries. Spain adopted the general lines of Romanticism, with its own nuances due in large part to the turbulent political situation in the country. During the 19th century, Spain experienced one of the most agitated periods in its history. The century opens with the War of Independence and ends with the disaster of 1898, the date that marks the loss of colonial control of Cuba. The political tensions are enormous, and the national culture becomes negligible. The writers participate in the struggle between liberals and traditionalists that covers the entire century. Those Spanish writers with affinities to liberal Romanticism admire and consider as heroes the English Lord Byron and the French Victor Hugo, Among the most relevant are Alexander Dumas, Alfredo de Vigny, Espronceda, Gil de Zárate, and Hartzenbush.

Romantic poets are highly inspired writers, creating the poem by an emotional process that condenses what they feel till they obtain a product with a pure sentiment, bringing to life works of sincere and outstanding lyricism. This firm intention to match the poet's feelings on occasions produces the somehow unintended result of a poem falls into the vulgar, the prosaic, and the oratory. Most frequently the tones are melancholic, exultant, with occasional tones of protest that sometimes ends in nihilism. Most of the authors sing with loving intimacy,  inspired by historical, legendary, and exotic themes, prowling by an attraction to the mysterious. Their absolute rebellious attitude takes them to sometimes rebel against social norms and against life itself, their favorite values ​​being gallantry, virility, and dissent, always proclaiming their pessimism and gesture with a dishartened spirit.

Romanticism

Teatro Crítico I, by Benito J. Feijoo

Diccionario de Autoridades of Real Academia 

Orígenes de la lengua española, by Gregorio Mayans

Poética, by Ignacio de Luzán

Vida, by Diego de Torres Villarroel

Fray Gerundio de Campazas, by José Francisco de Isla

La petimetra, by Nicolás Fernández de Moratín

El delincuente honrado, by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos

Fábulas morales, Félix M. Samaniego

Fábulas literarias, by Tomás de Iriarte

Poesías, by Juan Meléndez Valdés

Cartas marruecas, by José de Cadalso

La comedia nueva, by Leandro Fernández Moratín

Informe sobre la ley agraria, by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos

Exequias de la lengua castellana, by Juan Pablo Former

Edition of the first French encyclopedia. Diderot's work, although widely criticized, can be considered the first modern encyclopedia.

Samuel Johnson publishes the Dictionary of the English language, with uses, customs and definitions of the words that make up the English language. Includes terms that appear in Shakespeare and other great authors of British literature.

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

Harmonia Mundi, by Kepler

Novum Organum, by Bacon

Tartufo, by Molière

Don Juan, by Moière

Paradise Lost, by Milton

Ethics, by Spinoza

The 5th Symphony, by Ludwig van Beethoven. 

Symphonie Fantastique, by Hector Berlioz, the musical story of an artist's self-destructive passion for a beatiful woman.

Publication of the psychological novel Le Rouge et le Noir, by Stendhal.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles published The Communist Manifest.

The United Stated wins its independence from the UK.

The French Revolution begins and will end in late 1790 with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, a luminous allegory of magic, premiers at Schikaneder's thater.

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Artículo en La Revista Española (1833)

By Mariano José de Larra

Time Period: Romanticism

Genre: Humor, Literary journalism, Narrative Nonfiction, Social criticism

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