Romanticism in Spanish literature

Romanticism arrived late and lasted only for a short but intense period, since in the second half of the 19th century it was supplanted by Realism, whose nature was antithetical to that of Romantic literature.

Romanticism is thought of as complex and confusing, with great contradictions that range from rebellious, revolutionary ideas to the return of the Catholic and monarchial tradition. With respect to political liberty, some understood it merely as the restoration of the ideological, patriotic, and religious values that the 18th century rationalists had tried to suppress. They exalted Christianity, throne, and country as supreme values. In this "traditional Romanticism" camp one would place Walter Scott in Scotland, Chateaubriand in France, and the Duke of Rivas and José Zorrilla in Spain. It was based on the ideology of the restoration of absolute monarchy in Spain, which originated after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, and defended the traditional values represented by Church and State. On the other hand, other Romantics, as free citizens, fought the entire established order in religion, art, and politics. They proclaimed the rights of the individual over and against society and the law. They represented "revolutionary" or "liberal" Romanticism, and their most notable members were Lord Byron, in England, Victor Hugo, in France, and José de Espronceda, in Spain. The movement's three underlying ideas were: the quest for and justification of "irrational" understanding, which reason denies, Hegelian dialectic, and historicism.

Costumbrism focused on contemporary life, largely from the point of view of the "common" people, and expressed itself in pure, correct language. The principal author in the Costumbrist style was Ramón de Mesonero Romanos, situated on the margins of Romanticism, and in an ironic position in relation to it. Costumbrism, born out of Romanticism, but as a manifestation of nostalgia for the values and customs of the past, contributed to the decadence of the Romantic movement and the rise of Realism, as it became bourgeois and turned into a style of description.

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