Las leyendas becquerianas: Gustavo Adolfo Becquer a la vanguardia del simbolismo frances

Targeting Becquer's Legends, this study reevaluates Gustavo Adolfo Becquer as a precursor of French Symbolism in Spain. Although his Legends were written before 1870, they exhibit numerous characteristics of French Symbolism. Considering that French Symbolism flourished around 1885, this study invites Hispanists to reconsider currently accepted notions that presence of Symbolism in Hispanic writing came after 1870 and only from foreign literatures. This work explores current research indicating that some features in Becquer's prose anticipate French Symbolism, being substantially identical to the movement without Becquer actually coming in contact with French writers.; The first chapter summarizes current literary criticism regarding symbolist elements noted in Becquer's literary style. Also analyzed are the various arguments concerning which of Becquer's narratives are legends, and which ones are not. The second chapter explores the prevalence of pure, unadulterated sensory perceptions, while the third chapter focuses on complex, reiterative sensory perceptions, multisensory combinations of visual and auditory stimuli, the contrast between noise and silence, and Becquer's unique penchant for synesthesia. This use of sensory perceptions and synesthesia, long accepted as main postulates of French Symbolism, clearly positions Becquer at the vanguard of the Symbolist movement.; The fourth chapter treats the elusive and ineffable in Becquer's narrative. Terms used by French Symbolists evoke haziness and suggestion throughout the narratives. Also featured in this chapter are Becquer's anticipation of the classic Symbolist struggles of man against fate. The focus of the fifth chapter is on psychological aspects and exteriorization of feelings, and the frailties of the human psyche confronted by the Symbolist doctrine. The sixth chapter delves into other attributes presented in Symbolist writings as well as in Becquer's Legends. Aspects discussed in this chapter are the escape from materialism, the unknown and the mysterious, the combination of the divine and the diabolic, and the mixture of the natural and the spiritual.; The present study encompasses relevant elements found in seventeen of Becquer's legends which provide strong evidence of the correspondence between the literary techniques used by French Symbolists and those previewed in the Legends of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer.