La concepción romántica del arte literario: "El Miserere" de Bécquer

Abstract

In this article, Becquer’s El Miserere is studied as an example of what was, at that time, the ‘romantic’ conception of literature. With this aim, the writing of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer is first contextualized within its historical time: From 1854, when Becquer, like many other students with intellectual aspirations, moved to Madrid, until the arrival of the Glorious Revolution and subsequent Sexenio Democratico. These historical facts create the cultural environment and the social effervescence that made possible the writing of the Rhymes and Legends. This is also the time period in which the “capital awareness” is developed around the city of Madrid; as well as the period in which Krausist professors of the Central University of Madrid —such as Sanz, Salmeron, Giner or Castro— together with the agitation of the bourgeoisie draw a political line which clearly differs from that of Becquer mentored by Gonzalez Bravo. This paper ends with an explanation of the legend entitled “El Miserere”, which is examined interwoven in the ideological coordinates of Spanish Romanticism, such as the image of Adam’s Dream, the ideology of music in Spanish Romanticism and finally, the way in which —due to aesthetical reasons— this artistic movement reframes our past to then build upon it different present.