The Generation of '98

The Generation of '98 — a group of writers including Unamuno, Machado, and Valle-Inclán — responded to Spain's catastrophic loss of its last colonies (Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines) by turning national trauma into existential literature of extraordinary power.

Under Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975), fiction became underground memory and coded resistance. When the regime silenced direct political speech, writers turned to metaphor, magical realism, and layered narratives that said everything by appearing to say nothing.