Baptism and confirmation of the Reset Generation (1989-1999). A Thematological Analysis of Recent Spanish Poetry

Abstract

This study is based on the definition of generation provided by José Ortega y Gasset and its critical development to delimit a historical time —birth, events, sensitivities, training, hobbies— and a literary space —generational contacts, teachers, publications, language— in which to encompass a relevant and valuable part of recent Spanish poetry, which has been called the Reset Generation. Thus, a detailed thematological analysis of his lyrical production is offered, which is structured into a total of five blocks: 1) everyday life, the city and the evils of the beginning of the century, where elements such as music, new technologies, social networks, the city and its spaces, advertising, pop culture, the uncertain future, isolation or imposture are examined; 2) family, home and poetic space, where the figures of fathers and mothers and the figures of grandfathers and grandmothers —some with their own names—, the search for home and the configuration of a poetic space are analyzed; 3) pain, illness and individual or collective death, where diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease or senile dementia are considered and individual death is realized through suicide and collective death through contemporary tragedies and of the fantasies of the apocalypse; 4) development of queer poetics, where there is a trend marked by repressed homosexuality and another trend marked by normalized homosexuality; and 5) the gaze of women in poetic discourse, where suggestive motifs such as feminism, female sexuality focused on desire, possession, masturbation and sexual tastes or motherhood arise, narrated, claimed or rejected. Finally, the conclusions present a thematic list and a list regarding the attitudes —accumulative or combative— and the aspects —succession and secession versus overlap and opposition— located between all components of the Reset Generation.