Precursors of Costumbrismo: the creation of a genre at the end of the Spanish Enlightenment

However, critics widely agree that costumbrista literature began to emerge in Spain in the second half of the eighteenth century in Spectator-style periodicals such as El Duende Especulativo sobre la Vida Civil (1761), El Pensador (1762-67) and El Censor (1781-87).

These Madrid-based newspapers helped cultivate a nascent costumbrista prose and published articles penned by reform-minded collaborators who offered critical representations of local customs with the aim of improving Spanish society in accordance with enlightened, reformist values. Whilst the significance of these periodicals to the development of costumbrismo has been widely explored, early costumbrista literature published during the reign of Carlos IV (1788-1808) has received little critical attention. <br><br>This thesis provides an original insight into the late eighteenth-century precursors of 1830s costumbrismo, focusing on its development as a literary genre during the reign of Carlos IV in costumbrista-style prose articles published in different issues of the Diario de Madrid between 1788 and 1808, and in an assorted collection of six main costumbrista works that appeared during these two decades.