tremendismo

The book could be said to explore a Spanish version of Existentialism (known as tremendismo).

This novel is fundamental to the generation of "tremendismo," which focuses on the treatment of its characters and is marked by extended and frequent violent scenes.

In fact, "La Familia de Pascual Duarte" is the first novel of the "tremendismo" style of writing.

She learns not to rush headlong into a text without having assessed it first, like a novillero who engages in tremendismo, a foolhardy style that consists in taunting the bull without bothering to gauge his behaviour.

An important European writer, her works contributed to the school of Existentialist Literature and her first novel Nada continued the Spanish Tremendismo literary style begun by Camilo José Cela with his novel, La familia de Pascual Duarte.

The author of several important novels of the 1940's and 50's, he is viewed by critics and scholars as a figure who, in departing from the comfortable, purist styles of much Spanish writing in the Franco years, developed the intense, stark, unsparing realism given the name "tremendismo," alluding to the electrifying effect his books had on readers.