The notion of silence is not one that is usually associated with the Spanish eighteenth century, or its literature. This was an age of reason, marked by new ideas, technologies, literature and fashion, but also by friendship, sociability and the importance of sharing knowledge. Many of the dominant trends of the period were the very antithesis of silence and solitude; new royal academies were founded, as were sociedades de amigos del país, and the periodic press became an essential vehicle for dissemination of new ideas.
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