17th-Century Spanish Literature: An Overview
17th-Century Poetry
Cultured lyric poetry explored romantic, mythological, moral, and philosophical themes, including the transience of life and death. Traditional and popular poetry found expression in compositions like carols and seguidillas. A notable development was the New Ballad (romance nuevo), written by educated poets on traditional themes such as historical and Moorish subjects.
Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561-1627)
Born in Córdoba, Góngora held various ecclesiastical positions. In 1617, he moved to Madrid to serve as royal chaplain. He later returned to Córdoba, where he died in 1627.
Poetic Works
Góngora’s poetry is characterized by its pursuit of beauty. It often avoids depictions of reality.
- First Stage (Youth): Traditional meters (letrillas, ballads, and laments) with less emphasis on culteranismo.
- Second Stage: Poems written in the full culterano style (sonnets), often referred to as “dark Góngora”.
His works include romances (various themes), letrillas (short satirical or burlesque verses with refrains), sonnets (love or satirical themes), and longer poems like The Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea and Soledad, which exemplify the culterano style: Latinate vocabulary, cultisms, metaphors, and a distinctly poetic, albeit challenging, language.
Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645)
Born in Madrid, Quevedo engaged in political activities and was imprisoned for five years.
Poetic Works
Quevedo’s poems, published posthumously in collections like The Spanish Parnassus and The Last Three Muses, emphasize expressive ingenuity, condensed thought, and intellectual playfulness. His poetry can be classified thematically:
- Philosophical/Moral: Expresses the pessimism and disillusionment of the time, focusing on the brevity of life and the inevitability of death.
- Love: Despite his misogynistic and misanthropic tendencies, Quevedo wrote beautiful love poems in the Petrarchan tradition.
- Satirical: Known for its deformation, caricature, irony, hyperbole, contrast, and humor, often targeting Góngora.
Prose Works
- El Buscón (a picaresque novel with a disillusioned and pessimistic tone, a complex style, and abundant rhetorical devices).
The Restoration of Theater in the 17th Century
The restoration of Spanish theater, spearheaded by Lope de Vega, involved:
- Mixing tragic and comic elements.
- Breaking the rule of three unities (action, time, and place).
- Dividing plays into three acts.
- Using diverse verse forms.
- Introducing the “gracioso” (comic character).
- Incorporating lyrical elements.
- Employing stock characters: the gallant, lady, gracioso, lady’s maid, villain, king, and knight.
- Exploring themes of honor, love, the monarchy, faith, and religion.
Lope de Vega (1562-1635)
Born in Madrid, Lope de Vega had numerous romantic relationships, some immortalized in his works. His later years were marked by hardship. He died in Madrid.
Lyric Poetry
Characterized by emotion and spontaneity, with a variety of themes and forms, ranging from traditional meters to more elaborate styles.
Epic Poetry
: Narrative poems such worship. Works in Prose growing all genres of fiction with the exception of the picaresque. Aunq Play lope de vega claims to have written a comedy in 1500 recognized as authentic reality comedias.se owes about 314 final fixation nacional.el comedy theater is characterized by: the aim is to entertain an audience and the development of profound questions. Main ideas: honor, feeling monarqico and religiosity. his work is classified, “comedies on historical and legendary Spanish (they are extracted from chronicles and romances)-invented subject constumbres comedies (animated develop arguments of intrigue and plot), religious plays (about 50 autosacramentales), other groups ( mythological comedy, ancient history and foreign)-comedy foreign history and legends. 4.6 Calderon de la Barca was born and died in Madrid (1600-1981) the theater presents a series of difference with respect to the lope: it tends to rationalism and philosophy, dramatic action and the language are more developed, scarce variety of scenes and anecdotes, more complicated and brilliant scenery. Play wrote only theater (120 plays and 80 auto sacramental) Types “philosophical drama (it is the subject of life fleeting as a dream and illusion, as well as that of the man’s freedom to choose their destiny. “drama of Spanish history and legend (it is the issues of equal justice for all: the honor …) honor-drama (the honor code is taken to extremes. “swashbuckling comedy (intrigue, folkloric atmosphere, action complicated entorono the theme of love)-auto sacramental (brief one-act pieces written in verse with religious alegoricos.temas characters)