A Journey Through Spanish Literary History: From Medieval Times to the Baroque Era

Posted on Sep 21, 2024 in Latin

Socio-cultural-historical Literary Discourse

1. The Middle Ages

Features:

  • Works were often preserved in manuscript form, incomplete, lost, or anonymous.
  • Literature was primarily transmitted orally due to low literacy rates.
  • Monks played a crucial role in transcribing texts, leading to a predominantly theocentric focus in literature.
  • Genres did not adhere to classical models.
  • Warfare was a recurring theme, reflecting the sociopolitical climate.
  • The fifteenth century saw a surge in works exploring themes of death, exemplified by Jorge Manrique’s “Couplets to the Death of His Father.”
  • The presence of Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula and the Christian Reconquista heavily influenced literary themes.
  • Alfonso X “The Wise” promoted the translation of texts into Castilian, contributing to the development of Castilian prose and the establishment of the Toledo School of Translators.
  • The reign of the Catholic Monarchs witnessed the expulsion of Jews and Muslims, and the imposition of Castilian and Catalan languages towards the end of the fifteenth century.

2. The Renaissance (Humanistic Philosophy)

  • There was a resurgence of classical models and a shift from theocentricism to anthropocentrism, emphasizing the perfection of humankind.
  • Humanism flourished, promoting the study of Grammar, Rhetoric, Poetry, History, and Philosophy.
  • Erasmus of Rotterdam, a prominent scholar, sought to reconcile Christianity with contemporary ideas.
  • Neoplatonism, based on the philosophical ideas of Plato, gained prominence.
  • The Catholic Church maintained strict control over the translation and interpretation of the Bible.

3. The Baroque

Most Important Features:

  • A departure from balance and harmony.
  • A sense of disillusionment with reality.
  • Considered a Golden Age for art and culture.
  • Spain experienced a period of social crisis and decline.
  • The expulsion of the Moors under Philip III’s reign exacerbated the political and economic decline.
  • The War of Succession, sparked by disputes over the successor to Charles II, further impoverished Spain, leading to plague, famine, and division.

Changing Forms of Literary Genres

Lyric Poetry

1. The Middle Ages

  • Characterized by simplicity, brevity, anonymity, and the use of octosyllabic verse.
  • Traditional Lyric: Anonymous, simple, and transmitted orally through songs with refrains (carols) and jarchas.
  • Lyrical Worship: Written by known authors, employing a more formal language, and utilizing dodecasyllabic verse (copla de arte mayor) or hendecasyllabic verse (sonnet).
  • Courtly love, a prominent theme, often employed allegory and metaphors.
  • Medieval themes of morality, existentialism, and pessimism also found expression in lyrical poetry.

2. The Renaissance

  • Influenced by Italian poets like Francesco Petrarch.
  • Introduction of the heptasílabo (seven-syllable verse) and the growing popularity of the hendecasyllable.
  • The Sonnet: A fourteen-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme.
  • The Lira: A stanza form alternating between seven-syllable and hendecasyllabic lines.
  • Eclogues: Poems featuring shepherds as characters and exploring themes of love.
  • Odes: Poems praising a person or thing.
  • Elegies: Poems commemorating the dead.
  • Revival of classical myths and literary tropes like Carpe diem, Beatus ille (praise of the simple life), and Locus amoenus (idealized landscapes).

3. The Baroque

  • Characterized by complexity, ornamentation, and a blend of traditional and cultured elements.
  • Use of bold contrasts, metaphors, and antithesis.
  • Themes of disillusionment and unrequited love.
  • Continued use of odes and elegies.
  • Obscure language and mythological allusions.

Epic Poetry

1. The Middle Ages

  • Mester of Minstrelsy: Popular, anonymous, and orally transmitted tales of warriors and heroic deeds.
  • Cantares de gesta: Epic poems based on real events and historical figures, written in a variety of verse forms with assonantal rhyme.
  • Mester of Clergy: Religious and moral stories written in isometric verse with rhyme, often using the cuaderna vía stanza form.
  • The Story: Originating in India and transmitted through Arabic traditions, stories served didactic purposes, often in the form of fables.
  • Folk Tales: Cultured stories transmitted orally.
  • Books of Chivalry: Prose narratives celebrating idealized heroes and their adventures, often episodic in structure.
  • Romances: Narrative poems, typically in octosyllabic verse with assonantal rhyme, popular in the fifteenth century.

2. The Renaissance

  • The mid-sixteenth century saw the emergence of the novel, with Lazarillo de Tormes considered a pioneering example.
  • Italian literary influences played a significant role in the development of the novel.

Novelistic Genres

  • Sentimental Novel: Focused on themes of love and idealized reality.
  • Picaresque Novel: Emerging in the second half of the sixteenth century, this genre offered a more critical and realistic portrayal of society, often through the eyes of a roguish protagonist (e.g., Lazarillo de Tormes, Guzman Alfarache).
  • Books of Chivalry: Continued to be popular, offering idealized portrayals of chivalry and adventure.
  • Pastoral Novels: Idealized depictions of rural life and shepherds.
  • Moorish Novel: Featuring Moorish characters and settings, often romanticized.
  • Byzantine Fiction: A genre popularized by authors like Cervantes and Lope de Vega in the seventeenth century.

Theatre

in January. The mean age practically had to reinventar.Forma rudimentary theater, was a succession of passion Christology monólogos.Escenas Christmas. (Only retain the “Order of the Magi” is a handwritten book represents the journey of the Magi and their visit to Herod. Some authors say that is incomplete. Siglo XIII) The representations of profanity in the fifteenth century evolved . 2. The Renaissance: secular theater is consolidated, but arises popular theater. XVI.Por century the Counter arise again works of religious origin, cars sacramentales.Diferencia between tragedy and comedy – characters were different, those were noble tragedy and the comedy could not be nobles, ( as the nobles were unable to laugh) I had to be people of ordinary people. – Tragicomedy: “La Celestina” (Fernando de Rojas) has Renaissance and medieval features, written in prose, is intended to be read because it was very long 21 actos.No imitating the classical authors did not follow either the genre of comedy nor the tragedia.Se together the two genres, the comedy and tragedy. – Cult: university tradition, five acts, written in verse comedy differed tragedy, did not mix genres. Use the ruler of the three units. Unity of action: they could not have many interlocking stories not to confuse the public. Unity of time: telling a story that could not occur in more than a rebirth Day added playwrights unit Instead I could not go beyond the limits of city / país.Con this theater was verosímil.En the sixteenth century popular theater emerges: they came from Italy some theater companies. “Ll commedia d’art.” Actors were fixed roles which are based on improvisation, was represented in the village and was a theater rather vulgar. It was addressed to pueblo.Imitando this in Spain introduced a popular theater more seriously – Traditional Lope de Rueda think comic pieces, called short and popular steps. The short works that are represented among the events are called long pieces and ntremeses, be called if the XVII. Sainete is the same as starter and what happened, was the first to write Lope de Rueda. Barroco Lope Felix de Vega Carpio invented the formula of popular theater that was very successful in the late sixteenth century, the seventeenth century many works were performed.She loved the naturalness pueblo.Buscaba not respected the rule of the three units. Baroque theater was the opposite clásico.Lope de Vega theater gave the people the joy of the happy endings of his works. All his works call plays, but mixed tragedy with comedy (mingled with the nobles commoners) wrote in verse and adjusted the verse and the verse in terms of character or situación.Estas no longer works were divided into five acts, if not entertaining 3.Buscaba, was a tremendous success, and take the opportunity to make propaganda for the king and the monarchy. “The new art of making comedies,” Lope de Vega. Autos sacramental character peculiarity had kindness, evil, sin, alegóricos.Se characters represented in pens (backyards).