Baroque Literature: Denotation, Cohesion, Cervantes, and More
Denotation and Connotation
Denotation: It represents the basic meaning of a word, its objective and stable reality shared by all speakers of a community.
Connotation: Is the set of meanings or subjective values that are associated with the objective meaning of a word.
Example:
Needle:
- Denotation: Small, sharp bar.
- Connotation: Pain.
Cohesion and Fitness
Cohesion: Connection.
Ellipsis: Suppression of linguistic elements that are easily understood thanks to the context. Example: Finish the job, then (go) to that (place).
Fitness: The property whereby the text is adapted to the communicative situation.
Aspects to take into account: Presentation, purpose, register, genre.
Consistency: It makes a text be interpreted as a unit of information where all elements are related to achieve a global significance. Management of subsections and structure leads to a selection and organization.
Cervantes
Life:
- 1547: Born in Alcalá de Henares.
- Fought in Lepanto and was wounded in the left arm (The Cripple of Lepanto).
- Returned to Spain and was captured by pirates, spent 5 years captive in Algiers.
- Rescued by monks and returned to Madrid.
- Began his life as a writer.
- Imprisoned in Seville for financial problems as a collector.
- From 1605: More fruitful stage of his literary creation.
- 1616: Died in Madrid.
Narrative Work:
La Galatea:
- Pastoral novel with an amorous topic.
- Simple argument, limited space, short time.
- Pastors Elisio and Erastro in love with Galatea.
- Story takes place on the Tagus River for 10 days.
- Interpolated stories: Stories of love that other shepherds live and tell.
- Poems: Almost the entire book is in prose but incorporates love poetry.
- Debates: Philosophical debates about love.
- Unfinished novel, with unresolved stories. Cervantes promised a second part.
Novelas Ejemplares:
- Realistic and idealistic, critical and conformist, burlesque and serious.
- Incorporates other narrative models of the time and folk material.
- Lack a common framework and are complex despite their apparent ease.
- Stories of love and friendship.
Rinconete y Cortadillo:
- (Relationship to the picaresque genre).
- Consists of two parts:
- Presentation and picaresque adventures of the protagonists.
- The young men stay in the courtyard of Monipodio, where they witness how criminals act and live. Rincón is amazed by the perverted morals of the mobsters.
- Joy and humor in the narrative.
- Dialogue plays an important role.
Los Trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda:
- Byzantine novel.
- Couple of young and noble lovers who make a long pilgrimage from Northern Europe to Spain and Italy.
- Face many dangers during the journey, which are emerging evidence of their virtue, so they can get married.
- Journey is a symbol of human life, which becomes perfect with the intervention of divine providence.
Don Quijote de la Mancha:
Editions:
- Part 1 (1605): “The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha.” Prologue, burlesque poems, 52 chapters in 4 parts.
- Part 2 (1615): “The Ingenious Knight Don Quixote de la Mancha.” Prologue and 74 chapters.
Sources:
- Influence of an anonymous work from the 16th century, “The Interlude of Romance.”
Foreword:
- The author states that the purpose of the work is a critique of the books of chivalry.
Structure:
- The main action is organized into three outings:
- Leaving the village: The 1st time alone, the other two with Sancho.
- Adventure series: Don Quixote is confronted with reality and fails. In the 3rd outing, there is a change: he is no longer the hero, but others distort reality.
- Return to the village: The 3 outings end with the return home of the protagonist.
- (The characters meet with other characters and originate episodes outside the central action).
Time and Space:
- Chronological, linear narrative.
- Temporary allusions are rare, incoherent, and nonsensical.
- In Part 1, the characters travel to La Mancha and Sierra Morena.
- In Part 2, they travel to Aragon and Catalonia; the central space is the Palace of the Dukes.
Characters:
- Belong to all social categories.
- The protagonists are two different figures linked by friendship and loyalty.
Themes and Meaning:
- Comic and satirical book.
- The Romantics considered it the ideal novel.
- Don Quixote and the conflict between the real and the ideal.
- Realistic-looking perspective and comic-burlesque.
- Themes of idealism, freedom, love.
- Literature is present in different forms:
- Review: The book talks about literature; there is literary criticism.
- Reading: In the novel, literature is read.
- Scripture: In the novel, literature is written.
Narrative and Narrator:
- Home narrator: Omniscient.
- Fictional authors: Cide Hamete Benengeli. The original is translated by a Moorish Aljamiado.
Baroque Poetry and Prose
Baroque literature continued with the creative principles of the Renaissance while incorporating deep innovations related to the ideology of the new historical period.
- Between 1580 and 1610: First stage of transition and initiation of renewal.
- Second stage: Fullness (1st third of the 17th century) with great Baroque works.
- Second half of the 17th century: Imitation and decay.
Ideology of the Baroque:
- Baroque art is the expression of a worldview and a vital attitude determined by a socio-historical context of conflict.
- Pessimistic conception and feeling of disappointment.
- Uncertainty caused by appearances and constant change.
- Reality is conceived as a struggle of opposites (light and shadow).
- Baroque combined religious festivals with laughter and pleasure.
- Weakness of man, fleeting nature of time, and presence of death.
Collective Beliefs:
- Intensification of irrationalism, a magical vision of reality, and belief in the supernatural.
- Increased obsession with cleaning the blood, honor, and misogyny.
- Pursuit of pleasure and beauty, realistic acceptance, or ascetic spirituality.
- Stoic philosophy.
Baroque Culture:
- The crisis of the 17th century coincided with a period of great cultural splendor, so this period, along with the Renaissance, is known as the Golden Age.
- Demonstrations of Spanish Baroque culture are influenced by the Catholic principles of the Counter-Reformation.
- Patronage (promotion of artistic activities).
- Official culture in the hands of universities and colleges.
- The majority of the population was illiterate, and information was transmitted orally and visually.
- Religion was imparted through sermons, images, and festivals.
Baroque Festival:
- Tendency to show off at parties and in public life.
- Rise of the theater.
Baroque Prose:
- Fiction narrative prose and intellectual purposes, both didactic and moralistic, satirical tone.
- Pastoral novel: The Arcadia (1598), Lope de Vega.
- Byzantine novel: “The work of Persiles and Segismunda” (1617), Cervantes.
- Court novella: Amorous and exemplary novels (1637), Maria de Zayas.
- Didactic prose works include historical, political, and religious.
Picaresque Novel:
Guzmán de Alfarache:
- Mateo Alemán, 1604.
- Has two discourse plans: Narrative of the life of a rogue and constant moral reflections of the narrator.
- Presented as an autobiography in which episodes that determine the evolution of the protagonist are selected.
El Buscón:
- Francisco de Quevedo.
- Described as a picaresque novel for being a fictional autobiographical portrait of a miserable person, but introduces so many changes that its classification within the genre is at issue.
Didactic Prose of Quevedo:
Sueños:
- Published in 1627 and re-edited in 1631, censored and corrected, now titled Juguetes de la Niñez.
- Collection of stories that represent the satire of social groups and individuals exemplifying misconduct.
- “Dream of the Last Judgment.”
- “Dream of Hell.”
- “The Possessed Sheriff.”
- “The World Inside Out.”
- “Dream of Death.”
Gracián’s Didactic Prose:
- Gracián’s works are directed to a minority, and their purpose is to teach standards based on reason and wisdom to achieve improvement.
- El Criticón: Represents an allegory of human life.