Baroque Mentality and Golden Age Spanish Literature
Baroque Mentality and Society
Essential Features
The Baroque mentality’s essential feature was a distrust in itself and a fear of social downfall. Key issues included disillusionment, the perception of life as a dream, and obsession. Society, however, loved holidays (especially theater) and luxury. Honor was another significant topic.
It was a period of conservatism and caution in freedom of expression, a consequence of the counter-spirit. A feature of Baroque art was artifice—the concealment of reality to admire, surprise, or deceive.
The Discreet by Baltasar Gracián
This work reflects the most Baroque model of behavior.
A New Aesthetic in Literature
The Renaissance and Baroque periods in literature are distinguished by a significant gap in literary conception and language between authors such as Garcilaso and Góngora, and between Lazarillo de Tormes and the picaresque novels.
16th Century Spanish Language
During the Golden Age, Spanish acquired many features of its current pronunciation and vocabulary.
Nebrija’s Castilian Grammar (1492)
Nebrija assumed Castilian had reached a degree of perfection. He believed that someday it would disappear and that speakers of other languages could rebuild it. However, Castilian, as a Romance language, became increasingly important.
Treasury of the Castilian or Spanish Language by Sebastián de Covarrubias (1611)
This work provides word definitions, including the author’s personal opinions.
The maturity of the Spanish language, along with the printing press, helped to standardize its usage.
16th Century Poetry: Stages and Flows
16th-century Spanish poetry is divided into two major stages:
- 1511-1543: Themes, genres, and verses from the cancionero tradition. The main theme was courtly love.
- 1543-1580: The works of Boscán and Garcilaso de la Vega, along with the emergence of Lope de Vega and Luis de Góngora. The dissemination of new Renaissance poetry from Italy, influencing versification, genres, and themes.
Sources
Poetry drew from Petrarchan and classical traditions. Petrarch’s songs (his love story with Laura) served as a model for Golden Age poetry. Classical traditions also revived literary forms like the ode and elegy, with poets such as Virgil, Ovid, and Horace serving as literary models.
New Forms
Besides the song and the ode, the hendecasyllable was frequently used.
- The Sonnet: Two quatrains (ABBA ABBA) and two tercets (CDC DCD or CDE CDE).
- Petrarchan Song: Several stanzas of hendecasyllables and heptasyllables in various combinations.
- Tercet: (ABA BCB CDC…) Used in elegies, epistles, and satires.
- Octava Rima: (ABABABCC) A verse form used in epic and narrative poetry.
- Lira: (aBabB) Used to imitate the Horatian ode.
Garcilaso de la Vega
Garcilaso’s work represents the final integration of Italian poetic forms into Spanish. It combines exquisite musicality and perfect structural balance, representing a high point of Spanish lyric poetry.
Poetry After Garcilaso
(From 1543 onwards) Three major poets emerged after Garcilaso: Fernando de Herrera, Fray Luis de León, and San Juan de la Cruz.
Fernando de Herrera
Herrera (1534-1597) is considered the best poet after Garcilaso. His 1582 collection of poems includes sonnets, songs, elegies, and pastorals, reflecting Petrarchism and classical tradition. His annotations elaborate on the aesthetic ideas outlined by Garcilaso de la Vega (1580).
San Juan de la Cruz
Juan de Yepes (1542-1591), a Carmelite friar, is one of the greatest Castilian lyric poets. He built upon Garcilaso’s tradition with originality, focusing on mystical experiences, the union of soul and divinity, compared to the union of lovers. His three great poems are Dark Night of the Soul, Spiritual Canticle, and Living Flame of Love.
Baroque Poetry
Baroque poetry experienced significant development. Any subject could be poetic: a historical event, a mythological figure, a celebration, etc. Common themes included the brevity of life, disappointment, ruin, and love. It was a poetry of contrasts, reflecting a complex worldview and a burlesque sense of time. This period was the zenith of satirical poetry.
Culteranismo and Conceptismo
These were two major aesthetic trends in poetry and prose.
Culteranismo
(Also called Gongorism) This style, exemplified by Góngora’s Polifemo and Soledades, beautified reality through metaphor and imagery, hyperbaton, and numerous references to classical mythology.
Conceptismo
Conceptismo, as defined by Gracián, is the expression of the correspondence between objects. It employed puns, paronomasias, and other wordplay, with Quevedo being a key representative. While initially considered”cult” (cultured) by its proponents, it became a derogatory term used by its detractors. In contrast to culteranismo, conceptismo focused on wit.
Schools and Baroque Poets
Major schools of poetry included:
- Seville School: Herrera as a model. Key representatives: Juan de Arguijo, Francisco de Rioja, and Andrés Fernández de Andrada.
- Antequera-Granada School: Pedro Espinosa and Luis de Góngora.
- Aragonese School: The Argensola brothers (Lupercio Leonardo and Bartolomé).
- Madrid School: Numerous poets, including Lope de Vega and Quevedo.
The most prominent poets of the period were Góngora, Lope de Vega, and Quevedo.
Garcilaso de la Vega (1501-1536)
Embodying the Renaissance ideal, Garcilaso was of noble lineage, virtuous, a skilled soldier and courtier, and an exquisite poet. His work encompasses virtually all genres and themes of later tradition.
His sonnets and songs explore a doomed love, causing pain and sadness in the lover. They are divided into two groups:
- Before 1533: Influenced by the death of Isabel Freyre (his beloved) and the cancionero tradition.
- After 1533: Marked by a softer sentimentality and melancholy.
His three eclogues are:
- Second Eclogue: The longest, depicting the unhappy loves of the shepherdesses Camila and Albania.
- First Eclogue: Divided into two parts, recounting Salicio’s love for Galatea and Nemoroso’s mourning for Elisa.
- Third Eclogue: Composed in octaves.
Fray Luis de León (1527-1591)
An Augustinian monk and professor, he was imprisoned from 1572 to 1576 for translating the Song of Songs and criticizing the Vulgate.
His poetry includes odes with varied subject matter and an indefinite number of short stanzas. He primarily used the lira, but also other verse forms. His themes included the exaltation of virtue, mastery of passions, and contemplation of universal harmony. His style is cultured and refined, influenced by Garcilaso and Horace.
His famous Ode to the Beatus Ille praises a life withdrawn from the city. His most interesting odes are those dedicated to his friends in Salamanca.
His prose works include:
- In the Name of Christ: A theological treatise.
- The Perfect Wife: A moral commentary on marriage.
Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561-1627)
Góngora wrote both folk poetry (romances and letrillas) and learned poems (songs, sonnets, and three major works: Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea, Soledades, and the Panegyric of the Duke of Lerma).
His two styles, evident in Polifemo and Soledades (published in 1612 and 1614), sparked controversy. His innovative style, characterized by concentration and stylistic procedures, created the culteranismo movement.
His Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea is a mythological poem based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses. His Soledades (Solitudes) are four poems, of which only two were completed. He also wrote numerous romances and letrillas.
The Prose of the Golden Age
16th Century Prose
Renaissance aesthetic ideas emerged in didactic prose, historiography, mysticism, and asceticism, later influencing prose fiction, particularly the novel, which blended medieval and innovative currents.
Learned Prose
Dialogues
Dialogues were popular in the 16th century and essential for the development of the novel. Notable examples include Juan de Valdés’s Dialogue of Language and Alfonso de Valdés’s Dialogue of Mercury and Charon.
Doctrinal Works by Santa Teresa de Jesús
Teresa de Cepeda (1515-1582) founded numerous convents and reformed the Carmelite order. Her prose is both classical and popular. Her works include her autobiography (Book of Life), mystical writings (The Interior Castle), and doctrinal treatises (The Foundations).
Prose Fiction
17th-century prose fiction included pastoral novels, Moorish romances, and Byzantine romances. Lazarillo de Tormes is a significant work from this period.
Pastoral Novel
The Seven Books of Diana (1559) by Jorge de Montemayor opened this genre. It features idealized nature and love, and a melancholic language.
Moorish Novel
Moorish novels, often set against the backdrop of the impending rebellion in Granada, idealized both Muslim and Christian cultures. The History of Jarifa and Abindarraez is a notable example.
Byzantine Romance
Byzantine romances feature adventure, travel, shipwreck, separation, and reunion of lovers. Early examples include Alfonso Núñez de Reinoso’s History of the Loves of Leovigildo and Florisea. Later important examples include Lope de Vega’s The Pilgrim and Cervantes’s The Labors of Persiles and Sigismunda.
17th Century Prose Trends
The Byzantine novel and the short novel were highly appreciated. The picaresque novel consolidated with Mateo Alemán’s Guzmán de Alfarache. Quevedo’s satirical works also flourished. Cervantes’s Novelas ejemplares and María de Zayas’s Desengaños amorosos are notable examples of short novels. Cervantes’s Don Quixote is a masterpiece of this period.
Picaresque: Guzmán de Alfarache
The picaresque novel is an autobiographical form, often with a moral element. Lazarillo de Tormes was widely read, but it was Mateo Alemán’s Guzmán de Alfarache (1599-1604) that established the genre. Quevedo’s El Buscón is another important work in this genre.
Baltasar Gracián (1601-1658)
Gracián’s writings focus on moral and political themes, aiming to equip individuals to navigate society. His works often take an aphoristic form.
Prudence Manuals
Gracián’s works, such as The Hero, The Politician, The Oracle, and The Discreet, are characterized by a highly condensed and elliptical prose style.
Sharpness of Wit and Art
Gracián’s concept of”agudez” (sharpness of wit) involves the intellect expressing the correspondence between objects. His style is concise and dense.
The Criticón
Gracián’s most important work, The Criticón, is an allegorical Byzantine novel that explores human life from birth to death. It features a contrast between appearance and reality, typical of Baroque literature.
Lazarillo de Tormes
The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and his Fortunes and Adversities (1554) is a realistic novel with a credible tone. It’s written in autobiographical form, following Lazarillo’s life in a cruel society. The novel has seven chapters (treatises) and a prologue.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)
Cervantes is a towering figure in world literature. His masterpiece, Don Quixote, has been translated into numerous languages. His works span various genres, with notable contributions to narrative and dramatic literature.
His plays include comedies, interludes, and La Numancia, which dramatizes the siege of Numancia by the Romans.
His novels include La Galatea (a pastoral novel), Persiles and Sigismunda (a Byzantine novel), and Novelas ejemplares (exemplary novels), which include stories such as Rinconete and Cortadillo, The Jealous of Extremadura, and The Illustrious Kitchen Maid. His most famous work is Don Quixote, in two parts.