Baroque Prose in Spain: Characteristics and Authors
Baroque Prose in Spain
Didactic Prose
This type of prose aimed to educate and instruct. Several types can be distinguished:
Doctrinal-Philosophical Prose:
Authors like Baltasar Gracián used wit, precision, and rigor to convey their message. Their intention was to present a model for overcoming personal flaws. Gracián’s works include The Hero, The Oracle Manual and Art of Prudence, The Art of Worldly Wisdom, and The Criticon.
Philological Prose:
Works dedicated to the study of the Spanish language, such as Sebastián de Covarrubias’ Treasury of the Castilian or Spanish Language.
Sacred Oratory:
Organized to introduce religious doctrine and strengthen faith. Fray Hortensio Félix Paravicio represents the pinnacle of Baroque sacred oratory.
Prose Fiction
Authors of the time cultivated various forms of novels:
Picaresque Novel:
Characterized by pessimism, disappointment, and nostalgia. It often presented ironic and moralistic aspects. Characters were not always believable and often embodied the opposite of a hero (antihero). Examples include works by Mateo Alemán and Francisco de Quevedo.
Lucianesco Story:
Incorporated elements of fantasy and magical places. Notable examples include Francisco Quevedo’s Dreams and Luis Vélez de Guevara’s The Devil on Two Sticks. These can be considered early forms of science fiction.
The Novella:
Short stories typically set in large cities and featuring upper-class characters. They often revolved around themes of love and honor. Authors like Alonso Castillo Solórzano wrote both picaresque and short stories. María de Zayas y Sotomayor’s novellas often featured female protagonists who challenged the social restrictions of the time.
The Byzantine Novel:
These novels focused on adventures and travel. Lope de Vega’s The Pilgrim at Home is a notable example.
The Celestina Novel/Dialogue:
Based on the tradition of Fernando de Rojas’ La Celestina, these works explored amorous themes with the influence of servants and go-betweens. Lope de Vega’s La Dorotea is a prominent example.
Prose of Quevedo
Picaresque Novel:
Quevedo’s picaresque novel, The Life of the Swindler Called Don Pablos, resembles a guide for rogues. It introduces changes to the picaresque tradition, and the rogue experiences adventures that reflect Quevedo’s critical view of society.
Moral-Satirical Works:
Serious works that used satire to ridicule their subjects. In Dreams, Quevedo satirizes society, time, fortune, and intellect, starting with a mythological fantasy.
Political Works:
Politics occupied a significant portion of Quevedo’s writing. The Politics of God and The Life of Marcus Brutus are important examples.
Philosophical and Ascetic Works:
Show the influence of Seneca. Notable works include Remedies for Fortune and The Cradle and the Grave.
Religious Works:
Include The Life of Saint Thomas of Villanova and The Life of St. Paul.
Festive Works:
Short, satirical writings that cultivated humor, wit, and ridicule. Quevedo used these to critique various aspects of culture and society.
Miguel de Cervantes
Cervantes had a solid literary education and admired the poetry of Garcilaso de la Vega, Fray Luis de León, and the mystic Saint John of the Cross. Before his captivity, he was a Renaissance man. After his captivity, he lived in the Baroque world and became a precursor to the modern novel.
Effect of Cervantes’s Work
Cervantes’s work is considered among the most important in literary history. He is seen as one of the pioneers of the modern novel.
Cervantes as a Novelist
Cervantes explored various literary genres, but he excelled in narrative.
La Galatea:
A pastoral novel published in 1585 as the “first part.” Cervantes promised a second part but never wrote it. It contains all the elements of the pastoral genre, including a love story with idealized characters.
The Works of Persiles and Sigismunda:
A Byzantine prose novel. Cervantes built this novel on three concepts: idealization of form, the structure of the chain of being, and pilgrimage.
Elements of Communication in Baroque Prose
The main intention was informative, based on the representative function. Sometimes, it had an ideological intention through the appellative function.
Short paragraphs and simple syntax.
Linguistic Elements:
- Extensive vocabulary.
- Predominance of denotation to avoid ambiguity.
- Use of rhetorical techniques.
- Use of loanwords.
- Use of acronyms.
- Use of euphemisms to avoid unpleasant expressions.
Morphological Features and Syntactic Structures:
- Use of appositives (clarifications).
- Use of the present perfect, imperfect, and conditional tenses.
- Use of passive voice constructions.
- Use of non-verbal structures.
- Use of direct quotations.
Linguistic Elements:
- Iconographic code (pictures, images, graphics, cartoons).
- Typography (bold, italics, font size, font type).
Types of Informative Texts
News:
Objectively recounts an event of interest. The information is organized in an inverted pyramid structure, with the most important data first.
- Headline: Can include a pre-headline, a title, and a subtitle.
- Lead: A brief paragraph that answers the basic journalistic questions (who, what, when, where, why, how).
- Body: Develops the content of the news in several paragraphs.
Report:
An extensive informative story that delves into the circumstances of the events and investigates the causes. The journalist relies on testimonies and documents. The author is identified, and the topic need not be current.
Chronicle:
The author interprets the events and often provides personal testimony. It is often an expanded news story that evaluates the events (sports, culinary, political, etc.).
Opinion Pieces
Subjective, emotional, and poetic. The appellative function is used, and the language is more literary.
Editorial:
A newspaper’s opinion on current issues.
Interview:
Consists of an introduction, body, and sometimes a conclusion.
Article:
A journalist offers their own opinion on a topic of interest.
Column:
Occupies a permanent section in the newspaper and uses literary language.
Review:
Presents an evaluation by an author on a specific topic.