Baroque Prose in Spanish Literature: Key Authors and Works
Baroque Prose
2. Lope de Vega
In addition to his extensive and lyrical drama, Lope de Vega also left an important production in prose fiction: The Arcadia (pastoral novel), The Pilgrim in his Homeland (a Byzantine novel), Marcia Leonarda (four stories mimicking Cervantes’ Exemplary Novels), and La Dorotea (his best novel, written in the style of La Celestina).
3. The Picaresque Novel: Mateo Alemán
Half a century separates Lazarillo de Tormes, the first manifestation of the picaresque genre, from Guzmán de Alfarache by Mateo Alemán.
In this atmosphere of crisis and disappointment, the picaresque novel boomed.
Mateo Alemán published Guzmán de Alfarache in two parts: the first in 1599 and the second in 1604. It is a comprehensive account in autobiographical form, where the rogue Guzmán recounts his infamous origin and life. To escape hunger and misery, he dedicates himself to theft, enlists as a soldier, begs, serves several masters, and goes through jail. He marries the daughter of a swindler, becomes a widower, tries religious life, remarries, is abandoned by his wife, returns to robbery, is condemned to the galleys, and eventually gains his freedom. His wanderings take him to various urban settings in Spain and Italy.
The protagonist alternates the narrative of his misfortunes with moral reflections that correspond to the spirit of the time. Power, money, cronyism, greed, selfishness, and cowardice become targets of bitter satire.
Sobriety, attention to detail, and realism distinguish Alemán’s language and style. Guzmán de Alfarache sets the model for the picaresque novel.
4. Francisco de Quevedo
Quevedo’s works are classified into five categories:
- Festive Works: Short, comic works written in his youth, such as The Charter of a Cuckold to Another.
- Moral-Satirical Works: Using the literary dream, Quevedo directs his satire against a decadent society, censoring its vices in works like Dreams.
- Narrative Works: The History of the Life of the Buscón Called Don Pablos, better known as The Buscón, is a picaresque novel that tells the life of the rogue Pablos.
- Doctrinal Prose Works: Ascetic works reflecting on life and death, and political works reflecting Quevedo’s concern for the Spanish Empire’s decay and his patriotic fervor.
- Literary Criticism: Short works mocking the style of Góngora, such as Navigational Compass of the Cults.
Quevedo paints a pessimistic, cruel, and inhuman picture of life in The Buscón. The rogue is forced to try to improve his condition after abandoning morality.
Many characters are treated grotesquely, reflecting the moral decadence of the era.
4.1 The Influence of Quevedo
Quevedo’s expressionistic style influenced the aesthetics of Ramón María del Valle-Inclán, Camilo José Cela, and Francisco Umbral.
5. Baltasar Gracián
Gracián is one of the most representative prose writers of the 17th century. Immersed in Baroque culture, he sees life as a constant struggle. He requires knowledge, discipline, prudence, and discretion. His early works, The Hero, The Statesman, and The Discreet, are treatises on perfection and knowledge.
The Critic, an allegorical novel published under the pseudonym Lorenzo Gracián Morlanes, best reflects his thinking. It is divided into three parts representing the stages of human life as seasons. The characters and space are allegorical.
The protagonists’ episodes exemplify Gracián’s desolate vision of the world.
The concept and culteranismo are present in Gracián’s intellectual prose, characterized by brevity, lexical choice, antithesis, puns, and ellipses.
Gracián’s works were successful among foreign readers, as evidenced by numerous translations.