Cultheranism and Conceptism: Spanish Baroque Literature
Cultheranism and Conceptism in Spanish Baroque Literature
The current Cultheranism cultivated literary form, leaving the content in the background. It aims to create a world of beauty, impressing the senses with the most varied stimuli of light, color, sound, bombastic language, and religion. Conceptism, on the other hand, explores the meaning or concept of words. It can be defined as a mental acuity that gives preference to ideas to impress intelligence or the desire to say much with few words.
Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561-1627)
Luis de Góngora y Argote was born in Cordoba in 1561. His father was a judge in that city and had a well-stocked library. His mother, like his father, belonged to an illustrious Cordoban family. Góngora adopted his mother’s maiden name, perhaps because it sounded better. At fifteen, he went to study in Salamanca. To take advantage of certain ecclesiastical revenues from his uncle, he was ordained when he was fifty years old. He spent some time in Madrid as chaplain to Philip III. When the king died, he had economic problems, his illness worsened, and he returned to Cordoba, where he engaged in heavy fighting with Quevedo, defending his literary ideas. He died in May 1627.
Góngora’s Works
- His most important Cultheranist creation is the Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea, a mythological work that tells the passionate love of the giant Polyphemus for the nymph Galatea.
- Another work in this regard is The Solitudes, an incomplete poem that exalts nature.
- He also wrote numerous sonnets, dominated by satire against his enemies, including Lope and Quevedo.
- He wrote many romances, letrillas, and traditional poems, beautiful and easy to understand.
In the twentieth century, his work was scrutinized, and several poets, such as Alberti and Lorca, were influenced by Góngora’s poetry.
Góngora’s Style
Góngora uses an elaborate poetic language, highly educated, highly selective, and full of original metaphors. However, this character of worship and the difficulty of his poetic language does not have the same intensity throughout his work. There are poems like “The Solitudes,” where the difficulty is such that it would take a true translation to understand. But there are others whose reading is much more affordable.
Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645)
Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas was born in Madrid in September 1580 and died in Villanueva de los Infantes (Ciudad Real) on September 8, 1645. He studied at Alcalá and Valladolid. He participated in the politics of his time, being a director for the Duke of Osuna in Italy. Due to disagreements with the Count-Duke of Olivares, he suffered four years of imprisonment in the jail of San Marcos de León. He had two great passions in life: politics and literature. Both caused him enough trouble.
Quevedo’s Work
- In prose, he wrote a picaresque novel, Life of the Swindler Called Pablos; ascetic, philosophical, and political works, such as The Cradle and the Grave and Politics of God; and moral-satirical works, such as Dreams.
- His poems were published after his death in a book entitled Spanish Parnassus.
- The themes of his poetry are very varied: satirical and burlesque poetry, attacks on Góngora, and philosophical poetry of grief for the decline of Spain.
- Well-known poems include: “To a Nose,” “To a Fat Woman,” and “To a Lady, Beautiful and Patched.”
Quevedo’s Style
Quevedo’s literary personality is very complex: he combined the rigorous moralist, sharp satirical wit, exquisite lyrical purity, and the political writer of clear ideas. Throughout his long and successful work, he shows his incredible mastery of the language.