Exemplary Novels of Cervantes, Lope, Zayas, and Tirso
Exemplary Novels: Cervantes, Lope, Zayas, and Tirso
Cervantes’ Exemplary Novels
In the prologue, Cervantes clarifies that these novels do not depict impure acts, but rather exemplify good manners and offer entertainment. He also discusses his classical influences and the originality of his work, emphasizing that it is not translated or borrowed. Cervantes incorporates elements from other genres, such as the picaresque, though not fully embracing the picaresta model. Examples include Rinconete y Cortadillo and The Illustrious Scullery Maid. Pastoral elements appear in stories like The Generous Lover, which also features Byzantine novel elements. Moorish influences are also present. The Deceitful Marriage and The Dialogue of the Dogs showcase a collection of interconnected stories. While primarily in prose, Cervantes uses verse to develop themes and characters. He incorporates pastoral elements, as seen in the singing of Andrew and Clement, and the Gitanilla. The characters possess notable qualities, such as the gypsy’s self-awareness and honesty, challenging negative stereotypes. Love in this work is linked to knowledge, maturity, and understanding.
Lope de Vega’s Short Stories
Lope de Vega wrote five or six short stories, dedicated to his last lover, Marcia Leonarda, between 1621 and 1624. These stories, often included within larger works, feature love, fights, and other Italian novel elements. They offer insights into the novel’s construction and showcase a unique relationship between narrator and listener.
María de Zayas y Sotomayor’s Novellas
María de Zayas y Sotomayor, a writer of fiction and drama, championed women’s issues while reflecting contemporary beliefs. Her works, published in two collections in 1637 and 1647, incorporate semi-fantastic elements, dreams, apparitions, and violent scenes. The framework of these collections creates an overarching narrative about women’s status in marriage and love.
Tirso de Molina’s Cigarrales de Toledo
Tirso de Molina’s Cigarrales de Toledo (1624) features interconnected stories within a larger narrative framework. While presented as a single novel, the characters tell their own stories, some related to the novel itself. The work also includes three plays and detailed descriptions of festivities. This blend of genres is characteristic of the Baroque period.
Extensive Narrative Genres
inherited from the Middle Ages, as the sentimental novel or matter or Moorish romances, or novels that arise from the Celestina (such as Dorotea de Lope de Vega, which is the culmination of inheritance Celestina). On the other hand we will find new genera, connected with classical antecedents, like the pastoral area, or the Byzantine novel. New genera and represent a rupture and the foundation of a new form, the most important genus of this type is the picaresque.
– Sentimental Novel:
It has some important background on the XV but also medieval and Boccaccio XIV Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta, where Boccaccio speaks of his future love. In the XV had enhanced the correspondence item and the mixture of emotional and psychological elements of suffering love is a huge success in the XV and XVI inherits the lives on. Within the genus will appear first epistolary accounts.