Introduction to Spanish Literature
Lyric
Imitation
Lyric imitation proceeds to the state of mind. Speech is very subjective, it develops a story, not just one side, and is usually presented in verse.
Subgenres
Popular song, Petrarchist song, eclogue, hymn, ode.
Metric
Metric addresses the extent of the verses, and their classes and the combinations they can form.
Classes
Simple verses:
- Simple
- Compounds
Stanza and poem:
The lines are grouped into stanzas, which can be isometric or heterometric. The maximum unit is the poem, which can be strophic or non-strophic.
Acoustics
Rhyme
Rhyme is the similarity between the phonemes from the last accented vowel. It can be consonant or assonance.
Narrative
Narrative includes texts that tell stories through a narrator.
Characteristics
History: A mode of discourse in prose.
Narrator: Develops a story.
Narrative Subgenres
Epic, romance, fable, story, novel.
Analysis
History: Actions, characters, time, and space.
Speech: Types of distortions: in medias res, flashback, prolepsis.
Types of Discourse
- Referential: Narrates objective facts.
- Descriptive: Breaks descriptive, subjective vision.
- Poetic: Strong presence of the poetic function.
- Evaluative: Subjective vision.
- Universal: Generalization from one incident to another.
Drama
Drama meets texts created to be represented, therefore, it implies discussing the representation of a text into a theatrical space.
Character
Develops a story through dialogue, issuing and receiving.
Dramatic Subgenres
- Greater: Collective tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, drama.
- Children: Autos sacramentales, appetizer, farce.
Dramatic Text and Representation
The dramatic text is distinguished by being formed by the character’s words, and the secondary text, made by the stage directions. Besides the stage directions, representation implies non-verbal aspects. The representation of a text is a theatrical spectacle. There are visual (costumes) and auditory (music) dramatic codes.
History
History whose base is the conflict between characters, or the world.
Lyric
Jarchas
The first popular lyric poems. Closed lines in Arabic (Moaxajas). 4 verses.
Cantigas de Amigo
From Galicia and Portugal. A girl is the issuer who expresses love to her people and their feelings. Stanza with chorus.
Villancicos
4 verses. Learned poems of love, takes on the significance of diminutive. Predominance of water, parallelism, repetition.
Poetry
Cancionero
Based on troubadour poetry.
Types of Cantigas
- Songs: Poems intended to be sung.
- Sayings: Long compositions called verses.
Love Poetry
Overwhelming love. Submission to the gentleman by the lady is presented as a force, related to war and religion.
Jorge Manrique
Consists of 40 stanzas called “couplets.” 12 syllables. 2 parts: 1st and 2nd.
Topics
Death, songs, fame, and eternal life.
Theater
Religious Drama
Allegory, Italian character, with eclogues, classical imitation, national, and comic.
Cervantes
- Tragedy (Numancia)
- Comedy (Treatment of Algiers)
- Appetizer (The Cave of Salamanca)
Baroque Theater
Courtly comedy, drama, operetta, sacramental songs, and profane.
Types
- Serious dramas: Comedies, tragedies, sacramental acts.
- Comic: Cape and sword, figurehead, palatal, burlesque.
- Short: Appetizer, praise, dance, ballads, masquerades.
Narrative Poems and Romances
Destined to be sung. Anonymous.
New and Old
- Old: Mid-15th and late 16th centuries.
- New: Late 16th century.
Types
Medieval epic, French, historical, fiction.
Speech
Chronological order. Suspended use of verbs, archaisms, formulas, repetitions.
Fifteenth-Century Novel
Cavalry Novel
Tells about a knight, walking, heroic, faithful defender, who made a trip and faced challenges in real places.
Sentimental Novel
Focuses on the emotional states and internal conflicts of the characters, through love letters and poems. Tragic love story with a sad denouement.
Renaissance Lyric
Harmonized the Provencal lyric heritage with classical literature and the Italian poets of his generation.
Formal Aspects
Incorporated hendecasyllable and stanzas and types of compositions: triplets, chains, the lira, octava real, sonnet.
Style
In the first half of the 16th century, a poem responded to the ideal of simplicity and naturalness of expression: important adjectives, epithets, metaphors, hyperbaton.
Themes and Poetic Motifs
Neoplatonism from classical and Italian literature influenced by Petrarch, Virgil, and Horace. Love is the main theme of the poetic, suffering through absence or death of the beloved. Description of women, Renaissance beauty. Carpe diem. Love is associated with classical mythology, Ovid, and serves to express love. Other themes include friendship and praise.
Evolution of Renaissance Poetry
1st Stage
1st half of the 16th century. Highlights poetic renewal by the irruption of Petrarchism and the influence of classical literature. Garcilaso de la Vega.
2nd Stage
Corresponds with the rise of spiritual literature. Religious poetry. Fray Luis de León. Ascetic and mystic.
Picaresque Novel
Inspired by reality and society. Lazarillo de Tormes.
Characteristics
- Told in the 1st person.
- Useless pilgrimage.
- The anti-hero is of humble origins.
- Social report.
Topics
Hunger and instinct for survival, honor, and religion. The first 3 are the most important.
Guide
- Blind: Lost innocence.
- Clergy: Hunger.
- Squire: Apparently lived alone.
Lázaro ended up at the same point where the work began, without honor.
Character
Always in town. Uses bitter ironies and humor. Contrasts with knights.
Clergy
Mester de Clerecía
13th century. Narrative texts, heroic, religious, moral, or didactic. Refer to written sources, written in verse. Individual or collective reading by clerics, minstrels, or anonymous works. “Apollonius” by Gonzalo de Berceo.
National Comedy
Created by Lope de Vega and further developed by other authors.
Characteristics
- Mixes comical and tragic elements.
- Utilization of scene changes and time.
- Drama divided into 3 acts: exhibition, knot, outcome.
- Decorum: Fitness of behavior and language of the characters to the conventions of their social role.
- Polymetry in language.
- Thematic: Honor.
- Personality: Virtuous lady, handsome, powerful, old, funny, maid.