Introduction to Spanish Literature

Posted on Sep 24, 2024 in Latin

Prose and Verse

Prose is the form of expression that most closely resembles everyday speech. Verse, on the other hand, is characterized by its musicality. This musicality is achieved through accents, rhyme, and syllable count.

Figures of Repetition

  • Alliteration: Repetition of one or more phonemes in a verse to imitate a sound.
  • Anaphora: Repetition of a word at the beginning of a verse or phrase.
  • Parallelism: Repetition of similar syntactic structures.
  • Pleonasm: Use of unnecessary words in a verse for emphasis and expressiveness.
  • Polysyndeton: Continuous repetition of conjunctions.

Figures of Significance

  • Allegory: The global sense of a text is transformed to express a distinct idea using a continuous procedure.
  • Antithesis: Confronting words or sentences with opposite meanings.
  • Apostrophe: An exclamation used to address someone or something.
  • Hyperbole: Exaggeration.
  • Metaphor: Identifying a real term with an imaginary one based on similarity.
  • Metonymy: Designating a thing with the name of another with which it has a meaningful relationship.
  • Simile or Comparison: Comparing two objects or realities through a connecting element.
  • Synesthesia: Sensations of different senses are combined.

Figures of Suppression

  • Asyndeton: Removal of conjunctions in a verse for a more vivid effect.
  • Ellipsis: Removal of one or more words that are easily understood from the context.

Figures of Order

  • Hyperbaton: Altering the logical or normal order of a sentence.
  • Chiasmus: Placing two equivalent members in reverse order, creating a cross-like structure.

Literary Genres

Lyric

Transmits subjective sensations, experiences, or thoughts. Often uses verse as its form of expression.

Narrative

Presents a story told by a narrator. Focuses on narrative action.

Dramatic

Texts written to be performed. Characterized by dialogue, stage directions, and asides.

Poetic Forms

  • Elegy: Expresses feelings of grief over the death of a loved one.
  • Eclogue: Dialogue between shepherds about love affairs within an idealized setting.
  • Ode: Addresses various themes in an elevated tone.
  • Song: Typically focuses on love, but can express other feelings as well.
  • Satire: Humorous and brief presentation of individual and social defects.

Narrative Subgenres in Verse

  • Epic: Praises the exploits of a prodigious hero.
  • Chanson de Geste: Epic poem of oral creation and dissemination, designed to extol the exploits of a hero, written in verse with 14-16 syllables divided into hemistichs.
  • Romance: Short poem of oral creation and dissemination. Originated in the 15th century as fragments of epics but evolved into an independent genre with diverse themes. Uses verses of 8 syllables with assonance rhyme in even lines.

Narrative Subgenres in Prose

  • Novel: Develops an extensive story within a specific time and space. Features fictional action.
  • Short Story: Brief narrative with a condensed plot. Has its own unique characteristics.
  • Legend: Fictional story based on a historical event or pseudo-historical events with fantastical elements.
  • Apologue: Tells a story that transmits moral codes and standards.
  • Epistle: A letter that deals with doctrinal, philosophical, moral, or satirical themes.
  • Fable: Short story that uses personified animals as protagonists to convey a moral lesson.
  • Essay: Text through which the author addresses a wide audience to explain their perspective on a topic.

Mozarabic Lyric

The Mozarabic language was spoken by Christians in Muslim territory. It is preserved in jarchas, short compositions inserted at the end of Arabic or Hebrew poems called moaxajas. The main theme is love, often expressed by a woman lamenting the absence of her lover. Exclamatory and interrogative sentences abound, along with expressive language.

Galician-Portuguese Lyric

Features a parallelistic structure that repeats the same verse throughout the poem. Composed of:

  • Cantigas de amor: Love songs sung by a man, developing the theme of courtly love.
  • Cantigas de amigo: Express the lament of a woman for the absence of her lover.
  • Cantigas de escarnio e maldizer: Mock vices, defects, or individuals.

Castilian Lyric

Includes songs derived from pagan rituals, seafaring songs, and rustic songs. The most representative are the carols and serranillas.

  • Carol: Strophic poems composed of a chorus and a gloss. The chorus develops the theme of love.
  • Serranilla: Pastoral poems derived from Provençal poetry, but with more realistic descriptive features.

Characteristics of the Epic Poem

  • Historicist Character: The hero often appears as a representative figure of their society, whose deeds ensure its survival.
  • Triumphant Return of the Hero: The hero embodies the destiny of their people and spreads the ideals of their social class (feudal).
  • Structure: Formed by long verse sets with 14-16 syllables, divided into two hemistichs separated by a caesura. Assonance rhyme is repeated in a variable number of verses.

Castilian Epic

Only three poems are preserved:

  • Song of Roncesvalles
  • Mocedades de Rodrigo
  • Cantar de Mio Cid

Cantar de Mio Cid

The author selects specific aspects, such as loyalty to the king, honor, effort, and faith in God.

Structure

  • Song of Exile: The Cid is banished by Alfonso VI of Castile and leaves Vivar. He entrusts his family to the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña and embarks on a journey of exile, punctuated by battles in foreign lands. He sends gifts to the king as a token of submission and vassalage in order to obtain pardon.
  • Song of the Wedding: Narrates the conquest of Valencia. The Cid sends a new embassy and gifts to King Alfonso VI, arousing the greed of the Infantes de Carrión, who ask for the Cid’s daughters’ hand in marriage. The king intervenes and publicly forgives the Cid. The song ends with the marriage of the daughters to the Infantes.
  • Song of the Shame of Corpes: The Infantes de Carrión demonstrate their cowardice and plot revenge. They ask the Cid’s permission to take their wives to Carrión, but abandon them in the oak forest of Corpes. The Cid demands justice from the king in Toledo. A trial is held, and the Infantes are defeated in a duel.

Style

  • Epic Epithets: Characterized by adjectives used to highlight the hero.
  • Pleonasms: Used to add expressiveness to the text.
  • Appeals to the Public: Direct addresses to the audience.