Literary Figures and Movements: A Historical Overview
Petrarch and the Lyric Song
The Songbook comprises 366 pieces (317 sonnets, 29 songs, 9 sextinas, 7 ballads, and 4 madrigals). Traditionally divided into two parts—before and after Madonna Laura’s death—this division stems from editors, not Petrarch himself. The prologue, a sonnet, presents the work as the fruit of youthful error, seeking the reader’s forgiveness. It concludes with the theme of vanitas vanitas. Throughout, Petrarch masterfully composes love poetry themes. In the latter part, Laura’s death desolates him, but dreams and imagination offer comfort, promising eternal union in heaven. The Songbook closes with profound regret for having loved.
Shakespeare and Elizabethan Theater
Elizabethan Theatre (1558-1625) refers to plays written and performed during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign (1558-1603), commonly associated with William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Scholars often extend the era to include James I’s reign (Jacobean drama, until 1625) and even Charles I’s reign (Caroline drama, until theaters closed in 1642 due to the English Civil War). This period, spanning from the Reformation to 1642, is significant in English theater history. Shakespeare dedicated works to James I, celebrating his ascension: Othello (1604), King Lear (1605), Macbeth (1606, honoring the Stuart dynasty), and The Tempest (1611, featuring a masque for the King). Elizabethan drama, while overlapping with the European Renaissance, displays strong Mannerist and Baroque influences.
Goethe and the German Romantic Movement
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), a German poet, novelist, playwright, and scientist, co-founded Romanticism, a movement with profound influence. Considered by George Eliot as “the greatest German man of letters…and the last true universal man,” Goethe’s diverse work left a lasting impact on writers, composers, thinkers, and artists. His scientific ideas influenced naturalists like Charles Darwin. The Goethe Institut, promoting German culture worldwide, bears his name. Sturm und Drang (“storm and impulse”), a late 18th-century German literary, musical, and artistic movement, emphasized individual expression and emotion, opposing Enlightenment rationalism and foreshadowing Romanticism. The movement’s name derives from a 1776 play by Friedrich Maximilian Klinger.
Poe and the Beginnings of American Fiction
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), an American Romantic writer, poet, critic, and journalist, is recognized as a master of the short story, pioneering the genre in the U.S. He revitalized the Gothic novel and is renowned for his tales of terror. Financial constraints led him to prose, writing stories and criticism for newspapers, gaining notoriety for his style. He lived in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. In 1835, he married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. “The Raven” (1845) brought him fame. Virginia’s death from tuberculosis followed two years later. Poe’s dream of publishing his own newspaper (The Stylus) remained unfulfilled.
Flaubert and French Realist Narrative
Gustave Flaubert, a French novelist of the realist school, is celebrated for his objectivity and meticulous style, evident in his masterpiece, Madame Bovary. Born in Rouen, Normandy, in 1821, he briefly studied law in Paris before ill health led him to writing. His travels through Greece and the Middle East (1849-1851) inspired exotic settings in two of his novels.
Whitman and the Birth of American Poetry
Walt Whitman, a poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist, bridged Transcendentalism and Realism. His self-published masterpiece, Leaves of Grass (1855), introduced innovative verse, diverging from his earlier sentimental poems. This American epic, embracing ordinary citizens, sparked controversy for its overt sexuality and celebration of the human body. Despite being deemed obscene, Leaves of Grass became widely read, undergoing revisions until its final edition in 1892. During the Civil War, Whitman ministered to wounded soldiers. He worked for the government until 1873, when a stroke left him partially paralyzed.
The Literary Avant-Garde: Surrealism
Surrealism, originating in France with André Breton, explored the unconscious mind, seeking to transcend reality through irrational imagery. It aimed to recreate, employing cruelty and black humor to dismantle sentimentality. Moral behavior and conventional demonstrations held little interest. Surrealism captured reality as perceived by a character, triggering hidden memories.
Kafka and German Expressionism
Franz Kafka, a Bohemian writer of German, is considered one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. His largely posthumously published works depict a distressing world where individuals are powerless against hostile and incomprehensible forces like bureaucracy, justice, power, and society.
Joyce and the Renewal of Narrative Techniques
James Joyce, an Irish writer, is a pivotal figure in 20th-century literature. A prominent modernist, he, along with Marcel Proust and others, revolutionized the European novel. This involved shifting the narrative point of view, limiting the narrator’s presence and allowing characters to present the action from their perspectives. Traditional heroes were replaced by groups, anonymous individuals, or even the absence of character.
Ionesco and the Theater of the Absurd
Eugène Ionesco, a Romanian-born French playwright and writer, elected to the French Academy in 1970, was a leading figure in the Theater of the Absurd. This style, prominent in mid-20th-century American and European drama, features seemingly meaningless plots, repetitive dialogue, and a lack of dramatic sequence, creating a dreamlike atmosphere. With existentialist undertones, it questions society and humanity. Humor and myth mask a demanding artistic attitude. Incoherence, illogicality, and nonsense are characteristic.
Hemingway and the American Lost Generation
Ernest Hemingway, an American writer and journalist, was a major novelist of the 20th century, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Shortly after arriving in Paris in 1923, his first son, John (nicknamed Bumby), was born. In Paris, Hemingway engaged with avant-garde circles and the “Lost Generation.” This group of American writers resided in Paris and other European cities between World War I and the Great Depression. This generation emerged during a turbulent and economically challenging period in the United States.