Medieval & 18th-19th Century Spanish Literature

Posted on Oct 1, 2024 in Music

Item 8: The Medieval Period

Economic System: Feudalism

Company: Rigidly hierarchical, divided into three strata:

• Nobility (further subdivided into various orders)
• Clergy
  • High Clergy
  • Lower Clergy
• Townspeople

Economy

Agricultural and commercial base.

Gradual economic growth led to social change, apparent by the period’s end.

Monasteries served as important cultural centers, contributing significantly to medieval literature.

Development of a popular culture based on oral transmission.

In the 12th century, courtly literature emerged in Provence, unrelated to ecclesiastical interests and intended for entertainment.

References suggest a courtly environment in the 15th century.

Literary Genres of the Middle Ages

Literary genres evolved alongside the society that produced them.

Low literacy rates resulted in primarily oral transmission, with written forms serving preservation. This explains the prevalence of verse, even in narrative.

The rural nature of society limited theatrical productions due to the need for a large audience.

Medieval literature largely reflected the worldview of the clergy and, increasingly, the nobility, due to their higher literacy.

Lyric Poetry

• Traditional Lyric: Jarchas, cantigas de amigo, and villancicos.
• Cultured Lyric: Written in courts, influenced by 12th-century Provençal troubadour poetry.

Epic Poetry

Narrative poems celebrating heroic exploits, often identified with a community. Known as chansons de geste in the Middle Ages.

The first Castilian work is the Poema de Mio Cid.

Romance

Narrative verse with varied content. Origin unknown, but written versions appear in the 15th century. (8-, 8a, 8-, 8a…)

Mester de Clerecía

Predominantly didactic, conveying clerical teachings. Gonzalo de Berceo recounted legends of the Virgin and saints. Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita, wrote the Book of Good Love.

Prose

The Count Lucanor by Don Juan Manuel exemplifies this genre, featuring a collection of didactic stories.

Theater

Theater evolved from liturgical origins towards secular forms. The only surviving, albeit incomplete, Castilian religious drama is the Auto de los Reyes Magos. No secular plays remain, possibly due to prohibitions.

La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas, appearing at the end of the 15th century, introduced humanistic comedy.

The Traditional Lyric

Orally transmitted and anonymous.

Predates Romance languages (before the 12th century).

Characteristics

• Love Themes: Often lamenting:
  • Absence of love
  • Unwanted marriage
  • Resistance to becoming a nun
  • Lament of the unhappily married woman or nun
  • Joyful depictions of love
• Recurring Elements: Symbolic of fertility:
  • Time of year (spring, San Juan)
  • Time of day (night, dawn)
  • Location (spring, field)

Brevity imbues details with meaning.

Beyond love, songs relate to various occupations and situations (hunting, pilgrimage, weddings, sailing). Connection to music and dance evident in 15th-century songs.

Mozarabic Jarchas

Oldest examples of Iberian traditional lyric. Choruses of Arabic or Hebrew muwassahas (early 10th century). Composed of several verses in classical Arabic, with three different rhyming verses and monorhyming verses around the refrain (jarcha). The final stanza centers on the jarcha.

Jarchas differ from the rest of the composition in language (vulgar Arabic or Romance), lyrical subject (female in jarcha, male in muwassaha), and meter.

This model of short, rhyming verses with thematic development in successive stanzas is common.

Cantigas de Amigo

Written in Galician-Portuguese, flourishing between the 12th and 14th centuries. Preserved in songbooks.

• Cantigas de amor: Influenced by Provençal poetry.
• Cantigas de amigo: Seemingly native, sharing themes and tone with jarchas.

Cantigas feature variations on an initial chorus with minimal thematic development, often using parallelism.

Villancico

Written in Castilian, documented from the 15th and 16th centuries, though likely originating earlier. The initial stanza (villancico) is developed and concludes with a refrain.

Items 11 & 12

Jorge Manrique: Verses on the Death of His Father

Elegiac Poem

Three main objectives: to teach, to delight, and to move.

Themes

• General: Mortality of humankind.
• Specific: Death of his father.

Style

Simple and authentic.

Structure & Content

• Part 1 (I-XXIV): Earthly life’s purpose is to gain eternal life.
• Part 2 (XXV-XL): Focuses on Don Rodrigo.
  • Stanza XXXIV onwards: Dialogue with Death.

La Celestina

Authorship

Attributed to Fernando de Rojas, despite Act I’s disputed origin.

Period

Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.

Publications

• 1499: Comedy of Calisto and Melibea (16 acts)
• 1507: Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea (21 acts)

Genre

Inspired by Italian humanistic comedy.

• Closely depicts everyday reality.
• Relatively simple plot, slowly developed.
• Focus on lower classes and everyday scenes.
• Importance of dialogue, ranging from colloquial to cultured.
• Free treatment of space and time.
• Characters driven by illicit passion, manipulated by servants and bawds.

Other Features

• Character depth
• Brilliant style, exceeding the humanistic model.
• Novelistic detail.

Author’s Intent & Meaning

• Christian-didactic: Critiques Calisto’s love and its consequences.
• Judeo-pessimistic: Lack of religion and pessimism, driven by irrational forces.
• Artistic originality: Moral background undeniable.

Traits of Baroque Theater (Lope de Vega)

• Breaks Aristotelian unities of time, place, and action.
• Mixes tragedy and comedy.
• Multiple parallel actions:
  • Noble and commoner characters intertwined.
• Three-act structure:
  • Exposition
  • Development
  • Resolution
• Lyrical interludes (songs, dances) interrupt action and add spectacle.
• Written in verse, with varied meter and stanzas.

Main Themes

Love and honor.

• Love: Stimulates virtues like courage and generosity.
• Honor: One’s reputation. Lost through personal actions or those of others (e.g., infidelity). Recovered through revenge, even murder.

18th Century

18th Century Thought

Renewal of thought, spreading from France as the Enlightenment.

Key Features

• Reason as the sole means of progress.
• Observation and experience as the basis of science.
• Moral virtue independent of religious belief.

Political Aspects

• Enlightened Despotism: “Everything for the people, but without the people.”
• Supported absolute monarchy.
• Top-down reforms aimed at educating the populace.
• Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopedia: 37 volumes (1751-1780) summarizing human knowledge.

18th Century Literature

Neoclassicism

• Orderly and restrained style.
• Suppression of emotion (reason prevails).
• Strict rules and regulations.
• Theater:
  • Three unities (time, place, action).
  • Prohibition of imagination and mystery.
  • Separation of tragedy and comedy.
• Poetry:
  • Philosophical themes.
  • Avoidance of strong metaphors.
  • Clear and simple expression.

Emphasis on order, moderation, and “good taste.”

Authors like Feijoo and Jovellanos favored essays and fables for direct expression of ideas.

Late 18th Century: Reaction against Neoclassicism.

• Emphasis on sentiment over reason.
• Preference for shocking events.

Romanticism

General Characteristics

• Feeling over reason.
• Importance of imagination.
• Poetry:
  • Personal and subjective.
  • Exaltation of the author’s personality.
• Freedom of themes, language, and expression.
• Passion and instinct as life’s guiding principles.
• Rejection of rules; emphasis on spontaneity.
• Exploration of intense emotions.
• Themes:
  • The self
  • Nature
  • Customs, history, and fantasy
• Interest in other literatures (Spanish and Northern European).
• Emphasis on landscape, especially wild and melancholic settings.
• Reflection of feelings in nature.
• Use of adjectives, often negative, to reinforce meaning.
• Hyperbole and exaggeration to express strong emotions.
• Traditionalism and regionalism.
• Revival of medieval archaisms.
• Acceptance of all languages and styles, especially popular ones.
• Pessimistic view of life; sense of being a victim of fate.
• Disillusionment with reality; rebellion against it.
• Escapism through fantasy; suicide as a solution.

Style

• Dynamic and violent.
• Rejection of perfection, clarity, and “good taste.”
• Intense and emotional expression.
• Aim to move the reader.
• Use of vivid imagery, music, and sentimentality.
• Contrast and colorful language.

Aspects of the Romantic Movement

• Traditional Romanticism:
  • Exalts national identity.
  • Nostalgia for medieval chivalry and Christianity.
  • Authors: Walter Scott, Chateaubriand, Manzoni, Zorrilla.
• Revolutionary Romanticism:
  • Seeks to create a new culture.
  • Skeptical and rebellious; challenges tradition.
  • Authors: Byron, Hugo, Leopardi, Espronceda.
• Germanic Romanticism: Focus on the inner world.
• Latin Romanticism: Focus on sensory values.

Romantic Drama

• Rejection of neoclassical structure; artistic freedom.
• Mixes prose and verse.
• Combines comic and tragic elements.
• Multiple parallel actions.
• Shifts in time and place.
• Historical themes (often distorted).
• Focus on moods, passions, and struggles.
• Imaginary heroes.
• Hero: Mysterious, doomed, beautiful, freedom-loving, perpetually unsatisfied.
• Heroine: Tragic fate linked to the hero.
• Lovers doomed by unattainable ideals.
• Themes of revenge, suicide, and poison.
• Extremes of happiness and despair.
• Settings: Ruins, cemeteries, wild landscapes, folkloric environments.
• Aim to amaze and shock.
• Works:
  • The Conspiracy of Venice (Martínez de la Rosa)
  • The Troubadour (García Gutiérrez)
  • The Lovers of Teruel (Hartzenbusch)
  • Don Juan Tenorio (Zorrilla)

Realism

Second Half of the 19th Century

Objective depiction of reality.

Features

• Observation of reality: Credible portrayal of social environment.
• Social portrait: Critical depiction of bourgeois life and customs.
• Triumph of the novel:
  • Omniscient narrator (3rd person)
  • Psychological analysis of characters
  • Sober and detailed style

Influence of French Naturalism in later Realism.

Authors & Works

• Benito Pérez Galdós:
  • Fortunata and Jacinta
  • The Disinherited
• Leopoldo Alas “Clarín”:
  • La Regenta: Critical portrait of powerful social classes (bourgeoisie, aristocracy, clergy). Detailed description of a hypocritical environment and psychological depth in the story of Ana Ozores.

Naturalism

Extreme form of Realism, influenced by Emile Zola. Materialistic and deterministic view of humanity.

Spanish Naturalism: More focused on form (detailed description) than ideology.

Bécquer

Poetry

• Intense and evocative.
• Intimate and emotional.
• Simple expression.
• Short poems.
• Simple, yet poetic language.
• Short verses, assonance, and rhyme.
• Expressive resources:
  • Questions, exclamations, and dashes
  • Intimate dialogue
  • Simple comparisons and metaphors related to nature
  • Repetitions and contrasts
• Mixed meter, predominantly short verses with assonance, rhyme, and broken-foot verses.

Bécquer’s Legends

Written in poetic prose, focusing on love and mystery. Inspired by folklore. Reflect Romantic characteristics:

• Pessimistic and melancholic tone; longing for the unattainable.
• Medieval themes (Romanesque and Gothic architecture, knights).
• Emphasis on landscape, especially dark and nocturnal settings.
• Fantastic and mysterious themes.

Style

• Delicate, musical, and colorful.
• Detailed descriptions of images and sensations.
• Creation of mysterious and wonderful atmospheres.
• Use of enumerations, metaphors, and comparisons.
• Rhythmic prose through repetition.