Medieval Spanish Literature
Castilian Lyric
In the traditional lyric, the carol, a structure based on a chorus, stands out. The cultivated or lyric was written in the Galician court until the fourteenth century, and its subject is courtly love, typical of troubadour poetry.
Traditional Lyric
These poems have a love theme (female and male) and explore the joy of love and the pain of absence.
Compositions appear as Albada, serranillas, and harvest songs.
A very common composition is the carol, combining a chorus and a longer verse or gloss. The style of the compositions is simple, intense, and emotional. It appears in the Book of Good Love and the Marquis of Santillana.
Educated Lyric
Castilian poets used the Galician language for the educated Castilian lyric until the fourteenth century. It reflects the theme of courtly love; the poetry is refined, elaborate, artful, and full of puzzle games. In the fifteenth century, the lyric reached its peak, cultivated in the songbooks (collections of poems by many authors) and the works of the Marquis de Santillana and Jorge Manrique.
Catalan-Provençal Lyric
Traditional Lyric
It consists of love songs written by authors that mimic the popular tradition. They explore the theme of love and contain parallels and choruses. A notable author is Viadel Cerverí of Girona.
Educated Lyric
It was written in Provençal and develops the theme of courtly love. Because of the prestige of Provençal poetry, Catalan poets wrote in Provençal.
Medieval Literature: Narrative and Theater
The Oral Narrative: The Mester de Juglaría (12th Century)
The actors were professional minstrels who traveled among people, courts, and castles, reciting or singing poems. This profession was called Mester de Juglaría. The most numerous were the minstrels of gestation, who told the exploits of local heroes.
Epic Poetry and Epic Poems
Epic poems are long narratives in verse recounting historical events and legends about a hero who represents the values of a people. They had a heroic tone.
The Castilian Epic
Only three songs are retained, including the Cantar de Mio Cid, which is the longest poem (3730 lines, 14th century). The others are the Song of Roncesvalles (13th century) and the Mocedades de Rodrigo (14th century).
El Cantar de Mio Cid
Signed by Per Abbat, it tells the story of a nobleman who has been unjustly banished and must fight to regain his honor. The author is anonymous.
It is divided into:
- Song of Exile: This is where the Cid must regain his honor.
- Song of the Wedding: The Cid gets the royal pardon and his daughters marry two noblemen.
- Song of the Reproach of Corpes: The noblemen make fun of the Cid’s daughters. The Cid calls for justice and his daughters marry the King’s infants.
The theme is the restoration of honor as a vassal and a father.
The Educated Narrative: The Mester de Clerecía (13th Century)
Born in the thirteenth century, the Mester de Clerecía began with Gonzalo de Berceo, who set the style of that school:
- These are stories written by educated authors in Romance.
- They have a didactic and moral purpose (moral conduct, not war).
- The verse that is used is the cuaderna vía (four lines of fourteen syllables with a strong caesura in the middle of the verse and consonant rhyme: 14A, 14A, 14A, 14A).
It uses minstrel expressions to keep the attention of the audience, such as epic epithets and appeals to listeners.
- It combines themes of classical and popular tradition.
Gonzalo de Berceo
He is the first known Castilian author. He began the Mester de Clerecía with narratives of a religious theme. Gonzalo’s stories abound in folk and humorous details. The style is simple. He wrote Miracles of Our Lady, short stories where characters who are devotees of the Virgin are in danger and are saved by a miracle of hers. He also wrote Life of San Millan, Life of St. Dominic of Silos, and Holy Life of Oria.
Anonymous books: Book of Alexandre, The Book of Apollonius, El Poema de Fernán González.
The language in the thirteenth century: it becomes a language of culture thanks to Alfonso X and the Toledo School of Translators.
The Mester de Clerecía in the Fourteenth Century: The Book of Good Love
Juan Ruiz (Hita) writes the most brilliant and original work of the fourteenth century. This is a play written in verse, with a predominance of the cuaderna vía. The Book of Good Love narrates different autobiographical episodes in which love stories are interspersed with lyrical or burlesque elements.
The most innovative aspect is the mixture of religious and secular vitalism. The author appears with an ironic attitude and vitality in an educated work. It uses a rich and varied language.
Narrative Prose in the Fourteenth Century
It covers stories about chivalric themes:
- Novels of chivalry: The Great Conquest of Ultramar (anonymous), Knight of Cifar by Ferrand Martinez.
- Collections of fables: They have a didactic purpose; their moral is summarized at the end. Kalila and Dimna, The Decameron (Boccaccio).
- Count Lucanor (Don Juan Manuel), 14th century: It is a collection of stories linked by two characters: Count Lucanor and his servant Patronio. It is the first prose fiction work with a known author in Castilian. Structure:
- Count Lucanor poses a problem to his servant Patronio.
- Patronio replies by telling a story, which carries a lesson.
- The Count puts the advice into practice and does well.
- The author sums up the teaching in a moral.
Medieval Theater
There are very few documents preserved. Only The Play of the Magi from the twelfth century is retained, written in verse and influenced by French theater.
Introduction to Literature
Verse is a unit established by rhythmic accents, the number of syllables, and pauses. The verses are grouped, forming stanzas.
Prose is spontaneous language. It contrasts with verse because it is not subject to a precise rhythm; it is more flexible in terms of pace.
Lyric
Lyrical literature is that in which the writer expresses his subjectivity, feelings, or thoughts. The lyric expresses the inner world of the author (first person). There are two types of lyric:
Popular Tradition
Originally sung, the author is unknown, and it is transmitted orally.
Cultured Lyrical Compositions
- The ode: a composition in which enthusiasm, admiration, or love is expressed.
- The learned song: a short love poem with verses.
- The elegy: it expresses pain and sorrow for personal or collective events.
- The eclogue: a composition that includes dialogues on the theme of love between shepherds. The characters and landscapes are idealized.
- Satire: a poem in which actions or persons are ridiculed and criticized, either seriously or mockingly.
- The epistle: a composition in letter form.
- The epigram: a short poem that is usually of a festive nature.
Lyrical Forms of Popular Tradition
They are usually formed by verses of lesser art and include a chorus or parallels.
- Zejel: a lyrical composition of Arab origin. aa-aa-bbba
- Carol: a traditional composition with a moving chorus. Various topics.
- Lyric ballads: the predominant theme is love.
Narrative
The writer recounts events beyond himself, creates a fictional world in which characters live and events occur. It is said that narrative is the genre of the third person because it shares a story about him or her, different from me, the author.
Forms of Narrative
- Epic: an extensive narration recounting the warlike exploits of a hero.
- The classical epic: It is a composition of great tone, which involves gods and heroes. Origins or beliefs of a people.
- Epic poems: They represent the quintessential medieval epic narrative, recounting the adventures of a hero who represents popular sentiment.
- The novel: a long story written in prose. It is complex and flexible.
- The short story: it is a short narrative that develops a simple and linear plot.
Theater
It aims to be performed on stage before an audience; theater is expressed through dialogue.
Theatrical Forms
- Tragedy: presents a conflict in which the protagonist is faced with an adverse fate and succumbs in this unequal struggle. It required a high tone.
- Comedy: was born to entertain and amuse, often as a satirical performance. It was considered a minor genre but has evolved and has become a quite complex theatrical form.
- Drama: shares features of tragedy and comedy. It combines a painful conflict with comic elements.
Minor Theatrical Genres
- The morality play: a play on religious themes presented in allegorical form. Characteristic of the Middle Ages and famous in the seventeenth century.
- The farce and the short farce: are represented in the brief interlude of a comedy and have a cheerful and popular tone.
- The lyric: are those that combine music and text:
- The opera: based on literary works, meant to be sung.
- The operetta: combines pieces of sung music and spoken dialogue.
Didactic Genres
They are intended to teach or instruct the reader.
- The essay: an exposition in which the writer gives his personal views on any subject, be it literary, scientific, or historical.
- The newspaper article: a brief newspaper article in which the writer gives his commentary on a topical issue.
- The fable: a short story featuring animals with human behavior that follows a moral teaching.
- The letter: a composition in the form of a letter that is addressed to a real or imaginary recipient.
Topic 13: Literature of the Middle Ages
Lyrics
Traditional Lyric
Anonymous songs are transmitted orally and are a means of expressing loving feelings, singing at parties, weddings, etc.
- Structure: is based on the rhythmic structures of the chorus and parallelism. The work was sung and danced.
- Topic: Is love (more feminine than masculine). (Joy, pain, lack of it)…
- Style: is usually straightforward and condensed. Short poems are intense and emotional.
- Meter: This is usually expressed in verses of minor art, of different sizes and with assonant rhyme. The rhythm is based on the chorus and parallelism.
Educated Lyric: Minstrels and Jugglers
It is a poem by a known author (troubadour) passed down through writing. It is a poetry that is produced later than the traditional lyric. The first educated lyric was in the Romance language of Provençal, which triumphed in the twelfth century. They were held in courts where poetic tournaments were held, under the patronage of Provençal lords.
The lyric poet who writes the lyrics and music of their composition is the troubadour.
Hispanic Lyric
It is divided into:
Moorish or Andalusian Lyric: The Jarchas
The jarchas are short poems written in the Mozarabic language that deal with love from a female perspective. They are from the eleventh century. The jarchas were written with Arabic characters at the end of some poems in Arabic and Hebrew: the muwashshah, a composition that should end with a short poem that did not have to be by the original author.
The female subject is love (sorry for the absence of the beloved). The jarchas are very short poems (three, four, or five lines, eight syllables). Exclamations or question marks abound, which give the composition a passionate and intense tone.
Galician-Portuguese Lyric
It achieved great development in the Middle Ages with three types of compositions or cantigas (of friendship, of love, and of scorn):
Traditional Lyric: Songs of Friend
It is the most valuable medieval poetry and represents Galician traditional folk poetry (12th century). The topic of the cantigas de amigo is love (the friend is the beloved), lamenting the absence of the beloved. The compositions have a parallelistic structure, which gives them a slow musicality.
Educated Lyric: Songs of Love and Scorn
The songs of love speak of the author, who complains of not being reciprocated by his lady. The songs of scorn are satirical poems directed against other poets and courtiers. The cantigas de amigo, love, and scorn were collected in songbooks from the twelfth century. Canticles of the Virgin Mary (13th century) by King Alfonso X the Wise.