Medieval Spanish Literature: An Overview

Posted on Oct 19, 2024 in Latin

Medieval Spanish Literature

Narrative

Verse

Mester of Minstrelsy: Epic poems sung by minstrels. Focuses on heroic deeds and national sentiment. Example: Cantar del Mio Cid.

Mester of Clericia: Religious and didactic works written by clerics. Employs the cuaderna vía (four-line Alexandrine verses with consonant rhyme). Examples: Libro de Alexandre, Libro de Apolonio, Gonzalo de Berceo’s Miracles of Our Lady.

Prose

Early Prose (late 12th – early 13th centuries): Consolidated by Alfonso X “The Wise” with historical, legal, scientific, recreational, and scholarly works. Toledo School of Translators played a key role.

15th Century:

  • Cavalry Novels: Adventures of errant knights. Example: Amadis of Gaul.
  • Sentimental Novels: Love stories with tragic outcomes. Italian origin.

Epic Poetry

Purpose: To inspire warriors, model behavior, and strengthen national feeling. Disseminated orally by minstrels. Examples: French Song of Roland, Spanish Cantar del Mio Cid.

Cantar del Mio Cid

  • Date: Late 12th – early 13th century.
  • Author: Anonymous.
  • Content: Exploits of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid).
  • Themes: Loss and restoration of honor, conflict between nobility and royalty, Cid’s virtues (piety, courage, loyalty).
  • Structure:
    • External: Exile, Weddings, The Afrenta (Insult).
    • Internal: Loss of social and family honor.
  • Metric: Irregular verses (10-20 syllables), hemistiches, assonance, grouped in stanzas.
  • Characteristics: Omniscient narrator, epic epithets, humor, direct style.

Mester de Clericia (13th-14th centuries)

Themes: Religious, historical, heroic. Intent: Moral and didactic. Metric: Cuaderna vía.

Gonzalo de Berceo’s Miracles of Our Lady

  • Theme: Exalts the Virgin Mary’s power.
  • Structure: Introduction and 25 miracles. Each miracle includes presentation of the protagonist, their problem, the Virgin’s intervention, and a moral.
  • Style: Complex syntax, new words, minstrel-like resources, rhetoric (comparisons, metaphors, hyperbole).

Libro del Buen Amor (Book of Good Love) by Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita

  • Characteristics: Variety, ambiguity, humor.
  • Content: Love adventures, educational and moral digressions, exempla, fables, allegorical episodes, lyrics.
  • Form: Short, minstrel-like verses.
  • Purpose: Ambiguous (teaching and celebrating life’s joys).
  • Style: Popular language, proverbs, euphemisms, expressive resources.

Romance

Concept: Lyrical narrative poem with octosyllabic verses. Originated from fragmented epic songs.

Classification: Old romances (16th century), New romances (2nd half of 16th century onwards).

Characteristics: Repetition, abrupt endings, truncated narratives, 1st or 3rd person narrator, archaic verb forms.

Structure: Story, Scene, Dialogue.

Prose (continued)

Celestina (late 15th century) by Fernando de Rojas

  • Genre: Dramatic novel in dialogue, tragicomedy.
  • Themes: Love (parody of courtly love, love as madness, sexual love), magic, social classes, anticlericalism.
  • Characters: Defined by their actions, words, and what others say about them.
  • Intention: Moralizing, pessimistic, disillusioned.

Jorge Manrique’s Coplas a la Muerte de su Padre (Verses on the Death of His Father)

  • Form: 40 stanzas (coplas manriqueñas) with a unique rhyme scheme.
  • Style: Natural, simple, humble. Uses metaphors and imagery.
  • Themes: Death as a powerful, inevitable force, minister of God.