Medieval Spanish Literature: Poetics, Reading, Jarchas, Carols
Literariness and Poetic Function Characteristics
- Autonomy: While historical languages, journalism, etc., require a prior reality known to the speaker, literary language creates its own reality.
- Multiple Meaning: Literary language possesses a unique potential for interpretation. Meanings can be understood in different ways:
- Diachronic or Vertical Readings: Meanings or concepts added over history.
- Synchronous or Horizontal Readings: Meanings or concepts added within a concrete context.
- Estrangement (Exile): The aim of literary language is to offer a different picture of reality that causes surprise or amazement in the reader.
The Image of the Medieval World in Literature
The image people had of reality during the Middle Ages was influenced by several factors:
- The ideological weight of the Church, which sometimes even replaced geographical understanding with religious models.
- The dissemination of encyclopedias that compiled contemporary knowledge, blending science and faith (e.g., Etymologiae by Isidore of Seville, De imagine mundi by Honorius of Autun).
- The success of travel books that mixed reality with legend, adventure tales, and fantasy (e.g., Book of the Marvels of the World, Marco Polo’s travels).
These travel books often followed a similar scheme:
- They were presented as autobiographical narratives with a dual objective:
- To enhance credibility.
- To permit reader identification with the narrator.
- They followed a chronological structure.
- They used symbolic spaces, especially cities and islands.
Reading and Readers in Medieval Literature
The techniques of poetry, adventure novels, etc., initially presupposed a listening public; these were books meant to be heard, not read silently. This fact influenced the way medieval literature was written and recited:
- Dramatization of Reading: Recitation often incorporated dialogue, gestures, and dramatic elements.
- Audience Influence: Arguments or plots might change depending on the tastes of the audience, sometimes causing narrative imbalances, the inclusion of unnecessary passages, repetition, or long descriptions.
From the twelfth century onwards, the increase in literacy caused profound changes in reading habits. New individual readers often preferred prose to poetry.
Jarchas
A jarcha is a brief poetic text written in the Mozarabic language, mostly belonging to the eleventh century. They served as refrains (final verses) for more extensive poems written in classical Arabic or Hebrew, called moaxajas.
The protagonist of the jarchas, typically a young woman, protests or complains about the absence, indifference, or separation from her beloved (habib). In the symbolic world of the jarchas, the outside world has little presence, reinforcing the heroine’s sense of loneliness and incomprehension. The supposed dialogue often ends up being a monologue that reveals the girl’s frustration.
The poetic universe is structured around a set of oppositions. Among the symbols appearing in jarchas, those concerning the beloved are prominent (e.g., the habib represented as a deer or falcon).
Carols (Villancicos)
Although printed examples appear mainly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, carols (Spanish: villancicos) were likely composed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They share part of the poetic world with the jarchas, often featuring a girl as the protagonist. However, carols include both complaints about absence and the exaltation of erotic love.
Nature has an almost constant presence but often carries symbolic character:
- Water, river, fountain often symbolize the beloved (amado).
- Trees (especially beneath them), walking on the grass, or washing a shirt can symbolize lovemaking.
- Black or brown colors might symbolize the loss of virginity.