Pre-Renaissance Spain in the 15th Century: Society, Culture, and Poetry
ITEM 10: The Pre-Renaissance (15th Century)
1. Historical, Social, and Cultural Context
The crisis of medieval society was enhanced significantly in the 15th century, although it was already evident in the 14th century. It was a period considered a time of transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (which is modeled on classical thought).
Man recovers his faith in himself and becomes aware of his own individuality (anthropocentrism). Encouraged by a pagan and materialistic spirit, he believes that life offers a world of rewarding feelings that can be savored with delight.
This vitalistic sense was not consolidated until the Renaissance. In the late Middle Ages, this mentality coexisted with the ascetic, and so we have a world of contrasts where hedonism (the pursuit of self-pleasure) and the materialism of La Celestina survives alongside the Christian concept of Jorge Manrique.
The 15th-century society was conflictual. Furthermore, relations between members of three ethnic-religious communities (Christians, Muslims, and Jews) progressively deteriorated.
The political crisis deepened in the 15th century. At the end of the century, the Catholic Kings submitted to the nobility, concentrated power in their hands, and established an authoritarian monarchy.
Regarding culture, the discovery of classical antiquity (Greco-Roman (Greek and Roman)) through the Italian humanists (Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio) is important.
2. Poetry
2.1. Popular-Traditional Narrative Poetry
The romances are short lyrical epic compositions that arise from the fragmentation of the chanson de geste.
Its first manifestations are given at the end of the 14th century.
Transmitted orally in the 15th century. Throughout the 16th century and the first half of the 17th, it was collected by authors and included in Romanceros and Songbooks.
According to the themes addressed, they are classified as:
- National Historic: Derived from the ancient Castilian epics and exalt their heroes.
- Romantic and Lyrical: Created by popular imagination.
- Border and Moors: Tell military episodes that take place on the border between Moorish and Christian kingdoms.
- Carolingian: Focus on the figure of Charlemagne and the characters and events associated therewith.
- Breton: Inspired by the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.
The metrical structure of these compositions shows a great relationship with the chanson de geste. The romance consists of an infinite series of eight-syllable verses that rhyme in assonance, and odd pairs are loose.
With regard to the style of the ballads, it should be noted that along with the linguistic features typical of the epic formulas and oral language (constant invocation of the listeners), inherited from the epics, they have stylistic peculiarities:
- Fragmentary or trends. The romance has substance. Log in unexposed background of the action (abrupt onset) and at the moment of greatest dramatic intensity, the narrative is left truncated (abrupt end).
- Tendency to repetition. Procedures is one of the most striking in oral folk poetry. Phonemes are repeated (in the case of alliteration), identical words (rhetorical repetition), phrases, or sentence structures (parallel).
- Freedom in the handling of tenses.