Renaissance and Baroque Spanish Literature: A Comprehensive Overview
Renaissance Culture and Humanism
Anthropocentrism and Humanistic Studies
The Renaissance witnessed a shift in the understanding of human beings and their connection to God and nature. Man became the focal point (anthropocentrism). Humanism, a prevailing intellectual movement grounded in the studia humanitatis (humanistic studies), emphasized the study of classical Latin and valued the development of human potential. It also saw a resurgence of the chivalric ideal intertwined with culture.
Renaissance Lyric Poetry
The resurgence of poetry in songbooks (cancioneros) was fueled by the spread of humanism. Petrarch successfully blended the legacy of Provençal lyric poetry with classical literature.
Formal Aspects
Italian poetry introduced two rhythmic innovations, including the hendecasyllable, which created a softer sound. Renaissance lyric incorporated stanzas and composition types from the Italian tradition. Triplets chains, similar to those in Castilian poetry, were also employed. Garcilaso’s lyre derives its name from the opening stanza of the Ode to the Flower of Knidos. The eighth real rhyme is also known as an eighth. The stay, a Petrarchan form used in songs, and the Italian sonnet were permanently established by Boscan and Garcilaso. The Sapphic stanza, of Italian origin, consists of three hendecasyllables and a pentasyllable.
Themes and Poetic Motifs
Bucolic poetry, particularly Virgil’s work, which Sannazaro adapted for odes and epistles, served as a significant model. The central theme of Renaissance lyric is love, born from poetic introspection and expressing the suffering caused by absence or the death of the beloved. Nature also plays a key role, with serene groves, vibrant flowers, fountains, and streams symbolizing beauty connected to love. Classical mythology, particularly stories from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, is used to depict love relationships. Other themes include friendship (between men).
Key Figures of Spanish Renaissance and Baroque Literature
Garcilaso de la Vega
Garcilaso’s work includes forty sonnets, three eclogues, five songs, two elegies, and an epistle in octosyllables (cancionero style). His themes revolve around melancholic love and sadness stemming from the absence of the beloved, often linked to nature. Friendship is another prominent theme.
Fray Luis de Leon
Fray Luis de Leon’s work coincided with the rise of spiritual literature. His poetry comprises 23 original poems, mostly in the lira form. His sources include classical poetry, particularly Horace and Virgil, and moral poetry.
Lazarillo de Tormes
Lazarillo de Tormes is considered the most significant work of the Spanish picaresque novel. It is a pseudo-autobiographical narrative featuring a protagonist of humble origins who serves various masters and develops cunning, versatility, caution, and suspicion. The date and authorship are uncertain, though it is often dated to 1554. Possible authors include Fray Juan de Ortega, Alfonso de Valdes, and Cervantes de Salazar. Sources include The Golden Ass, the fourth book of The Valiant Knight Rinaldo de Montalban, a collection of love letters, and folkloric tales. The novel follows Lazarillo’s life through three stages: childhood, adolescence, and youth. In childhood (blind man, clergyman, squire), he learns to assist the blind man in mass and to deceive the clergy. In adolescence (friar, pardoner, master of painting tambourines), he experiences sexual awakening and learns about deception and falsehood. In youth (chaplain, bailiff, aripreste), Lazarillo establishes himself, attains important positions, and acquires a home. The discourse is structured as an epistle or letter, presented as a monologue written by the protagonist. It employs evaluative and universal discourse. Expressive resources include humor and some gospel elements.
Don Quixote
Part 1 of Don Quixote was published in 1605 under the title The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha. It consists of burlesque poems divided into 52 chapters and 4 parts. Part 2, published in 1615, has a slightly altered title: The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha. It includes a prologue and 74 chapters without division into parts. Sources include pastoral, Byzantine, chivalric, sentimental, Moorish, and picaresque novels. The structure unfolds in three journeys: Don Quixote leaves his village alone and later with Sancho Panza. They embark on a series of adventures and eventually return to the village, where Don Quixote dies. Time and space are presented chronologically and linearly, with few and often incoherent temporal references. Characters include innkeepers, shepherds, herdsmen, carriers, farmers, the wealthy, clergy, knights, nobles, and marginalized individuals. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are distinct yet complementary figures. Themes explore the conflict between reality and idealism, with Don Quixote symbolizing this struggle. The novel also delves into the nature of literature. The narrative features a primary narrator and various fictitious authors and narrator-characters. The main narrator is omniscient and often uses the first person. Fictitious authors include the author of the found manuscript, Cide Hamete Benengeli. Narrator-characters act as witnesses or participants in the stories. Speeches are presented through narrator commentary, character discourse, and dialogues. Baroque poetry retained themes from previous periods, including love. Love poetry continued the Renaissance concept of love and physical descriptions of the beloved. Moral and philosophical poetry was characterized by pessimism, disappointment, and the transience of life. Religious poetry included celebratory poems, spiritual reflections, and repentance. Burlesque poetry had a parodic and humorous nature. Formal aspects incorporated new verbal and rhetorical devices. Metrically, there was a renewed appreciation for the octosyllable and the introduction of refrains. Expressive resources included displays of wit, poetic elaboration, comparisons, and periphrasis.
Lope de Vega
Lope de Vega possessed a remarkable capacity for narrative and theatrical creation. His works encompass a wide range of forms, including letrillas, carols, ballads, sonnets, epistles, eclogues, and songs. His style is characterized by a blend of religion and popular culture, often drawing inspiration from proverbs.
Francisco de Quevedo
Francisco de Quevedo is renowned for the quality and variety of his poetic themes, which he explored through romances, letrillas, silvas, ballads, octaves, triplets, and sonnets.
Luis de Gongora
Luis de Gongora focused on minor art poetry, including sonnets and longer poems. He practiced both minor art and Petrarchan poetry.