Renaissance Literature: Key Authors and Works

Literature in the Renaissance

The Renaissance, meaning “rebirth,” marked a period of significant change, including the discovery of America, economic expansion, trade development, population growth, and new ways of thinking, understanding life, human relations, writing, and reading.

The Golden Century

The sixteenth century saw the rise of prominent figures like the poets Garcilaso de la Vega, Fray Luis de Leon, and San Juan de la Cruz.

Prose

Notable prose works include Lazarillo de Tormes and Miguel de Cervantes’s writings.

Cervantes’s History in the Sixteenth Century

Charles I faced financial difficulties in Europe. Philip II, distancing himself from Europe, promoted Counter-Reformation Catholic religious elements, which became important in literary creation.

Culture in the Sixteenth Century

Renaissance humanism, originating in the fifteenth century, revived Greek and Latin culture. The main humanist belief was that learning other languages improved people and societies.

Garcilaso de la Vega

Garcilaso de la Vega renewed Spanish poetry by modeling the Italian style and writing about love. His work includes:

  • Detailed analysis of love.
  • Expression of feelings.
  • Three Eclogues and 38 sonnets.

The Idealization of Love and Classical Myths

Love is the principle that sustains the world, spiritually ennobled in melancholy and misery. He used:

  • Classic Poets: Virgil, Ovid, Horace.
  • Myths: Recounted or evoked to dignify personal experience.

Fray Luis de Leon

Fray Luis de Leon came from a converso family. He was an Augustinian professor of theology in Salamanca. He wrote prose works, including The Names of Christ and The Perfect Wife. His poetry has a religious character and is based on moral topics, friendship, solitude, and the desire for eternity.

San Juan de la Cruz

San Juan de la Cruz is the greatest representative of Spanish mystical poetry. Mysticism is the highest degree of religious experience. He used metaphors and symbols to describe the experience of human love.

  • The Purgative Way: The soul seeks to be alone in darkness.
  • The Illuminative Way: The soul sees a light that guides the way to union.
  • The Unitive Way: The soul and God become one.

He wrote three important poems: Dark Night of the Soul, Spiritual Canticle, and Living Flame of Love. His poetry uses the metric of the lyre.

The Novel in the Sixteenth Century

There are three types of novels:

Romance of Chivalry

These novels feature extraordinary events, imaginary places, and knights who travel the world, proving to be fair, brave, and loyal. Examples include the legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table and Amadis of Gaul.

Pastoral Novels

These novels feature idealized pastors who discuss their feelings in an equally idealized nature. An example is The Seven Books of the Diana.

Picaresque Novel

These novels depict characters who make a living by deception in poverty and a hostile environment. Lazarillo de Tormes is an example.

Miguel de Cervantes

Cervantes wrote La Galatea in 1585. Twenty years later, he wrote The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha (1605). In 1605, he published the second part of Don Quixote. During that decade, he also wrote the Exemplary Novels.

Quixote Structure

The first two volumes were published in 1605 and the second in 1615. The story includes several romances, contemporary tastes, loves, coincidences, idealized shepherds, and a story about the author’s captivity.

Other Works of Cervantes

  • He wrote poetry.
  • He wrote works with a comic character.
  • La Galatea is an interesting pastoral novel.
  • Exemplary Novels (Rinconete and Cortadillo, The Dialogue of the Dogs, and The Gypsy).
  • The Works of Persiles and Sigismunda is an ambitious novel of love and adventure.