Renaissance Prose: Idealism and Realism in Spanish Literature

Posted on Sep 7, 2024 in Latin

Renaissance Prose

Idealist Prose

Cavalry Novels

These novels feature idealized and imaginary scenarios, where noble and handsome heroes rescue women with swords, even though firearms were already known at the time.

Pastoral Novel

Idealized shepherds in an idealized natural setting (locus amoenus) discuss their love and suffering.

Example: The Seven Books of the Diana by Jorge de Montemayor.

Moorish Novels

Moors are idealized within an idealized natural setting.

Example: The History of the Abencerraje and the Beautiful Jarifa (author unknown, possibly Jorge de Montemayor).

Sentimental Novels

These novels focus on the analysis of love and the reflection of feelings.

Characters are often in conflict with their environment, miserable or unhappy.

They typically have unhappy endings and are set in exotic, remote, or imaginary locations.

The language is characterized by artifice and rhetoric, and the tone is often lamenting.

Realistic Prose

Picaresque Novel: Lazarillo de Tormes

Features:

• Protagonist is a rogue: A character from the lower classes who seeks to improve their social standing.
• Autobiographical: The protagonist narrates their own life in the first person.
• Traveling Novel: The rogue moves from one place to another.
• Serves several masters: Through the rogue’s various masters, the reader gains a broad view of society.
• Critical and pessimistic vision of society.
• Taste for aesthetic innovation.
• Subordination of the story to the rogue’s current state: The story explains how the protagonist reached their current situation.

Lazarillo de Tormes

Author: Anonymous. Theories include a disenchanted nobleman or a convert Erasmus, due to the criticism of society, especially the Church.

Publication: Published in 1554, banned by the Inquisition in 1559, and reissued in 1837.

Sources: Many passages in Lazarillo were part of popular wisdom.

Structure:

• Prologue: Addressed to “your worship”.
• Treatises:
  • I: Blind Man: Abuse and deceit.
  • II: Greedy Cleric: Lack of Christian charity.
  • III: Hidalgo Squire: Obsessed with honor.
  • IV: Friar of La Merced: Criticism of the Church.
  • V: Pardoner: Lies and deception to sell indulgences.
  • VI: Painter of Tambourines and Chaplain: Exploitation by the Church.
  • VII: Archpriest: Corruption of the clergy. (Sheriff: Short and dangerous stay)

The final treatise deals with Lazarillo’s marriage, but he faces rumors that his wife is having an affair with the Archpriest.

Interpretation: The process of an individual’s adaptation to society (16th-century Spain), losing innocence and dignity along the way.

Criticism: Criticizes the selfish behavior of the characters and the social system that forces them to act this way.

Style:

• Realistic
• Plausible: Everything recounted could have happened.
• Polyphony or poetic decorum: Each character speaks as expected.
• Mixing narrative with description, dialogue, and monologues.
• Desire for synthesis: Treatises tend to be brief, sometimes extremely so.

Cervantes (1547-1616): Don Quixote

Life: Marked by his time in Italy and his participation in the Battle of Lepanto against the Turks, where he lost his arm and was imprisoned for five years. He was later imprisoned two more times.

Works:

• Poetry: His popular poetry has been lost, but we know of Journey to Parnassus.
• Prose:
  • La Galatea: An unfinished pastoral novel with theoretical digressions, mainly on literature. Elicio loves Galatea, whose father wants her to marry another man.
  • Exemplary Novels: A collection of twelve short stories. They are original and use elements from all the novelistic genres of the period: Moorish, pastoral, Byzantine, etc. They are classified in two ways: by their moral or educational purpose (e.g., Rinconete and Cortadillo) or as models of literary creation; and according to their trend: realistic (e.g., Rinconete and Cortadillo) or idealistic (e.g., The Illustrious Scullery Maid or The Little Gypsy Girl).
  • The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda: Published posthumously.

Don Quixote

• Part 1 (1605):
  • Chapter I: Introduces the hero at home.
  • Chapters II-VI: First departure as a knight-errant on a farm animal (mistaken for a castle). After many failures, he is taken back home, where the priest and the barber burn his books of chivalry.
  • Chapters VII-LII: Second departure. Don Quixote is accompanied by Sancho Panza as his squire. After another failure that leads him to the Sierra Morena, he is brought back home, caged by the priest and the barber, who believe he is bewitched.

In 1614, Alonso de Avellaneda published a false second part of Don Quixote, forcing Cervantes to write a second part and kill off Don Quixote.

• Part 2 (1615): In this part, Cervantes mocks Avellaneda.
  • Chapters I-VII: Don Quixote prepares for his third departure.
  • Chapters VIII-LXVI: Third departure. Don Quixote no longer confuses reality but is deceived by others. He reaches Catalonia, but without passing through Zaragoza. In this second part, the characters are recognized as characters from the first part.
  • Chapters LXVII-LXXIV: Finale. The bachelor Samson Carrasco disguises himself to defeat Don Quixote and bring him home. However, Don Quixote becomes so sad and melancholic that he falls ill upon his return. He makes a will and dies, aware of his past madness and as Alonso Quijano. Sancho proposes a fourth departure as shepherds, entering the realm of a pastoral novel.

Similarities between Part 1 and Part 2 of Don Quixote:

• Side stories are interwoven with the main plot, including adventures, tales, and literary reflections.
• In both parts, Don Quixote returns home under false pretenses.

Main narrative innovations introduced by Cervantes:

• Narrative: In contrast to the linear structure of chivalric romances:

  Chivalric Romances	Don Quixote
  Hero: Handsome, young nobles Imaginary and idealized scenarios	Antihero: Hidalgo, old, decrepit, and MAD Reality as a stage

• Mixing drama with touches of humor.
• Interrelation of characters: The characters interact with each other. Sancho becomes more like Quixote (Sanchification), and Don Quixote becomes more like Sancho (Quixotization). The roles are reversed.
• Importance of dialogue: Cervantes was a playwright. Each character speaks as expected of their social class. Don Quixote’s dialogues are long and rich in language, while Sancho’s are short and full of proverbs.
• Don Quixote is a globalizing work: It encompasses many genres.
• Fragmentary work: Related to the previous feature.
• Use of distancing techniques: Different narrators and, therefore, different points of view.

Style: A blend of Renaissance and Baroque:

Renaissance: Clarity and simplicity in language.

Baroque: Extraordinary command of language, vast vocabulary, and never repeating words.