Romanticism and Galician Revival: Key Concepts & Figures
Romanticism and Renaissance
Romanticism, Renaissance: XVII Finals in Germany
Author: Goretti, with works inspired by Werther, love of nature, feelings, and moods expressed through nature.
Faust: A man who sells his soul to the devil to live forever.
In 1850, the Romantic era ends, but in Spain, it continues until 1870.
Features of Romanticism
- It is a reaction against the rationalism of the eighteenth century.
- Supremacy of feelings; the self is the center of subjectivity.
- Importance of originality over classical tradition.
Subjects and Themes
- Analysis of feelings
- Concern over time
- Feeling of tragic destiny
- Childhood associated with Paradise
- Rebels dominate
- Nationalism
- Exoticism and Escapism: to escape the past
- Landscape along with feelings
- Looking for originality, using many literary devices
- Language used expresses his inner world
- Romantic authors seek total freedom and do not follow a fixed structure.
Two Trends in Romanticism
There are two main trends:
- Traditional or Conservative Romanticism: Authors who do not agree with the social and political changes that emerged from the French Revolution.
- Liberal Romanticism: Authors who defend the new company, equal freedom…
Romanticism in Spain
Romanticism in Spain arrived through Andalusia and Catalunya.
Spanish Baroque theater defends criticism of the absolutist. BC Aribau Ramón López Soler i
Two Stages of Spanish Romanticism
- 1st Romanticism (1835-1850): Espronceda
- Post-Romanticism (1855-1870): Bécquer and Rosalia de Castro
The Galician Revival (Resurgence)
The Galician Revival, also known as the Rexurdimento, is the name given to the cultural renaissance of Galicia. Its aim was revitalizing the Galician language, which was primarily used in family settings.
Ideological Movement
The revival was also an ideological nationalist movement that wanted to awaken Galicia’s patriotic spirit.
It is a parallel movement, chronologically and ideologically similar to the Catalan Reinaxensa. The official date is 1875. Rosalia de Castro’s Cantares Gallegos received so much criticism that she decided not to write in Galician.
Published in 1863, it is the first book in Castilian by the author and is inspired by the songs of Antonia Trueba. Like Rosalie Trueba, it is part of a popular song in Galicia.
The book is written in Galician dialect, lexical rural with many hesitations, Castilianisms…
She writes with the Galician she learned as a child, and she wrote these poems with no intention of publishing them; her husband secretly made them public.
Why the Galician Language?
As the preface says, it explains her willingness to stand up for the humble, farmers…
Purpose of the Book
Make known the beauties of the earth and expose Galician social injustices.
Topics
Diverse and often sentimental and customary (beauty of the landscape, love, longing for the homeland, hardness of work).
Personality
Usually simple people, peasants, sailors, immigrants… Through them are social injustices and the drama of immigration.
Style and Language
Hit single, parallelism, anaphora, personifications, metaphors, nicknames.
Metrical
Romances, redondillas.
On the Banks of Sar
Part of a poem topics: emigration, the symbol of the bells.
This is the last book written and published during the lifetime of Rosalia. The book is an example of poetry disappointed i sore distressed. A poem in which all hope lost Rosalie retreats into herself with her grief i solitude.
Topics Include
Pain, saudade (longing). Religion, love. Shadows.