Spanish Baroque Literature: Styles, Themes, and Major Authors

Posted on Nov 29, 2024 in Music

Baroque

Historical and Social Context

The Baroque period in Spain arose during the reign of the later Habsburgs (Philip III, Philip IV, and Charles II) and was characterized by:

  • Economic crisis: Spain missed the opportunity for an industrial revolution by mismanaging wealth from the New World.
  • Spanish decadence: The 17th century saw increased national ruin due to poor governance, the expulsion of Jews and Moors, and continuous wars, notably in Catalonia and Portugal.
  • Emigration to America: This depopulated parts of Spain, leading to labor shortages.
  • New mysticism and religiosity: Fueled by the unstable situation, this inspired moralizing and didactic literature.

Characteristics of the Baroque

Baroque literature adopted Renaissance themes but presented them through deception or illusion, reflecting a loss of faith in humanity and a devaluation of the world. There was no natural evolution between the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Ideology and Attitudes

Baroque thought expressed disillusionment with the world, manifesting in three main positions:

  1. Confrontation and rebellion, especially in moral and political issues and poetry.
  2. Evasion through inherited Renaissance themes.
  3. Conformity and coexistence with the situation, primarily seen in theater.

Literary Aesthetics

Important Baroque themes included:

  • Epic, romantic, and mythological legacies from the Renaissance.
  • Religious, moral, and political themes resulting from Baroque disillusionment.
  • Picaresque and satirical themes.
  • National historical and legendary themes.

Baroque writers sought originality, creative individuality, and surprising rhetoric:

  • Seeking new forms of expression to surprise and challenge readers.
  • Using ingenuity to avoid vulgarity.
  • Attempting to create a new artifice that surpassed or transformed beauty.

Conceptismo and Culteranismo

  • Conceptismo: Focused on content, using antithesis, paradoxes, puns, metaphors, and sound devices.
  • Culteranismo: Pursued beauty and expressive form.

The Poetry of the Baroque

Themes

Baroque poetry explored two main thematic areas:

  • The great Renaissance themes: love, nature, mythology, adapted to the Baroque attitude.
    • Love as a transcendent feeling.
    • Nature viewed moralistically, emphasizing the loss of its beauty.
    • Mythology as a source of beauty or rhetorical play.
  • Themes arising from disillusionment and pessimism:
    • Dreams as symbols of life and death.
    • Mirrors as symbols of disappointment.
    • Critical severity towards Spain’s problems.

Learned Poetry Trends

Learned poetry utilized hendecasyllabic verse, sonnets, and songs. Poets fell into two distinct groups:

  1. Classics who disrupted the balance between content and expression.
  2. Those who maintained an aesthetic ideal of naturalness and selection.

Culteran Poetry: Luis de Góngora

Culteran poetry adopted the Renaissance heritage, transforming its themes and employing exaggerated rhetoric. Culteran poets used complex forms and strong contrasts in a risky rhetorical style.

Features:

  • Use of verses and stanzas to achieve musicality.
  • Canonical treatment of metaphor.
  • Cultism and rhythmic sound.
  • Emphasis on mythological themes.
  • Syntactic complication through hyperbaton.

The main figure was Luis de Góngora y Argote, a court poet. His poetry is characterized by ornamental and sensory exuberance, with two distinct styles: “clear Góngora” and “dark Góngora.” Góngora was a master of the sonnet, covering a wide range of subjects. His major works include Polyphemus, a long poem recreating the myth of Polyphemus and Galatea, and Solitudes, a culmination of culteranismo, though unfinished. Followers included the Count of Villamediana, Pedro Soto de Rojas, Juan de Jáuregui, and Pedro de Espinosa.

Conceptist Poetry: Francisco de Quevedo

Francisco de Quevedo was the master of conceptismo, characterized by verbal wit, semantic games, and ellipses. Conceptist poets used specific linguistic resources:

  1. Rhetorical figures of thought (antithesis, metaphor, etc.).
  2. Puns.
  3. Phonetic games.
  4. Syntactic devices like hyperbaton.
  5. Intensifying words.

Quevedo, a nobleman connected to the court, was a passionate and intense figure. His poems ranged from philosophical to satirical and burlesque, exploring:

  • Idealization and the superhuman world.
  • The subhuman and plebeian world.
  • Moral poetry: the passage of time, brevity of life, and the threat of death.
  • Love poetry: paradoxically, this misanthrope and misogynist was a great singer of love, considering it an unattainable ideal.
  • Satirical and burlesque poetry: his most popular style, displaying rhetorical figures.
  • Political poetry: reflecting on Spain and denouncing corruption.

Poetry of Lope de Vega

Lope de Vega harmonized conceptist brilliance and culteran subtlety. His life was full of anxieties caused by love, both human and religious. His poetic output included:

  • Lyrical poetry of great beauty, synthesizing tradition and cultured Renaissance songbooks, excelling in religious themes.
  • The epic poem La Dragontea.
  • Satirical and burlesque poetry.
  • Popular lyrics with rich rhythm and simple spontaneity.

Classicist Poetry

Classicist poetry adhered to the formal and aesthetic ideals of Renaissance poetry, using serenity, sobriety of style, and themes like the brevity of life. Notable authors include Francisco de Rioja, Rodrigo Caro, and Ángel Fernández de Andrada.

Traditional and Popular Poetry

Traditional and popular poetry included:

  • Traditional lyrics with religious, moral, metaphysical, loving, or burlesque themes.
  • New ballads (romances) with content and subjects similar to old ballads, including moral, philosophical, or satirical themes.