Spanish Literature: 14th-15th Century Authors and Works
Don Juan Manuel
His most important work was The Count Lucanor. His fame consists of 51 stories, reasoning, 100 proverbs, sayings, and 80 more in a moral or doctrinal treatise.
The Count Lucanor
The author frames the stories in a fictional framework. This framework serves Don Juan Manuel in order to combine the various stories.
Structure of the Stories
- The narrator presents the count and his advisor, Lucanor Patronio.
- Narration.
- Patronio gives his advice in line with the teaching that follows the story.
Sources and Influences
They have their source in the Arab and Oriental tales and storybooks of the European Christian tradition. Other Spanish authors were influenced by him to create some of their works.
Style Features
It has a unique style and signals its desire to use words known to all. It has a lack of fluency and archaic language, even in its infancy.
Variety of Topics
Some of the problems that the authors place are in the context of his time. The topics are varied and diverse; there is actually a thematic unit.
Intentionality of the Work
He wants to print an educational and moral encouragement to his work. He is interested in fun, entertainment, and the pleasure of reading that those who read his works can get.
The Lyrics
The Popular Castilian Lyric
The metric is irregular, with a tendency towards verses of 6 and 8 syllables. Its theme is love. The carol is the most used in popular lyric. It has this structure: some opening lines that make up the chorus, a move of four verses, and 2 or more lines of links.
The Ballad
It derives from fragments of epic poems. The form comes from the epic poems and had 16 syllables; his poems were rhyming assonance. The epic verse is divided into two parts.
Classes of Ballads
- Historical
- Border
- Carolingian or Breton
- Romantic and Lyrical
Ballads mixed narration and dialogue.
The Learned or Courtly Poetry
It gets a double effect: the Provençal troubadour poetry and the subject of short verses of amorous poetry. Allegorical Italian Dante gives rise to long poems. This poetry has been preserved in various songbooks like Baena’s.
The Marqués de Santillana
He wrote his poems in the first half of the fifteenth century. His work is suffused with a noble attitude of a refined and elegant mind. It is described in poetry of Provençal influence, Italian-influenced poetry, and moral teaching poetry.
Juan de Mena
His most important work is The Labyrinth of Fortune. Mena developed a highly expressive and worshipful language.
The Dance of Death
A skeleton summons men of any social class to remind them of their mortal condition and invite them to dance a macabre dance.
Jorge Manrique
His poetic production consists of 50 compositions in two blocks:
- Poetry of Love: It is heir to courtly poetry. His style is less cultured, sought, and artificial.
- Verses for the Death of His Father: He wrote these lines from the pain, resignation, and emotion over the death of his father.
Verses for the Death of His Father
The theme is the praise of his father. Manrique is not satisfied with a eulogy of the dead hero but wraps it in a series of reflections on life, death, etc.
The Literary Topics in Couplets
- The transience of life
- Life as a river
- Life on earth as a way to heavenly life
- Ubi sunt?
- Death to all equals
- The life of fame and honor
The Nature of the Work
The poem is structured in three parts that range from more general to more particular. Part of the verses have a propaganda function. The poem is composed of 40 verses of so-called Manriquean broken foot.
The Amadis of Gaul
Its author is unknown. The work was corrected and supplemented by Montalvo. It is written in an attractive and elegant language. Its lyricism stands by the idealization of the love of its characters and the skill with which the various episodes are tacked.
The Sentimental Novel
Predominant sentiment passions of his characters develop in a polite manner. They are characterized by the following features:
- The lover is tormented by the beloved as he adores her.
- The lady is full of beauty and virtues.
- The language is ornate and loves rhetoric.
- They often have a tragic ending.