Spanish Literature: 16th & 17th Century Poetry, Novels, and Theatre
Item 14: 16th Century Poetry
Spanish Traditional Poetry
Learned poetry was widely distributed, and popular poetry reached its peak in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Two kinds of poetry already existed in the fifteenth century, mainly eight-syllable verses.
Italianate Poetry
Features include a renewal of metrics (heroic verse) and the expression of the poet’s love in bucolic and pastoral themes.
Garcilaso de la Vega
Garcilaso de la Vega is one of the greatest poets, known for formal perfection and significant influence over the centuries. Key features include Latin influence, Renaissance themes and forms, poetic language, and topics such as locus amoenus, female beauty, and carpe diem. His Eclogues are pastoral poems where two or more shepherds express their grievances through amorous nature. Garcilaso wrote three Eclogues. He was also the first to write sonnets, structures where the contents are organized into related blocks.
The Novel in the 16th Century
Lazarillo de Tormes
Lazarillo de Tormes is an anonymous work. The book is autobiographical and, although it is a sequence of episodes, presents a structural unit. The play is based on deception, and with this novel, realism begins.
Item 15: Miguel de Cervantes
Poetry
Although Cervantes was good at poetry, he owes his fame to other genres. He liked metrics.
Theater
Cervantes mostly acquired fortune as a playwright, writing tragedies, comedies, and farces.
Novels
Cervantes became very famous through his novels, especially:
El Quijote
The first part of El Quijote was published in 1605, and in 1614, a second half was published by Alonso Fernandez. Cervantes, angered, hurried and published the true second part in 1615. El Quijote was soon very famous and was translated into many languages. Cervantes is one of the most important literary writers of all time.
Plot
The first part narrates two excursions: one by Don Quixote alone and another by Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. The second part tells of the last excursion. Cervantes tried to ridicule the romances of chivalry in El Quijote.
Item 16: Culteranismo and Conceptismo
Culteranismo
Its highest representative is Luis de Góngora. It tends to formal beauty through the careful preparation of language.
Conceptismo
Conceptismo is mainly represented by Quevedo. It tends to brevity and density of expression.
Luis de Góngora
Góngora is a poetic author who composes letrillas, romances, and sonnets. His greatest poems are Fable of Polyphemus and The Solitudes.
Francisco de Quevedo
Quevedo is an author of poetry and prose. His poems can be classified into love, metaphysical, moral, and satirical. He has two major prose works: Dreams and Buscón.
Item 17: 17th Century Theatre
The New Comedy
The new comedy represents the three unities of place, time, and action, characteristic of classical theater. It is structured in three acts, mixing comic and tragic elements. The work was written in verse, resorting to polymetry. The language is adjusted to each of the characters and can include dancing and folk songs.
Topics
Topics are popular in nature, removed from tradition, and include love and jealousy, as well as religious themes taken from the Bible.
Social Value
The viewer appreciates above all the defense of the monarchy, the maintenance of the status of his characters, the national affirmation of the old Spanish military hegemony, and the defense of compliance with the standard written Catholic faith.
Characters
Typical characters include the king, the noble knight, the gallant lover, the lady, the old lady’s father, husband or brother, the villain, and the funny one.
Lope de Vega
Features include topics such as love and honor, breaking the rule of the three unities, and using polymetry (different lines). Notable works include Fuenteovejuna and Dog in the Manger.
Tirso de Molina
Features include the best set of characters in Spanish theater and mastery of language arts and verse. Notable works include A Person Convicted of Suspicious and Trickster of Seville.
Calderón de la Barca
Features include reflective and deep building and successful intellectual and ideological background. The language is very elaborate, and his verse is always rich and expressive, with strength of character. Notable works include Life is a Dream and Your Neighbor as Yourself.