Spanish Literature: From Medieval to Baroque Periods
Medieval Literature
Cancionero Poetry
Cancionero poetry viewed poetry as a game of courtly love and literature. The poet assumed the role of a servant to his lady, to whom he directed his verses, adorned with ingenuity and conceptual development (e.g., Jorge Manrique).
Epic Poetry
With the passage of time, epic poems were fragmented, likely because the public favored requesting specific episodes, leading minstrels to recite these passages separately.
Ballads
Ballads are poems consisting of an indefinite series of eight-syllable lines with assonance rhyme in pairs. They are characterized by their concentration and expressive drama. The use of dialogue and monologue to engage the audience is frequent.
Jorge Manrique and the “Coplas por la Muerte de su Padre”
Jorge Manrique is the author of one of the most important works of Spanish poetry: the “Coplas por la Muerte de su Padre” (“Stanzas on the Death of His Father”). It is an elegy in which the author reflects on life, death, time, and the memory of loved ones. It consists of forty stanzas in a unique rhyme scheme (8a 8b 4c 8a 8b 4c 8d 8e 4f 8d 8e 4f). The poem can be divided into four parts:
- A meditation on the transience of life.
- Examples illustrating life’s fleeting nature.
- Praise of Don Rodrigo Manrique, the author’s father.
- The encounter with Don Rodrigo’s death.
“La Celestina”
Plot: Callisto enters a garden chasing a hawk and encounters Melibea. Captivated by her beauty, he declares his love, but she rejects him. Callisto seeks the help of Celestina, an old bawd. Celestina visits Melibea and gradually convinces her of Callisto’s virtues and love. Finally, Melibea admits her own feelings.
Renaissance Literature
The Renaissance and Humanism
During the 16th century, the Renaissance, an artistic and cultural movement, flourished. It brought a new conception of life and humanity, represented by humanism. Humanism, originating in 14th-century Italy, considered man the center of all things and looked to Greco-Roman art as a model. The Renaissance spread from Italy to the rest of Europe.
Renaissance Style
Renaissance style emphasized simplicity and clarity of expression, pursuing the naturalness of spoken language. It incorporated the hendecasyllable and adopted stanzas, compositions, and arrangements from Italian poetry. Classical themes of love and nature were revived, and Greco-Roman myths were revitalized.
Garcilaso de la Vega
Garcilaso de la Vega (born in Toledo in 1501) embodied the ideal Renaissance courtier, a man of letters and arms. Of noble descent, he served Charles I, defending his interests in numerous battles. He married Elena de Zúñiga, but his true love was Isabel Freyre, a Portuguese lady who inspired many of his verses. Garcilaso’s work includes three eclogues, 38 sonnets, and other poems. He explored Renaissance themes such as love, nature, and mythology.
The Picaresque Novel
With the publication of “Lazarillo de Tormes” in 1554, the picaresque novel emerged. This genre is characterized by fictional autobiography, realistic aspirations, and action set in a specific time and place. The protagonist is an antihero from a low social background. Lazarillo serves a series of increasingly worse masters: a blind man, a squire, and a priest.
Baroque Literature
Baroque Art
Baroque art was characterized by opulence and brilliance. Artists abandoned the formal balance of the Renaissance, seeking to surprise and create a dynamic style based on contrast and artificiality. Baroque themes often reflected the pessimism of the times: the deceptive appearance of things, the transience of life, and the disappointment that follows youthful illusions.
Culteranismo and Conceptismo
Culteranismo: This style sought formal beauty through the use of elaborate language and the creation of an artificial language (e.g., Luis de Góngora).
Conceptismo: This style relied on wit and ingenuity, frequently employing irony and caricature (e.g., Francisco de Quevedo).
Prose Fiction
The picaresque novel continued to flourish during the Baroque period with works like Quevedo’s “El Buscón.” However, the most prominent novel of the era was Cervantes’ “Don Quixote.”
Miguel de Cervantes and “Don Quixote”
Miguel de Cervantes fought in the Battle of Lepanto, where he was wounded, and was later imprisoned in Algiers for five years. He died on April 23, 1616. He wrote “Don Quixote” in two parts (1605 and 1615). He stated that he wrote the book to satirize the popularity of chivalric romances.
Francisco de Quevedo
. As for prose fiction produced the boom of the picaresque novel with the publication, among others, a hustler of Quevedo, which follows more or less faithfully, the model of Lazarillo. But the novel is more prominentDon Quixote by Cervantes. The domestic comedy is characterized by: dividing the work in 3 acts or days, a mixture of tragic and comic elements, breaking the unities of time and place and expressive decorum. Miguel de Cervantes fought at Lepanto, where a hand was partially crippled, after he was imprisoned for 5 years in Algiers. He died on 23 April 1616. He wrote the Quixote. Part 1: 1605 and Part 2: 1615. He states that he has written the book to undermine the authority and place in the world and the masses have the books of chivalry. In Quevedo’s poetry include 3 groups of compositions: love poems: The author welcomes the submissions and Petrarchan formsto express a vision at once idealized love or torn. Poetry moral: Quevedo is on them as issues over time, the transience of life, death … burlesque poems: in these compositions, the various aspects of society currently targeted deformation caricature. The hustler:is a picaresque novel that recounts the life of Paul miserable son of a barber thief and a witch matchmaker. Source sheepish addresses the issue of honor and the conflict between villains and nobility. The people of source sheepish rebel against the commander and give death . During questioning, the judge proceeded to torture to find out the name of the murderer of the commander, and all respond Source sheepish, sir! “Pedro Calderon de la Barca: in his dramas covers topics like the passage of time, the misleading nature of reality, the honor …two works in this genre include: the Mayor of Zalamea and Life is a Dream