Spanish Literature: Golden Age Novels Overview
Spanish Literature: Golden Age Novels
Byzantine Novel
The discovery of Ethiopian texts and their translations introduced the Greek novel of adventure to the Renaissance, giving rise to the Byzantine romance or adventure novel. This subgenre gained popularity due to the public’s fascination with sea voyages and geographical discoveries.
History:
These novels typically feature a pair of young lovers separated and eventually reunited. The narrative revolves around a journey filled with obstacles that hinder the story’s resolution. These challenges test the heroes’ chastity and faith. Common obstacles include:
- Pirates: Often Arab or Turkish, pirates pose threats of death, slavery, or romantic entanglements.
- Storms: Frequently leading to shipwrecks.
- Islands: Causing isolation, danger, and separation or reunion.
- Captivity: The ultimate test, ending with the lovers’ escape, often through deception and with the help of fellow captives.
In Spain, the Byzantine novel’s hero, initially a young and chaste lover, evolves into a pilgrim, symbolizing the Christian man on a religious journey. The characters in Byzantine novels increasingly emphasized moral traits and learning, diverging from the Greek model.
Books of Chivalry
These novels enjoyed immense popularity. However, they exhibit distinct characteristics:
- Separation between characters and universe: Unlike previous novels, there’s a clear distinction between the fictional characters and their world.
- The hero: The knight errant remains consistent across all novels.
- Immobile description: Despite the variety and exoticism of landscapes, realistic descriptions are absent.
- Timelessness: The hero does not age.
The most important work is Amadis of Gaul, a quintessential example of the genre that set a high standard.
The Pastoral Novel
This subgenre has a tightly structured narrative centered on love, similar to the Renaissance novel. However, the love depicted is more courteous, subtle, and less passionate. The shepherd, as a lover, is not consumed by love, unlike in the sentimental novel.
- Idealized characters: Shepherds behave and speak like courtiers, characterized by near-absolute chastity.
- Separation between protagonist and fictional universe: The novel’s events do not significantly impact the characters, and vice versa.
- Stylized landscape: The setting is poetic and idealized, varying only in the style used to describe it.
Arcadia by Sannazaro serves as a backdrop, but the genre emerged with Jorge de Montemayor’s Diana, which became a model for its kind. Other notable works include Cervantes’ Galatea and Lope de Vega’s Arcadia.
Sentimental Novel
Alongside the pastoral novel, this subgenre has a closed structure, focusing solely on love. The protagonist lives for their beloved, who remains inaccessible and distant, causing the protagonist’s suffering. The sentimental novel can be seen as a novelization of courtly love.
The most important work is Diego de San Pedro’s Prison of Love, which gained significant recognition throughout Europe.
Morisca Novel
This subgenre depicts life on the border between Castile and the last Muslim kingdom in the 15th century. The locations mentioned are real. The most famous example is The Story of Abencerraje and the Beautiful Jarifa, published in 1561 and included in a 1562 edition of Diana.
The two main characters, the Moor Abindarraez and the Castilian knight Rodrigo de Narvaez, exhibit chivalric traits, and the concept of love aligns with that of chivalry novels. The Abencerraje promotes the idea of coexistence between Muslims and Christians.
The narrative often incorporates unrelated inserts, such as the story of Daraja and Ozmin in Guzmán de Alfarache.
Lazarillo de Tormes
This pivotal work in Spanish literature inaugurates the picaresque novel subgenre. It takes the form of a pseudo-autobiographical narrative, where the protagonist, Lazarillo, recounts his life of poverty, leaving his family early and serving various masters.
Lazarillo possesses a roguish character and a strong desire to improve his social standing. Picaresque stories aim to explain a final state of disgrace, whether accepted or overcome, through the protagonist’s past experiences.
Story:
Lazarillo, forced to leave his family, serves several masters and learns different trades. His life is structured around three ternary modules, representing childhood, adolescence, and youth:
- Childhood: The blind man teaches him distrust. The priest barely feeds him. The squire appears to be of high nobility but is actually impoverished, relying on Lazarillo for food.
- Adolescence: Lazarillo serves a friar, a pardoner, and a seller of indulgences, learning deception and experiencing further hardship.
- Youth: He works for a chaplain, a bailiff, and an archpriest, achieving a stable occupation and marrying. Lazarillo develops as a character through his experiences.
The story unfolds in an urban environment that facilitates Lazarillo’s irregular behavior.
Narrative:
The adult Lazarillo narrates his story to an unnamed recipient (“vuestra merced”) who has requested an explanation of his “case.” The narrative explores how Lazarillo, born into poverty, managed to achieve a degree of social mobility.
Literary Value:
Lazarillo de Tormes is characterized by its sobriety, both in language and structure. The author focuses on the essence of the story, avoiding unnecessary details. The novel’s brevity and concise narrative contributed to its literary and popular success, leading to several sequels of lesser quality.
Time and Narrative Structure:
The novel exhibits discrepancies between the time devoted to the events described (story time) and the time taken by the narrator to recount them (narrative time). The narrator selects and emphasizes events relevant to explaining his “case.”
Expressive Language:
The narrator employs humor, including puns and ironic use of Gospel passages. He also utilizes diminutives and antitheses for ironic effect.
Irony:
The novel is rich in irony, operating on multiple levels:
- Protagonist’s irony: Lazarillo displays self-irony, such as when he claims to live better by eating less.
- Masters’ irony: The masters’ words and actions often have ironic implications for Lazarillo.
- Author’s irony: The author directs irony towards the adult Lazarillo and the society he represents.
Themes:
The main themes are honor and religion:
- Honor: Lazarillo’s story begins and ends with a matter of honor (his “case”).
- Religion: Five of Lazarillo’s masters belong to the clergy, highlighting the hypocrisy and corruption within the religious institution.