Spanish Literature: Lazarillo, Quixote, and Baroque Authors

Posted on Jan 21, 2025 in Latin

Lazarillo de Tormes

Lazarillo de Tormes: As directed in the preface, the work is addressed to “Your Grace”. The structure consists of a prologue and 7 treatises.

Lazarillo’s Masters:

  1. Blind Man: A stingy and bad master. (Greed)
  2. Cleric: Greedy and evil master. (Petty)
  3. Hidalgo: A good person but ruined, a ruined knight. (False Honor)
  4. Friar: A bad person.
  5. Pardoner: Sells bulls. (Lazarillo learns to lie because of him)
  6. Water Bearer: Carrying water, the best master.
  7. Town Crier: Becomes a guide through an archpriest.

The work of Lazarillo is a picaresque novel, realistic and different from other works. The author is anonymous, apocryphal (an author who conceals their authority voluntarily).

Publication Dates: First Edition – 1554: in 3 cities: Antwerp, Alcalá de Henares, Burgos. -1552/3. -1559 Prohibited. -1573 Censored and finally in the year 1834.

It has an epistle (letter to your grace) written in the 1st person, which is autobiographical. The style is direct and idealist.

Structure: Prologue (justification of the work), Treatises (acts of love).

Lazarillo is the protagonist, and the other characters are seen from his point of view. They are typical sixteenth-century Spanish characters, with a folkloric origin. Each person is defined by one trait.

Don Quixote

Characters:

  • Don Quixote: Bold, brave, idealistic, humanitarian.
  • Sancho: Realistic, materialistic, counterpoint.

These two are dynamic and round characters.

Theme: Quixotic madness, the meaning of life.

Argument: Quixote’s madness is seen in the change of the two herds which are exercised.

Style: A 3rd person narrator. The dialogues are: Sancho: Colloquial/Vulgar and Quixote: Knightly/Worshipful. It has a direct style (dialogues) and indirect (told in 3rd person).

Parody: This is a parody and satire of the romances of chivalry, a parody of knighthood because the elements are laughed at (names, armies, the gentleman…).

Conclusion: (Summarize important concepts + text, related and justify your opinion).

Vocabulary

Autos Sacramentales: Religious drama from the Middle Ages.

Entremeses: Humorous short pieces.

Exemplary Novels: Short stories.

Culteranismo: Derogatory name given to the style of Góngora.

Literary Outline

Medieval Literature

Origins to XIV: Lyrical Hispanica (Mozarabic “Jarcha”, Galician “Cantigas de amigo” in Castilian, Catalan, and Western). Chanson de geste: Cantar del Mio Cid. Mester de Clerecía = S.XII/XIV: Libro del buen amor. The Count, Don Juan Manuel, Archpriest of Hita. + XV: Ballads “Verses of the death of his father, Jorge Manrique”.

Renaissance XVI (Human)

Lyric: Garcilaso de la Vega “Eclogues and sonnets,” Mysticism: Frei Luis de León and San Juan de la Cruz. + Narrative: El Lazarillo and Don Quijote.

Baroque XVII

Lyric: Góngora and Quevedo. + Theater: Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca.

Renaissance Prose Trends

Idealist Novels:

  1. Chivalric: The action takes place in the Middle Ages, and the main character is a knight (Don Quixote).
  2. Pastoral: Telling stories of love between shepherds in a bucolic setting. (La Galatea).
  3. Byzantine: Recounts adventures starring characters of high lineage (Abencerraje).
  4. Moorish: The action takes place in an idealized Muslim world.

Realist Novels:

Lazarillo, a picaresque novel.

Quevedo (1580-1645)

Quevedo’s lyric covers topics such as love, death, the decline of Spain, disappointment, and the transience of life. His burlesque poetry refers to trivial, anecdotal issues, which test his ingenuity.

Quevedo’s poetry has two forms: the serious, reflective, in which the poet expresses his feelings and ideas in a broken voice, and poetry as an ingenious game, in which satirical poems predominate, showcasing the poet’s linguistic experimentation.

The style of Quevedo’s poetry is extremely original, using metaphors that are either embellishing or deforming, personifying objects, and objectifying human beings. He creates new words, often derived or composite, and makes special use of the grammatical categories of verbs was, is, and will be, used with the meaning of past, future, and present. He also uses plenty of puns, often based on hyperbole or exaggeration, antithesis, paradoxes, and polysemy.

Quevedo wrote a rich prose, dominated by political and moral issues, using a pessimistic tone, sometimes bitter, even when the joke is masked.