Spanish Literature of the 16th and 17th Centuries
Miguel de Cervantes and Don Quixote
Overview
Miguel de Cervantes was an avid reader of the fiction of his time, including chivalric romances, Byzantine novels, and pastoral works. His masterpiece, Don Quixote, is considered not just a new genre, but a new form of narrative. In the initial chapters, which mimic the style of chivalric romances, the author remains unknown. The protagonist, Alonso Quixano, becomes obsessed with these books and sets out on adventures to emulate his heroes.
Critique of Chivalric Romances
In the preface to the first part of Don Quixote, Cervantes criticizes chivalric romances. Like many moralists, he believed that these novels presented improbable events as facts.
Publication and Structure
Don Quixote was published in two parts. The first part, titled “The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha,” appeared in 1605 with a prologue and 52 chapters grouped into four parts. The second part, published in 1615 under the same title, consists of a prologue and 74 chapters without division into parts. A year earlier, in 1614, a spurious second volume of Don Quixote, written by Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, had appeared. This work insulted Cervantes, but he asserted its falsity in his own second part.
Narrative Elements
Characters
The characters in Don Quixote represent all social classes, including innkeepers, shepherds, goatherds, knights, nobles, and marginalized groups like Moorish exiles.
Setting
The settings in the novel progress at a regular pace, without abrupt jumps. In the first part, the characters travel to the Sierra Morena, and in the second part, they move through Aragon and Catalonia. The most important setting is the palace of the dukes, where the protagonists interact with the nobility, who often mock them. Don Quixote is treated like a knight, and Sancho Panza receives what he believes he deserves.
Time
The narrative time is linear and chronological. Don Quixote’s adventures begin one summer in July, and the story spans three journeys and his eventual death. Some chronological inconsistencies appear, but they are irrelevant as the reader perceives a regular passage of time.
Narrators
The external narrator is omniscient and sometimes narrates in the first person, designating itself as responsible for the narration.
Language
Dialogue is the central form of expression, although monologues, documents, letters, and poems are also used. Don Quixote uses chivalric and colloquial language, while Sancho Panza often speaks in proverbs. The novel employs various literary genres and styles, including chivalric romance, pastoral, sentimental novel, and Renaissance dialogues.
Themes
The main themes are idealism, liberty, love, justice, and the critique of literature, particularly through the lens of Don Quixote’s madness.
Garcilaso de la Vega and Renaissance Lyric
Introduction of Italian Lyric
In the early sixteenth century, Italian lyric poetry was introduced to Spain through Spanish poets who had lived in Naples. They were attracted by the fame and prestige of Italian poetry and imitated its metrical forms and themes. Juan Boscán and Garcilaso de la Vega were the main drivers of this trend.
Renewal in Renaissance Lyric
The Renaissance lyric began with the work of Juan Boscán, who decided to adopt Italian meters and poetic motifs. Boscán convinced his friend Garcilaso to do the same. Garcilaso’s lyrical talent led to a revolution in Spanish poetry.
Themes and Style
Renaissance poets sought expressive beauty. The main themes were love, nature, and mythology. Their success lay not in the choice of subjects but in their approach and treatment. Common topics included carpe diem, descriptio puellae, beatus ille, locus amoenus, and the Golden Mean. The Renaissance lyric is characterized by naturalness of expression, pursuing a simple and elegant style for easy comprehension. Metaphors, epithets, and comparisons were common aesthetic devices.
Metrics
The Italian forms expressed a serene and harmonious beauty. The hendecasyllable became an important meter, along with the renewed use of heptasyllables. The most frequent verse forms were the sonnet (11 syllables) and the lira (7 and 11 syllables). Other compositions included the elegy, ode, and epistle.
Garcilaso’s Work and Poetic Path
Garcilaso’s work consists of 38 sonnets, 3 eclogues, 5 songs, 1 lira, 2 elegies, 1 ode, 1 letter to Juan Boscán, and 8 Castilian verses. His work was published in 1543, along with some works by Boscán. Garcilaso’s poetic path can be divided into two stages: traditional poetry (inspired by Spanish octosyllabic verse) and Italianate poetry (influenced by Petrarch, Ovid, and Virgil). His style reflects the Renaissance ideal, with a formal search for simplicity and elegance to create a harmonious and beautiful expression.