Spanish Literature: Renaissance & Baroque Guide
Types of Discourse
Direct Discourse
Reproduces the exact words of the characters.
Indirect Discourse
Reproduces the words of the characters, introducing a “say” and deferred tense.
Discourse of Value
The narrator gives their opinion about an event or a character.
Descriptive Discourse
The narrator explains how something or someone is, giving details.
Referential Discourse
The narrator recounts the facts objectively.
Poetic Discourse
Language is embellished with expressive resources.
Universal Discourse
Consists of generalizing and drawing conclusions from a single event.
Narrative Movements
Summary
The story time is much shorter than the discourse time.
Scene
Discourse time is equal to the story time.
Ellipsis
Lack of information (the narrator tells us nothing).
Pause
A description of something.
Literary Topics
Golden Mean
Dorada medianía. Exalts mediocrity, understood as simplicity and naturalness.
Beatus ille
Feliz aquel. Commends the country life, away from the urban environment.
Carpe diem
Goza el día. Encourages youth to seize the day due to the rapid passing of time.
Contemptus mundi
Desprecio del mundo. Despises the world and life, which only cause pain.
Tempus fugit irreparabile
El tiempo pasa irremediablemente. Evokes the transience of human life.
Homo viator
El hombre es viajero. Considers existence as a road trip or pilgrimage.
Locus amoenus
Lugar ameno. Green meadows, trees, crystal fountains, flowers, birds…
Memento mori
Recuerda que vas a morir. Warns that death will come.
Quotidie morimur
La muerte iguala a todos. Death makes us equal: everyone dies, and it does not respect hierarchy.
Ubi sunt?
¿Dónde están?. Questions where characters from past glory have gone.
Donna angelicata
The idealized woman, portrayed as angelic and divine.
The Renaissance Lyric
The Renaissance, a cultural movement emerged in Italy in the fourteenth century, promotes a shift in the conception of man, who becomes the center of the world. The basis of this transformation is Humanism: a reassessment of education, recovery of the classics, optimistic vision of the world, exaltation of nature and pleasure.
Topics: nature, love, mythology, friendship, and praise of the courtier.
Recurring Motifs: Carpe diem, beatus ille, donna angelicata, Golden Mean, locus amoenus.
The Renaissance Narrative
Themes: Same as The Renaissance Lyric.
Topics: Same as The Renaissance Lyric.
Baroque Poetry and Prose
Themes: Love, nature, and mythology with disappointment and a sense of crisis.
Recurring Motifs: Tempus fugit irreparabile, ubi sunt, quotidie morimur, Golden Mean, beatus ille, carpe diem, homo viator, memento mori.
Renaissance and Baroque Theater
Themes and Topics of Renaissance Theater: Same as The Renaissance Lyric.
Themes and Topics of Baroque Theater: Same as Baroque Poetry and Prose.
Expressive Resources
Parallelism
Two phrases have the same syntactic structure.
Polyptoton
Using the same word in different inflected forms.
Anaphora and Epiphora
Repetition of one or more words at the beginning (anaphora) or end (epiphora) of successive phrases.
Polysyndeton
Repetition of conjunctions to emphasize the expression.
Enumeration
A series of words or constructions in the same category or type.
Asyndeton
Conjunctions are omitted to provide more agility.
Allusion
Reference to a person or thing without naming it directly.
Dilogy
Using the same word with two different meanings.
Antithesis
Opposition between two words or sentences with opposite meanings.
Simile
Explicit comparison of one thing with another (using “as” or “like”).
Metaphor
Identity between two realities, the real term (A) and the evoked term (B).
Exclamation
Expression of exclamatory mood or thoughts.
Rhetorical Question
Question that is not intended to express doubt or request a response.
Hyperbole
Exaggeration; increasing or decreasing something beyond its actual state.
Enjambment
A syntactic unit that does not end at the end of a line but is completed in the next.
Hyperbaton
Inversion of the regular word order of a sentence.
Corrales Comedy, Courtly Drama, and Mystery Plays
Corrales Comedy
Initially performed in courtyards, later in buildings with specific areas: windows with bars, apartments, lofts, a stage, entrance and “alojera” (dressing room), “pot” (gallery), balcony, rooms, “talk shows” (refreshment stands), stage, and costumes.
Representation: Loa (prologue) and tone; first act, farce; second act, dance or jácaras; third act, masquerade.
Courtly Theater
Spectacular court festivals with staging by Italian set designers. Performances took place in buildings and outdoors.
Mystery Plays
Present a measure of religious teaching and link the Corpus Christi and the Eucharistic theme through allegory and scenic splendor. Performed in the street on mobile platforms with music as a key element.
National Comedy
The national comedy was created by Lope de Vega and developed, until exhausted, by other playwrights, among them Calderón de la Barca.
Features: Blend of the tragic and the comic; no respect for the unities of time and place, but for action (three days); decorum and verisimilitude; appropriate language; polymetry; thematic variety.
Authors, Playwrights, and Works
Lope de Vega (1562-1635)
Fuente Ovejuna
A man brutally abuses his power, and the village of Fuente Ovejuna does nothing until Laurencia induces them to act. The villagers are forgiven for having killed their master.
El caballero de Olmedo
Alonso hires a go-between to win the love of Inés. Her boyfriend, Rodrigo, tries to prevent it. Alonso is killed by a shot ordered by Rodrigo.
Peribáñez and the Commander of Ocaña
The Commander falls in love with Casilda, Peribáñez’s wife. Peribáñez is sent to war, but he becomes suspicious and returns to kill the Commander.
La dama boba
Sisters Nise and Finea, the first smart and the second silly. Laurencio favors Finea, and Lise, chosen by Nise, loves Finea. Love makes the silly lady become intelligent, pretending to be stupid. Lise is accepted by Nise, and Laurencio marries Finea.
Tirso de Molina (1583-1648)
The Trickster of Seville
The first appearance of Don Juan, a character with a long legacy in Spanish and universal literature.
Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681)
Life is a Dream
Prince Segismundo is imprisoned in a tower as a child by his father. He is later taken to court to see how he behaves, but he acts violently and is returned to the tower. He is finally released by a popular rebellion, forgives his father, and is willing to be a righteous king.
The Mayor of Zalamea
A company of soldiers is quartered in the town of Zalamea. The Captain stays at Pedro Crespo’s house. The Captain kidnaps Crespo’s daughter, rapes her, and abandons her in the woods. Crespo captures the Captain and forces him to marry his daughter, but when the Captain refuses, Crespo orders him killed.
The Surgeon of His Honor
Prince Henry falls from his horse and is assisted by a woman, Mencía, whom he had been in love with. She is now married to Gutierre. Gutierre suspects his wife’s fidelity and forces a surgeon to bleed her to death. The King learns that the murdered woman was innocent and forces Gutierre to marry Leonor, whom Gutierre had abandoned on suspicion of infidelity.
La dama duende
Manuel receives gifts from a “fairy lady,” a beautiful and intelligent widow who enters his room through a hidden door in a cupboard. One night, Manuel follows the fairy lady to her apartment and finds Don Luis, who challenges his friend to a duel to save the family honor. The wedding of the young couple resolves the situation.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)
Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605/1615)
Don Quixote is a cultured, lonely, brave, and impulsive gentleman who pretends to be a knight-errant. He is accompanied by Sancho Panza, a poor and uneducated squire who feels great friendship, admiration, and loyalty to Don Quixote. Dulcinea is a figment of Don Quixote’s imagination, created from the ugly Aldonza Lorenzo.
The novel is structured in three parts: the first two set in La Mancha, Sierra Morena, Aragon, and Catalonia, and the third in fictitious spaces.
Lazarillo de Tormes (1554)
Anonymous author. A pseudo-biographical story in which the protagonist has miserable and mischievous origins. It is divided into three parts: childhood, adolescence, and youth. In childhood, Lázaro goes hungry while serving a blind man, a clergyman, and a squire. Adolescence involves deception and falsehood from him and his masters. In his youth, he marries and settles down but deceives his wife and consents to her infidelity.
Types of Baroque Poetry
Amorosa (Love Poetry)
Retrieves the Petrarchan model (description of women, frustrated love, mythology).
Philosophical and Moral Poetry
Its themes are disappointment, the brevity and transience of life, awareness of death…
Religious Poetry
Spiritual reflection, repentance.
Burlesque Poetry
Abounds in parody and humor, even ridicule and personal attack.