Spanish Literature: Renaissance to Baroque

Posted on Mar 7, 2025 in Philology

Spanish Literature: From Renaissance to Baroque

Conjunctions

Copulative (y, e, ni), disjunctive (o, u, o bien), adversative (pero, mas, sin embargo, no obstante, aunque, sino), explanatory (i.e., es decir, o sea, mejor dicho), distributive (ya… ya…, bien… bien…, ora… ora…, unos… otros…).

Second Generation Petrarchan Poets (1550-1600)

Fray Luis de León and San Juan de la Cruz represent religious literature. What happened in Spain to cause the shift from the loving literature of Garcilaso to religious literature? The reign of Philip II was characterized by an atmosphere of misunderstanding and breakdown with Europe. There was a cultural and ideological rejection, and an economic crisis that lasted almost two centuries. Garcilaso saw in the beauty of his beloved a reflection of God, and the new poets adapted this to Christian literature.

This created religious poetry that split into two genres:

  • Ascetic (Fray Luis de León): Pursuit of personal perfection.
  • Mystic (San Juan de la Cruz): Knowledge of God.

The mystics tried to express a knowledge of God that cannot be expressed, so they used a metaphor: the matrimonial union.

Baroque (17th Century)

The country’s overall impoverishment aggravated poverty and begging. It is a misconception that there is a break between the Renaissance and the Baroque, because the themes and forms are the same. What changes is this: In the Renaissance, the poet felt in harmony with nature; now the Baroque artist discovers ugliness and monstrosity in nature. In addition, a new concept is installed: the passage of time (tempus fugit). This leads the poet to a realization: if nature is finite, it is not enough to simply copy it, and poets must create an alternate reality.

There are two ways of contemplating reality:

  • Culteranismo (Góngora)
  • Conceptismo (Quevedo)

Culteranismo poetry is constructed through pure metaphors and abounds in adjectives, so it is an expressive and descriptive poetry. Conceptista poetry is substantive, in which the concept has a dual reading. They are two ways to hinder the language; each school does it in a different way. Both Góngora and Quevedo try to move poetry away from the people and make it understandable only by the educated minority.

Góngora

Belonging to the Andalusian school, Góngora represents the maximum evolution of Renaissance themes, now adding personal values:

  • The passage of time.
  • Nature is not immutable; it is now sad and monstrous.

Another novelty is that he recovers the octosyllable and creates a new poem, the letrilla (burlesque octosyllable). His style is dark (difficult language), using cultisms (words derived from Latin) for two reasons: because they are more musical, and because they open a new range of poetry. He usually uses epithets after the noun. He also uses periphrasis: referring to something without mentioning it directly.

Lope de Vega

Lope de Vega represents the triumph of two characteristics:

  • The union of popular and educated norms.
  • His writing is pure biography.

Biography

Five important women in his life:

  1. Elena Osorio (Filis, Zaida)
  2. Isabel de Urbina (Belisa)
  3. Juana de Guardo (his wife)
  4. Micaela Luján (Camila Lucinda)
  5. Marta de Nevares (Amarilis)

Works

  • Love Poetry: Follows all the Petrarchan canons and topics.
  • Religious Poetry
  • Romances: Characters include Belisa and Belardo, Zaida.
  • Comedy: Lope wrote “New Art of Making Comedies,” where he proposes the following developments:
  1. Classics had five acts; his will have three: introduction, climax, and resolution.
  2. He fused tragedy and comedy, always in verse (usually octosyllabic).
  3. Each character speaks according to his social condition.
  4. He broke the rule of three unities (action, time, and space).
  5. Intrigue is now fundamental, and the theme is honor.
  6. The characters are always the same: king, nobleman, knight, gallant, lady, funny man, maid, villain.