Spanish Renaissance Literature: Key Shifts and Genres
The Shift in Attitude from Middle Ages to Renaissance
The Middle Ages saw a significant shift in attitudes, culminating in the Italian Renaissance during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and reaching Spain in the sixteenth century:
- A transition from a truly medieval, theocentric religiosity to an anthropocentric attitude, where man is considered the measure of all things and the reference point of all creation.
- Faith and belief in dogma gave way to the authority of reason, curiosity, and criticism.
- The collectivism and anonymity of the Middle Ages were supplanted by an individualism that exalts man and his works.
- Mortification and devotion were replaced by a more secular way of life.
- A separation between religion and worldliness emerged.
Mystical Poetry in the Renaissance
Mystical poetry combines the medieval religious tradition with the new spirituality of the Renaissance. This literature describes the path of perfection through three stages, known as ways:
- The Purgative Way: The soul, through penance and prayer, is purified of sin and freed from earthly passions, eager to draw closer to God.
- The Illuminative Way: The soul is illuminated and made beautiful by the grace of God.
- The Unitive Way: A special grace that allows the soul to escape the world and achieve spiritual union with Christ.
Notable writers of this genre include Fray Luis de Leon and St. John of the Cross.
The Novel Genre in the Sixteenth Century
The development and expansion of the printing press during the Spanish Renaissance fostered the emergence and consolidation of the novel as a widely accepted form of storytelling in prose. The public’s reception is evident in the flowering of many narrative modes:
- Fantastic Novels: These works combine literary traditions of the Middle Ages or Renaissance influences with noble Italian themes. They feature protagonists with fortunate lives, adventures, or emotional conflicts, and employ refined language and religious elements.
- Realistic Novels: These novels feature humble protagonists, themes taken from everyday life, and a simple, popular style.
The Books of Chivalry
These novels reflect a legendary taste for idealization and fantasy. They are uchronic and utopian narratives set in a remote time and a distant, vague geography, far removed from the reader’s world. Settings include fantastic kingdoms, enchanted palaces, magical mountains, gloomy forests, stormy seas, and remote islands.
Characteristics of the Knight
- The protagonist is a knight embodying all moral and physical virtues of chivalry.
- The son of kings or princes, he lives in eternal youth.
- He possesses an unfailing courage that makes him an invincible hero.
- His opponents are varied.
- He has associates and helpers, such as squires, magicians, and wise men.
Themes and Structure
- Love and adventure are the essential themes of the chivalric tale.
- The knight is the perfect lover, maintaining loving fidelity.
- He is a knight-errant due to his itinerant life.
- The horse and weapons are essential instruments.
- The stories have a fantastic or wonderful character.
- Key features of the internal organization of the story include the search and an episodic structure.
Literary Style
The literary style paradoxically combines elevated rhetoric with that of popular storytelling:
- A refined and artificial style.
- Resources to attract the interest of readers.