18th and 19th Century Spanish Literature: Key Movements and Authors
Neoclassicism in 18th-Century Spanish Literature
Neoclassicism’s main objective was to spread new ideas based on criteria of service, liberal use of reason, and a focus on humanity and commitment. It acknowledged a central axis to reason and good taste, rejecting repressed passion and sentimentality. Its literature is not literal and pretends moderation in study. Its task was to disseminate new ideas through education. Its thought is the desire to teach, delighting the city. Neoclassicism’s aesthetic
Read MoreAncient Greek Lyric Poetry: Origins, Themes, and Forms
Origin and Meaning
Poetry played to the sound of the lyre, from which it is named, also born in Greece, particularly in Asia Minor, the most advanced of the Greek world, and in the archaic period (seventh century BC), when development of the polis, to which has been closely the emergence of this new literary genre:
- In the polis, the economy is not based only on agriculture but there are other sources of wealth: Industry and commerce
- There are new classes that require more intervention in the affairs
Aeneid Structure: Books, Themes, and Characters
Structure of the Aeneid
The first six books of the Aeneid mirror Homer’s Odyssey. They describe the trials and adventures of the Trojans, who roamed the Mediterranean in search of the promised land that fate assigned to them:
- Book I: Aeneas, wandering for seven years after burying his father, departs from Sicily. Juno unleashes a storm that washes the Trojans up at Carthage, under the hospitality of Queen Dido, through the intercession of Venus, Aeneas’s mother.
- Book II: During a banquet, Dido asks
Spanish Generation of 1927: Poets, Playwrights, Prose
Generation of 1927
The Generation of 1927 refers to a group of Spanish writers and poets who emerged after 1920. This generation’s key components include generational traits, influences, and stylistic traits. We can distinguish between poets, playwrights, and prose writers.
Poets
- Pedro Salinas: His work can be divided into three stages:
- First stage: Mixes avant-garde modernist heritage, as seen in Fable and Sign.
- Second stage: Features humane, loving, and conceptually rich poetry, such as Voice Due to
Spanish Literature: 18th and 19th Century Authors
José Cadalso (18th Century): Poetry & Prose
Works: Numancion (or Tenacious), Solaya y Circasianos, Don Sancho García, Conde de Castilla, Moroccan Letters, Gloomy Night, The Pseudo-Intellectuals, Good Soldier to the Violet.
Other 18th Century Authors
- Montesquieu: Persian Letters.
- Argens: Puppets and Turkish Letters.
Nicolás Fernández de Moratín: Theater & Tragedies
Works: Lucrecia, Hormesinda, Guzman the Better.
Vicente García de la Huerta: Tragedies
Work: Raquel.
Ramón de la Cruz: Classic
Read MoreFray Luis de León and Lope de Vega: Renaissance to National Theater
Fray Luis de León
The poems of Fray Luis de León are heirs to the Renaissance in both form and content.
In form, he used Italianate verse stanzas, above all, the lira and hendecasyllabic and heptasyllabic verses. The content includes classic topics (locus amoenus, Golden Mean) combined with religious themes.
Fray Luis, in both prose and verse, was extremely careful with language and style. He eschewed bombast and excess, and imbued his words with naturalness, simplicity, and harmony, to say “what
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