Influential Spanish Figures: Arts, Science, History, and Thought

120 Notable Spanish Figures

A Pantheon of Spanish Greats

  • José Ortega y Gasset
  • Juan de la Cierva
  • Santiago Ramón y Cajal
  • Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, El Gran Capitán
  • Don Pelayo
  • Isabella I of Castile, the Catholic
  • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
  • Félix Lope de Vega
  • Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas Santibáñez
  • Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez
  • Fray Bartolomé de las Casas
  • Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo
  • Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz
  • Juan de Herrera
  • Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid
  • Philip II of Spain
  • Charles III of
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Spanish Golden Age Drama: Evolution and Key Figures

Spanish Golden Age Theater

16th Century Theater

Religious Theater

Religious theater in the 16th century focused on Christmas scenes centered around Christ, aiming to evoke piety in the audience. These were short pieces performed inside temples by clerics. Later, mobile carts were used for representations.

Profane Theater

  • Bartolomé Torres Naharro

    His themes included honor and the figure of the servant. He used verse and divided his works into five parts, often performed in workshops.

  • Lope de Rueda

    Known

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Don Juan Tenorio Play Plot Summary

ACT ONE: Debauchery and Scandal

The play begins in Seville in the year 1545. The first four acts take place on the same night, which is Carnival night. **Don Juan**, masked, writes at a table in **Buttarelli**’s inn. He speaks to **Ciutti**, who acts as Don Juan’s servant. They discuss their master, whom Ciutti describes as a Spanish knight: frank, rich, noble, and brave, though he claims not to know his name. Don Juan addresses Ciutti and hands him a letter, instructing him to give it to **Doña

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Key Literary Genres and Dramatic Forms

Linguistic Concepts

The Passive Voice

The passive voice is formed with the verb “to be” acting as an auxiliary and the participle of the verb that is conjugated.

Nonpersonal Verb Forms

Nonpersonal forms (infinitive, gerund, and participle) lack person and number. They function like a noun, an adverb, and an adjective.

Dramatic Literary Genres

Dramatic Subgenres

Dramatic subgenres are classified into two types:

  • Major: Tragedy, Comedy, and Drama
  • Minor: Entremés (Interlude), Farce, etc.

Tragedy

Tragedy presents

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Spanish Literary Movements and Poets

Modernism in Spanish Literature

Modernism: An art movement that led to a renewal in the musical aspects of lyrical language and ornamentals. Rubén Darío (1867-1916) is considered a precursor. Notable phonetic contrasts and colorful, plastic meanings of words are used, often as symbols and pictures (e.g., the abandoned garden, fall). Synesthesia is often used. It is considered a minor art.

Antonio Machado

Machado: Does not use many literary resources but expresses feelings very well. Solitudes (1903)

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Key Figures in 20th Century Spanish Poetry

Antonio Machado: Poetic Thought and Works

Antonio Machado: The poetic thought of intuition lived, temporal. Sleep: The only form of knowledge. Machado dreamed it all, but his poems also dream of nature.

Love: Little eroticism; the woman appears as a dream. This refers to the lack of love, due to his sadness because of time spent.

Soledades, Galerías y otros poemas: 1903 (Soledades), Galerías added in 1907. Great influence of Verlaine. The themes are the test of time, lost youth, dreams, the problem

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