Valencian Literature After the Spanish Civil War: Resilience and Revival
The Impact of the War and Dictatorship
The Spanish Civil War and the subsequent Franco dictatorship had a devastating impact on Valencian culture and literature. Republican institutions were abolished, political parties banned, and freedoms of association, press, thought, and expression suppressed. This intellectual repression led to the persecution of writers, with many facing imprisonment, deportation, or exile.
The cultural landscape became desolate, with a scarcity of writers, editors, and readers.
Read More19th Century Realism in Literature
Origins and Development
Realism, a literary movement emerging in the latter half of the nineteenth century, shifted from the romanticized exaltation of individual freedom to a focus on explaining and analyzing social realities. Born in France after the 1848 revolution’s failure, some critics place its birth even earlier, around 1830, citing works like Balzac’s The Human Comedy. Precursors like Stendhal, with novels such as Red and Black (1830) and The Charterhouse of Parma (1839), contributed to
Read MoreMedieval Spanish Literature: From Minstrelsy to Troubadours
Mester of Minstrelsy and of Clergy
Mester of minstrelsy and of clergy coexisted, though clearly differentiated. The former belonged to a national and popular literary tradition, while the latter was part of a European and cultured tradition.
Mester of Minstrelsy: Anonymous minstrels orally transmitted epic poems with irregular meter, assonance, and profane themes, recounting the exploits of heroes. A key example is the Poema del Mio Cid.
Mester of Clergy: Cultured authors demonstrated a clear concern
Read MoreMedieval Literature: Characteristics, Genres, and Evolution
Medieval Literature
Characteristics of Medieval Literature
- Theocentricism and Religion: Religious themes dominated literary works.
- Prevalence of Orality: Literature served to teach moral and religious lessons, reflecting a cultural blend.
- Literary Sources: Influences included Greco-Roman, Islamic, Hebrew, French, Germanic, and Italian traditions.
First Manifestations: Lyric Poetry
The earliest lyric forms appeared in Mozarabic jarchas (10th century). These short poems, often expressing a woman’s lament
Read MoreMedieval Lyric Poetry in the Iberian Peninsula
Medieval Lyric
Until the fourteenth century, opera was eminently popular. It was transmitted orally, usually accompanied by music. The main themes addressed were love songs, usually from a female perspective. Cultured lyric samples are very rare in medieval Castilian, and poetry and songwriting were not collected until the fifteenth century. However, Galician, Catalan, and other Romance languages, as well as dialects of Provence, have a rich tradition of court poetry.
Traditional or Popular Lyric
The
Read MoreMedieval Spanish Literature: History, Society, and Culture
Introduction
The Middle Ages is the historical period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the discovery of America. From a literary perspective, this thousand-year span is reduced by almost half, as the first Castilian literary works date from the 10th century.
Historical Events
After the fall of the Roman Empire, several Germanic peoples settled in Spain. One of these, the Visigoths, unified the peninsula into a kingdom with its capital in Toledo. Civil war led to the Muslim conquest of the Peninsula,
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