The University Wits: Shaping English Renaissance Drama

The University Wits: Defining Early Modern Drama

The University Wits denote a significant cohort of late 16th-century English playwrights and pamphleteers who profoundly shaped the landscape of early modern drama. Predominantly graduates from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, though exceptions like Thomas Kyd existed, these intellectually driven individuals brought their extensive classical learning and honed rhetorical abilities to the burgeoning public theater scene in London.

Academic Roots and

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Literary Avant-garde and the Generation of ’27 in Spain

The Avant-garde: A Revolution in Art and Literature

The avant-garde artistic movements, which developed in the early twentieth century, revolted against the conception of art based on the imitation of reality. They embraced a taste for the exceptional and the strange, a legacy of symbolism. Their ideological and aesthetic programs spread through manifestos and magazines.

Key Characteristics of Avant-garde Movements:

  • Anti-realism and Autonomy of Art: In poetry, anecdote and sentiment were eliminated,
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Macbeth Character Analysis: Key Traits and Contrasts

1. Characterization of Macbeth

  • Brave and Honorable at First: “For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name—Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel” (Act 1, Scene 2, Captain).
  • Ambitious and Easily Influenced: “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition” (Act 1, Scene 7, Macbeth).
  • Paranoid and Tyrannical: “O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!” (Act 3, Scene 2, Macbeth).

2. Characterization of Lady Macbeth

  • Manipulative and Ambitious: “Look like
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The Enlightenment: European & Spanish Context, Philosophy, and Impact

The Enlightenment: European Context

The late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries witnessed profound changes across all aspects of European society. Originating in England and primarily driven by the bourgeoisie, this transformative period is collectively known as the Enlightenment. It championed critical thinking, elevating reason and experience as the sole paths to knowledge. The scientific spirit flourished, with prominent British scientists and philosophers like Isaac Newton, John Locke,

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Romanticismo y Realismo en la Literatura Española del Siglo XIX

Romanticismo

Rechazo de las reglas y exaltación del genio creativo.

Manifestaciones

  • Musicales: Chopin
  • Pictórica: Delacroix
  • Literaria: Goethe
  • Filosófica: Nuevo pensamiento

Marco Histórico

Europa: Revolución Francesa. Cambios:

  • Sociales: Nueva sociedad.
  • Ideológicos: Reacción contra el racionalismo.
  • Políticos: Reacción contra el nacionalismo, anarquismo y socialismo.

España: Atraso y falta de libertad ideológica.

Sentimientos Románticos

  • Individualismo, libertad, rebeldía, frustración.
  • Ideas románticas:
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Literary Theory, Genres, and Key Concepts

Structuralism and Poststructuralism

  • Structuralism:
    • Language structures thought (Saussurean linguistics).
    • Key concepts: signifier (word) and signified (concept).
    • Focuses on universal structures (e.g., myths, binaries).
    • Meaning is stable, based on differences within a system.
  • Poststructuralism:
    • Critiques Structuralism’s stability of meaning (Derrida).
    • Meaning is fluid and context-dependent (deconstruction).
    • Challenges binary oppositions (e.g., good vs. evil).
    • Emphasizes power, knowledge (Foucault), and intertextuality
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