18th and 19th Century Spanish Literature

18th Century Spanish Literature

Novel

  • Padre Island (Story of the famous preacher Brother Campazas, gerund of dunces alias)
  • Torres Villaroel (Birth, breeding and life ascencio aventurasndel Doctor Don Diego de Torres Villaroel / Mink towers visits Don Francisco de Quevedo by the court / The Acheron boat)

Poetry

  • Literary Memoirs of Paris
  • Poets of Madrid: Scaffold (Leisure of my youth / Mournful Nights)
  • Salamanca School:
    • Menéndez Valdés (The flower of Zurguén / Rosana in fires / The dove of syphilis)
    • Jovellanos (Satires and epistles / Fabio epistle to Anfriso)
    • Jose Quintana (Padilla, the invention of printing / Dela to Spain after March Revolution)

Theater

Neoclassical Tragedy

  • Nicolás Fernández de Moratinos (Lucrecia, Hormesinda, Guzman el Bueno, The Fop)
  • Vicente Garcia in the Garden (Rachel)

Neoclassical Comedy

  • Leandro Fernández de Moratinos (The old and the girl child, If girls, The baron, The prudish, The new comedy, Coffee)

Traditional Theater

  • Ramon de la Cruz (The chestnut chopped Prairie sna Isidro, The fandango of the lamp, Manolo, The muñuelo)

Romanesque Theater

  • Jovellanos (The Offender Honored)

Fable

In the 18th century, there was a renewed interest in the fable and its moral teachings. Authors made use of animal fables to instruct people, often in verse, with a moral lesson.

  • Felix María de Samaniego (Fables in Castilian Verse)
  • Tomas Irirarte (Literary Fables)

19th Century Spanish Literature: Romanticism

Poetry

  • Espronceda, Romantic Rebel Poet (Sancho Saldaña, The Pelayo, The Student of Salamanca, The Devil’s World)
  • Bécquer (History of the Temples of Spain, Rhymes and Legends) – Talks about love, pain, and death.
  • Jacinto Verdaguer (Ode to the Motherland, L’Atlantida and Canigo)
  • Rosalía de Castro (Cantares Gallegos, On the Banks of River Sar)
  • Romantic Narrative Poems:
    • Salamanca Student (Espronceda)
    • Romance Histórico (Duke of Rivas)
    • Legends (Bécquer)

Drama

Features of Romantic Drama in Spain

  • Between 3 and 5 acts
  • Breaks space-time unit
  • Mixes comic and tragic elements
  • Uses both prose and verse
  • Themes of love and freedom
  • Time and space are not clearly defined
  • The action focuses on the hero and heroine
  • Love language marked by lyricism
  • Dynamic and romantic action

Romantic Dramatists

  • Martínez de la Rosa (Aben Humeya, Conjuración de Venecia)
  • Larra (Macías, The Youth of Henry the Suffering)
  • Duke of Rivas (Don Álvaro, or the Force of Destiny)
  • Antonio García Gutiérrez (The Troubadour, Revenge Catalan, Juan Lorenzo)
  • Hartzenbusch (Los Amantes de Teruel)
  • José Zorrilla (The Shoemaker and the King, The Sword of the Goths, Sancho Garcia, Unacknowledged and Martyr Traitor, Don Juan Tenorio)