Catalan Literature: 16th to 18th Century Renaissance
Catalan Literature: 16th to 18th Century
Throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, there were several cosmetic changes: Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, and Illustration. The sixteenth-century Renaissance in theater saw the growth of acts with a sacramental character, including floats for the exaltation of the Eucharist. The prose includes colloquia on the famous city of Tortosa (1557) by Christopher Despuig (1510-1574). In medieval poetry, models alternated with new attitudes and some pre-Baroque Renaissance elements. John Timoneda (1518-1583) published Flower of Lovers (1562). John Smith (1514-1603) is the author of The Unusual and Admirable Victory of Lepanto (1574).
Seventeenth-Century Baroque
In the Baroque style, authors intensely reworked the language, submitting it to processes such as:
- The contrast between concepts (life/death, light/shadow, beauty/ugliness).
- Deformation at two levels: one realistic and one idealistic.
- Exaggeration with the use of extreme hyperbole.
- Dynamism and vitality, based on syntactic disturbances.
Francesc Vicent Garcia (1582-1623), known as the Rector of Vallfogona, cultivated poetry and artificial conceits. The Harmony of his work was published in 1703 as Parnàs. The poetic production of Francesco Fontanella (1610-1680) is focused on love. He was the author of Love, Firmness, and Porfía, and wrote Disappointment in 1650. This work was prepared according to the most authentically Baroque schemes, using metaphors, hyperboles, and puns.
The Eighteenth Century: Neoclassicism and Illustration
In the second half of the eighteenth century, Catalan literature was dominated by fields of aesthetics that were Baroque. Subsequently, the principles of Neoclassicism were disseminated. Neoclassicism continued the imitation of old, classical models. Poetry and drama were the most cultivated genres of Catalan Neoclassicism. In Menorca, apart from linguist, translator, and poet Antonio Cardona, playwright, poet, and scholar Alberti and Vicente Vidal, the figure and work of Joan Ramis Ramis stand out, who wrote burlesque and love poetry. In Catalonia, Baron de Maldà wrote Calaix de Sastre, important volumes that are a chronicle of life in Barcelona. The Illustration saw Catalan scholars and linguists especially active. Historian Antonio de Capmany wrote Memorias históricas sobre la marina, and Felix Torres Amat wrote a dictionary of writers.
The Rise of Romanticism
The Renaissance of Romanticism emerged in the second half of the eighteenth century in German and English Romanticism. The basic principle was to create a new art based on imagination and contrary to reason and the imposition of standards. In 1833, Buenaventura Carles Aribau released Ode to the Motherland in The Vapor. His example was followed by Joaquim Manuel Rubio y Ors, Mila and Victor Balaguer Fontanals, and floral motifs were restored. Floral Games were founded in 1859, following the model of the Consistory of Gaia Science. In the three games, ordinary prizes were awarded:
- Flower: The gold englantina for the best poetry of patriotic theme.
- The gold viola d’or for the poem that best sings of faith.
- The best love poetry glosses.
Floral Games achieved some basic goals of cultural standardization:
- They created a public around the literary fact.
- The first Catalan publishing infrastructure appeared.
- They gave social prestige to create a poetic language.
- They propelled the literary genres.
In 1877, Jacinto Verdaguer and Angel Guimerá won poetry awards, and in 1879, Narcís Oller won the prize for prose. Jacinto Verdaguer was the second generation of romantic poets, along with José Luis Pons Gallarza and Teodor Llorente. Jacinto Verdaguer began writing poetry at age fifteen. In 1865, he published Two Martyrs of My Fatherland, and already in Lucia and Marcia, two major Verdaguerian issues are present: faith and the historical roots of nutrition. The interest in religious and historical subjects led him to write Canigó, the other great epic poem of the author. Verdaguer, as a priest, devoted much of his work to singing the virtues of the Christian faith, for example, Idols and Mystical Chants and Comnat San Juan. The popularity of Verdaguer’s poetry is evident in the fact that songs like “Virolai”, “In Bethlehem”, and “Migrant” are sung without knowing that he is the author. He also excelled in prose with volumes such as Excursions and Travels, Diary of a Pilgrim to the Holy Land, and the posthumous Fables and Folklore.