Lazarillo and Santa Teresa: Key Aspects of Spanish Literature
Lazarillo de Tormes: A Picaresque Analysis
Author: The author of Lazarillo de Tormes is unknown, though various attributions exist. The sophisticated social criticism suggests the author preferred anonymity. The censoring of religious aspects may indicate an Erasmian clergyman.
Plot and Structure
Plot: After a preface, Lázaro narrates his life, detailing his changing masters until he chooses the best. The ending is ambiguous: the rogue achieves good fortune, but his work is questionable, and rumors of his wife’s infidelity circulate.
Structure: The work is an epistolary novel. Lázaro recounts his life from his origins in Toledo to his marriage.
Setting and Time
Space: Unlike other Renaissance novels, it uses specific locations.
Time: The narrative combines two temporal dimensions: the present (adult Lázaro) and the past (Lázaro’s childhood to adulthood).
Organization and Style
Organization: The book is divided into seven treatises, each largely identified by the masters the rogue serves. The first three (blind man, clergyman, squire) are the most vital, hence their greater length.
Style: The work offers a non-heroic image of imperial Spain and represents the expressive ideal of the Renaissance, with prose that combines clarity, precision, and simplicity.
Originality
Lazarillo is considered the first modern work of Spanish literature, introducing novel characters, such as a protagonist whose character evolves and matures from childhood. The play features a marginal and unheroic human being, inspired by the real world. The main themes are social criticism and an ambiguous outcome.
Santa Teresa de Jesús: Mystical Writings
The fascinating personality of Santa Teresa is deeply reflected in her literature. Besides poems and biblical meditations, she wrote four important prose works:
- The Book of Life: A biographical account of her spiritual experiences for the edification of the nuns she governed.
- The Book of Foundations: Describes the problems faced in founding 18 reformed Carmelite convents.
- Way of Perfection: Written on the advice of her confessors to collect her mystical experiences.
- The Interior Castle or Treatise of the Dwellings: The culmination of mystical literature, detailing her path to meeting God.
Picaresque Novel: Genre Traits
Traits of the genre: Autobiographical narrative, anti-heroic protagonist, serving many masters, unhappy ending, and realistic character.
The Picaresque and Spain
Historical and social circumstances explain the picaresque novel’s Spanish origin. Its realistic character was a reaction against the exaggerations of chivalry novels. The work is part of an Erasmian framework. Beggars, homeless people, and young orphans were abundant in major cities. The new genre was seen as an expression of rebellion and protest by new Christians or converted Jews against discrimination in Golden Age Spanish society.