Miguel de Cervantes and Spanish Baroque Literature

Posted on Feb 26, 2025 in English Studies

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)

Poetry

  1. Minor poems: ballads, sonnets
  2. Major poems: epistle to Mateo Vazquez, song of Calliope, Parnassus trip

Theater

  1. First period: The Numancia, The Treatment of Algiers
  2. Second period:
    1. Eight plays: The Gallant Spanish, The Great Sultana, Baths of Algiers, The House of Jealousy, The Labyrinth of Love, Fun, Happy the Ruffian, Pedro de Urdemalas
    2. Eight Interludes: The Cave of Salamanca, The Jealous Old Man, Keeping Careful, The Altarpiece of the Wonders, The Judge in Divorce, The Biscayan Impostor, The Election of the Mayors of Daganzo, The Widower Ruffian Called Trampagos

Novel

  1. Pastoral: La Galatea: A pastoral love story by Sister Galatea and Elicio.
  2. Byzantine work: Persiles y Sigismunda: An adventure narrative of great complexity, recounting the pilgrimage of the rugged Persiles and his beloved Sigismunda from Nordic lands.
  3. Novelas Ejemplares (1613):
    1. Idealist tone (love theme; complicated plot; separation of the protagonists; union over): The Liberal Lover, English-Spanish, The Force of the Blood, Two Maids, Mrs. Cornelia, The Gypsy Maid, and The Famous Kitchen Maid.
    2. Realistic tone (simple argument, description of types and settings): Rinconete and Cortadillo, The Lawyer Vidriera, The Jealous Extremaduran, The Deceitful Marriage, and The Dialogue of the Dogs.
  4. Don Quixote (1605-15)

Don Quixote

  • Argument: Don Alonso Quijano goes crazy from reading books of chivalry and, taking on the fictional character Don Quixote, goes on adventures accompanied by his squire Sancho Panza.
  • Structure: Multiple episodes, secondary actions, interspersed stories.
  • Originality:
    • Humanity of the characters: psychological complexity.
    • Realism: space and real time.
    • Perspectivism: Game of the authors, ambiguity regarding the nature of the protagonist, sane or insane.
  • Style: Wide presence of linguistic registers: colloquial language and erudition.

Baroque Period

Sociocultural Context

  • Development of rationalism (Galileo, Descartes).
  • Skepticism and pessimism.
  • Loss of political hegemony of Spain.
  • Internal and external wars.
  • Agrarian and demographic crisis.

Characteristics of Baroque Literature

  • Originality.
  • Disequilibrium and excess.
  • Revaluation of the human and yearning for the infinite.
  • Dynamism and transience.
  • Taste for the beautiful and grotesque.

Baroque Poetry

Conceptismo

  • Style: Avoids direct allusion to the poetic object, representing it in an unusual way.
  • Plenty of comparisons, allegories, riddles, antithesis, metaphors.
  • Many paronomasias, puns, syllepsis, dialogical or dyssemia.
  • Quevedo: Love poems, metaphysical and moral, religious, political, satirical-burlesque: sonnets, letrillas, romances.

Culteranismo

  • Style: Sound and full expression of plasticity.
  • Abundant cultismos and hyperbatons.
  • Original syntactic formulas and surprising metaphors.
  • Ornamental enumerations.
  • Mythological and scholarly citations.
  • Gongora: Popular poetry: letrillas and romances. Learned poetry: songs, sonnets, and long poems.