Miguel Hernández: Social Commitment and Poetic Evolution
Miguel Hernández: Social and Political Commitment
Poetic Career and Influences
Miguel Hernández, though often associated with the Generation of ’36 (alongside Luis Rosales), also shares strong connections with the Generation of ’27, particularly with Vicente Aleixandre. His work acts as a bridge between these two significant literary movements.
Attitudes in Spanish Contemporary Poetry
Hernández’s poetry reflects three key attitudes prevalent in Spanish contemporary poetry:
- Neogongorine Avant-Garde:
Literary Legacies: Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Porter, Faulkner
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is largely autobiographical. Born into a middle-class family in Minnesota, Fitzgerald felt inferior to the much richer parts of his extended family. This feeling of inferiority became an important theme in his work. Clever and ambitious, he managed to get a scholarship and went to an elite university, Princeton. He wanted to be on the American football team, believing it was the only way to be popular, but he eventually
Read MoreLiterary Genres Explained: Poetry, Narrative, Drama, and Didactic Forms
Literary Genres: Forms of Poetry, Narrative, Drama, and Didactic Works
Lyrical Gender: Major Forms
- Ode: A poem of elevated tone and metrical variety, addressing varied issues.
- Anthem: A solemn tone poem focusing on a person’s praise.
- Song: A poem that expresses feelings such as sadness or love.
- Eclogue: A poem expressing feelings through the voices of shepherds.
- Epistle: A poem offering confidences, in letter form, often on doctrinal issues.
Lyrical Gender: Minor Forms
- Elegy: A poem that reflects sentiments
Literary Analysis Terms for Deeper Textual Interpretation
Connotations and Implied Meanings
- Psychological fragility: Mirroring the character’s inner conflict.
- Internalized trauma: Suggesting emotional damage beneath the surface.
- Emotional dislocation: Reflecting a break between thought and feeling.
- Subtle power dynamics: Showing manipulation or dominance.
- Moral unease: Implying something ethically or emotionally disturbing.
- Liminal state: Where the character is caught between two emotional extremes.
- Descent into instability: Hinting at collapse or breakdown.
Robert Frost: Life, Poetry, and Enduring Legacy
Robert Frost: American Poet (1874-1963)
Born on March 26, 1874, Robert Frost spent his first 40 years largely unknown. He gained widespread recognition after returning from England at the beginning of World War I. He was a winner of four Pulitzer Prizes and a special guest at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. Frost died of complications from prostate surgery on January 29, 1963. He was seen as a quintessential American poet, yet paradoxically, he was one of the least experimental among
Read MoreEnglish Romanticism: Key Concepts, Authors, and Literary Movements
The Importance of Individualism in Romanticism
There was a new emphasis on the significance of the individual. The Romantics saw individuals essentially in a solitary state. They exalted the atypical, the outcast, and the rebel.
The Gothic Novel: Themes and Characteristics
An increasing interest in individual consciousness revealed itself in fiction. It was marked by a taste for the strange and the mysterious, an impulse for freedom and escape from the ‘ugly world,’ and the fear of the triumph of evil
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