Literary Genres and Concepts: Understanding Forms and Elements
Understanding Literature: Concepts and Forms
What is Literature?
Literature is an art whose raw material is linguistic units, which the writer manipulates to produce an aesthetic and emotional effect on the receiver.
Literature and Reality
Literature imitates the real world, but not reality itself, rather a representation of it built by the author from their imagination.
Fiction and Verisimilitude
The term fiction designates the peculiar relationship literary works have with reality. Conversely, verisimilitude
Read MoreLiterary Analysis: Symbolism, Themes, and Human Nature in Classic Works
Animal Farm: Symbolism and Allegory Explained
George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a brilliant allegorical novella that uses animals on a farm to represent political figures and ideologies. It is rich with symbolism, serving as a powerful critique of totalitarianism, particularly Stalinist Russia. Orwell uses characters, events, and objects symbolically to mirror the events of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and its aftermath.
Allegorical Nature of Animal Farm
The entire book is an allegory — a story
Romanticism: Characteristics, Literary Forms, and Historical Context
Origins of Romanticism
This cultural, artistic, and ideological movement of the mid-18th century originated in the German Sturm und Drang school, which advocated a break with established rules and the expression of feelings. It then spread to England and France, and later to Spain (starting around 1833). Romanticism was introduced gradually in stages: the first stage was more conservative, focusing on cultural identity; the second was more liberal; and the third was more intimate.
Key Features of
Read MoreJoseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent: Character, Society, and Modernism
Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent: A Literary Analysis
This analysis focuses on a fragment from The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad’s 1907 novel. The fragment opens with the character of The Professor, a stunted and undersized individual described as disappointed, losing himself in a crowd of London streets, where every individual almost overtopped his stature. Conrad masterfully portrays the nature of the city through the image of the crowd and its relationship to the individual. Revolutionaries in the
Read MoreThe Poema de Mio Cid: Authorship, Structure, and Style
The Poema de Mio Cid: Authorship Debates
The Spanish medieval epic suffers from a serious shortage of preserved texts. The Poema de Mio Cid is a notable exception, but its origins have been a subject of scholarly debate.
Theories on Authorship
Traditionalist Theory
Represented by Menéndez Pidal, this theory argues that Castilian epics emerged in the immediate aftermath of the events they describe. In the case of the Poema de Mio Cid, Menéndez Pidal states that the work originated and was transmitted
Read MoreSpanish Literary Movements: From Generation of ’98 to Proto-Romanticism
Generation of ’98: Characteristics and Evolution
Azorín, in the newspaper The Impartial, expressed a profound love for art, great sensitivity, and a desire for renewal. He published a list of 98 writers, including Unamuno, Baroja, Maeztu, Darío, Machado, and Blasco Ibáñez.
Shared Characteristics of the Generation of ’98
- Historical Context: The year 1898 is considered the ideological thread linking these authors, despite their diverse individual paths.
- Lack of Group Publications: This group did not