Medieval Occitan Poetry: Troubadours and Ausiàs March
Troubadour Genres and Themes
Song: Gender loving. His stanzas or verses (5-7) follow the process of falling in love and the faithfulness of the troubadour to the lady. Senhal is a keyword that conceals the name of the lady.
Ballad and Dance: The January theme of love being able to dance. They differ from the song by the presence of a refranh (refrain) that was repeated while singing the chorus, except that she sang solo.
Alba: A composition that focuses on a particular moment of the experience of love:
Read MoreSpanish Novel Since 1975: Authors and Trends
Since the advent of democracy in 1975, the novel in Spain has offered a diverse landscape, making it virtually impossible to highlight specific features or trends above others. Each author undertakes a personal journey, aiming to differentiate themselves from their contemporaries. However, we will try to highlight the most significant features of this period:
- During the 1970s, some authors continued to cultivate the intellectual and experimental novel, largely stemming from Tiempo de silencio. They
15th Century Renaissance Poetry: Themes, Forms, and Key Authors
15th Century Poetry
The ETAPS 2: 1511-1543 songs appear general/1543-1590 diffusion of new poetry.
The themes and motifs of Renaissance poetry come from: the Petrarchan and classical tradition.
Forms of Poetry
- Rhyme sonnet: 2 fixed quartets and 2 variable trios (ABBA-ABBA-CDC-CDC)
- Lira: Hendecasyllable and heptasyllable (aBabB)
- Song: Petrarchan, several stanzas (estancias) with hendecasyllables and heptasyllables
- 3rd chained: ABA BCB CDC (used in elegies, epistles, Eclogues …)
- Octava real: ABABABCC (epic
Pre-Socratic Philosophers: From Thales to Democritus
Pre-Socratics: Monists
Thales of Miletus
Miletus was an island in the Aegean, the world’s largest ancient market. He was the first philosopher and was considered one of the “wise men.” He dedicated himself to public business and then to the study of nature. Many think he was the first to speak about the immortality of the soul. He said that the arche is water, that it is the last and eternal principle of all things.
Anaximenes
He was a disciple of Anaximander. He admitted that there is a unique and
Read MoreRenaissance and Spanish Literature: Garcilaso and Fray Luis de León
The Renaissance: A Cultural Rebirth
The Renaissance defines the entire social and cultural period following the Middle Ages. It refers to the rebirth of classical studies and the veneration of Greco-Latin authors. This phenomenon, known as humanism, was used in that epoch to refer to the cultural movement in Italy that began to consider man the center of the universe. Key features of this period include:
- Highlighting the dignity of man as the center of the world, replacing the previous theocentric
European Maritime Expansion and the Americas: 15th and 16th Centuries
The Main Objectives of Travel in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, European commerce with the East was done through Constantinople until the Mediterranean and thence across Central Asia.
Portuguese Expeditions
The Portuguese were the first to venture south along the Atlantic:
- African Route: Sailing west, they reached the islands of Madeira (1418) and the Azores (1431). Later, they followed the African coast to the south and reached the Gulf of Guinea (1460). Further on, Bartolomeu Dias reached the