Renaissance Spanish Poetry: Garcilaso, Fray Luis, St. John
Garcilaso de la Vega’s Path (3 Stages)
- Poetry of Songs: With octosyllabic verses, it presents the first forms alternating with Italian styles. It is abundant in the use of amorous games and wordplay.
- Petrarchan: Internalized love, describes his feelings of love, and uses nature as a framework for reflection and a half-portrait of his creative love.
- Plenitude: The fruit of Italy and its stance on the classical approach, formal and expressive sobriety of nature.
Work: Published in 1543, it includes epistles,
Read MoreTrajan’s Column: A Roman Victory Monument
Trajan’s Column
Composition
The frieze is not monotone. The sculptor changes the rhythm. Movement and dynamism are present throughout the work, and its intensity changes according to the episode. The incidence of the projected light produces shadows of varying intensity. In the various scenes, using a high point of view lets you see more. The depth is limited. There are many allusions made to the environment, although not in an undersized manner.
The Work’s Style and Correlation with its Historical
Read MoreSpanish Literature: 1950s to Generation of ’27
Spanish Literature: From the 1950s to the Generation of ’27
The Novel of the 1950s: Social Realism
Key Features:
- Literature as a reflection of social situations.
- Aim to raise awareness of social problems.
- Focus on topics such as censorship, poverty, rural life, war, and the civil exodus.
- Narrative style characterized by “objectivism”: limited dialogue and a detached narrator.
- Use of colloquial language.
- Collective protagonist representing the social class.
- Concentration of time and space.
- Structural and stylistic
The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
Expansion of Rome
Rome conquered huge territories. Any citizen between 17 and 60 years old was a Roman soldier. The expansion was conducted in 3 phases:
- Rome became the owner of the Italian peninsula.
- Rome faced Carthage in the Punic Wars. After winning, they imposed their rule over the whole western Mediterranean.
- The Roman legions conquered Greece and the Mediterranean, as well as some eastern provinces of central Europe.
The Romans adopted the Greek pantheon of gods and a good part of its art and
Read MoreAncient Literary Traditions: A Comparative Study
Item 1. Western Literature
Introduction
The first written texts date from 3500 BC and emerged as a need to express religious and philosophical thoughts, aiming for static, objective results in literature. The oldest known literature comes from Egypt (located in eastern Africa, separated from Asia by the Red Sea, and centered around the Nile River) and Mesopotamia (located in Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers). These two civilizations were agricultural, relying on fishing and farming. They
Read MoreSt. John of the Cross: Mystical Poetry & Baroque Literature
St. John of the Cross: Mystical Poetry
Mystical poetry expresses the exceptional experience of the soul’s union with the divine. The lyric of St. John of the Cross expresses the experience of love through evocative and emotive symbols, inspired by the Bible, the language of love, and nature.
Life of St. John of the Cross
From humble beginnings, St. John was protected by a nobleman, which allowed him to study philosophy and theology at the University of Salamanca as a Carmelite. There, he met Fray Luis
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