Medieval Spanish Epic Poetry: Jarchas and Cantar del Mio Cid
Jarchas and the Dawn of Spanish Epic Poetry
Jarchas are short poems written in Mozarabic dialect, interspersed with words of Arabic and Hebrew. Their period of splendor is located between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. The jarcha was the ending of an extensive stanza composition of a cult character and theme of love: the muwassaha. The muwassaha was written in Arabic or Hebrew and in Mozarabic. The jarcha’s structure is very simple, because the poems are brief and generally use parallel verses.
Read MoreShakespeare’s Famous Plays: Summaries and Themes
Shakespeare’s Famous Plays
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice: Antonio, a merchant of Venice, borrows money from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, to help his friend Bassanio woo the rich Portia from Belmont. Shylock says he will charge no interest on the money but will take a pound of Antonio’s flesh if the money is not repaid in time. Antonio’s ships are lost at sea. He cannot repay the loan and must die paying the forfeit – the pound of flesh – instead. Portia thinks of a plan to
Read MoreGolden Age Prose: Lazarillo de Tormes, Origins of Castilian Lexicon, and Literary Realism
The Prose in the Golden Age
The prose in the Golden Age: The most important narrative contribution of the 16th century is the first picaresque novel, Lazarillo de Tormes (1554). It is an autobiographical novel where the protagonist is a child of poor parents, a vagabond character who goes from one place to another.
Lazarillo de Tormes (1554)
The author is anonymous, and the novel recounts his life in the first person across seven chapters.
Argument
The work is divided into seven treatises and is a first-
Read MoreSpain’s Cultural Heritage: Romans, Christians, Muslims, Jews
Plural Culture: Christians, Muslims, and Jews
In the Middle Ages, despite war and confrontation, there was coexistence and fusion between the three cultures and religions in the peninsula: Christian, Muslim, and Jewish. Until the 10th century, Islamic Spain was culturally superior to the Christian kingdoms. In the 9th century, a key event occurred: the discovery of the remains of the Apostle Santiago. The Camino de Santiago became a crucial route in the spread of culture. From the 11th century, a
Read MoreLa Celestina by Fernando de Rojas: Characters & Structure
La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas
La Celestina is one of the most appreciated works of literature, written by Fernando de Rojas in the last years of the 15th century. It hinges at the junction of two major phases of culture and picks up echoes of the medieval universe, which is ending, and the early Renaissance world, which reflects the start of the Modern Age.
Genre
La Celestina is included within the humanistic comedy genre. The theatrical elements are narrative; it lacks a narrator (except for the
Read MoreLazarillo de Tormes: Summary and Features
Lazarillo de Tormes
Plot Summary
Lazarus, the protagonist, tells his life story from birth to the present, emphasizing the societal pressures that shaped him. He is a humble boy, orphaned, with a mother who, after losing her husband, seeks another boyfriend. The story follows Lazarus’s transformation from a naive child into a rogue, a necessary adaptation for survival. This evolution is depicted through his experiences with different masters. Eventually, Lazarus finds employment as a town crier in
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