Roman History: Monarchy, Republic, and Empire
The Roman Monarchy (753-509 BC)
From this time, there is very little reliable data. Rome was ruled by a king, assisted by the Senate and the House of the town. Initially, kings of Rome and the Sabines alternated; the last three kings were Etruscans. It appears that there were seven kings, and the first was Romulus. He surrounded himself with a hundred men, also from neighboring areas. This group was the source of future patricians. They fought against the Sabines because they needed their wives,
Read MoreLove and Death: Themes in Miguel Hernández’s Poetry
Love in the Poetry of Miguel Hernández
Hernandian poetry, we would have to call it love poetry; not a single poem falls outside the meaning of love: love for a woman, a son, people, friendship, and life. M.H.’s loving injury manifests itself in his poetry. At an early stage, echoes are romantic and post-romantic. In the cycle of Expert on Moon, the theme of love is an intention of a sexual nature. In most of the poems, love acquires lightning accent; passion afflicts the poet, tormented by the absence
Read MoreThe Artistic Legacy of Federico Garcia Lorca
Federico Garcia Lorca: His work expresses his personality: intense vitality, the anxious shadow of death, and constant dualities: passion and technique, inspiration and work, the aesthetic and the human, popular and religious, traditional and avant-garde. His tragic fate, frustration, loneliness, and death are prevalent themes. Lorca expresses the pain of living, both his own and that of others, and his poetry tends to be quite dramatic.
First Stage: Youth and Early Works
Influenced by Bécquer and
Read MoreCatalan Literature in the 20th Century: Key Authors
The Narrative of the 20th Century
Following a period of stagnation in linguistic production, the 1930s marked a period of increased production in Catalan fiction. This was due to the growing number of publishers and specific collections devoted to Catalan literature, as well as the creation of literary awards. The psychological novel, which deeply analyzed the inner lives of characters, became prominent. New techniques, such as interior monologue, were introduced, allowing the character’s subconscious
Read MoreMiguel de Cervantes: Poet, Playwright, and Novelist
A. Cervantes – Poet
Cervantes’s poetic work is primarily limited to Journey to Parnassus and some minor, uncollected poems (in addition to the verses included in his novels and plays written in verse). As a poet, Cervantes is not considered to be as prominent as many of his contemporaries who wrote in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Journey to Parnassus is a long poem, written in chained tercets, in which he praises the poets of the period, with some irony in certain cases. The
Read More13th & 14th Century Prose in Romance Languages
13th-Century Prose
Prose in the Romance language developed from the second half of the thirteenth century. The texts are often translations of the Bible, with the purpose of teaching men to live virtuously.
Alfonso X the Wise
Alfonso X, son of Fernando III, inherited the throne of Castile and Leon in 1252. He exerted an important cultural influence. His strong national consciousness led him to write all official documents in Castilian. He promoted the work done by the Toledo School of Translators and
Read More