Apuleius’ The Golden Ass: A Roman Picaresque Novel
Apuleius (114 – after 170): The Golden Ass
Apuleius was an African, born in Madaura. He came from a wealthy family and furthered his studies in Rome and Athens. He traveled extensively throughout Greece, Rome, the East, and Egypt, becoming interested in the arts, religious and magical rites, and science.
He eventually became a priest in Carthage.
He enjoyed great fame as a magician due to his knowledge of magic. He opposed Christianity and was given many titles (contemporary), but enjoyed great significance
Read MoreCastilian Epic Poetry: The Song of Mio Cid
Read MoreThe Epic Poem
The epic poem is a poetic expression composed of a series of narratives in verse. Epics recount the exploits of a hero. They formed part of oral culture and memory and were recited by minstrels. The epic emerged in Castile in the 12th century.
Features of the Epic Poem
- Historical Character: The world of the epics is that of warriors and battle heroes. These heroes are sometimes adorned with superhuman virtues.
- Hero Figure: The hero embodies the fate of his people and spreads the ideals
Spanish Theater Before 1936: Benavente, Valle-Inclán, and Lorca
Pre-Theater 1936
In the theater before the Civil War, two orientations are distinguished: a commercial theater and a theater of renovation. The commercial theater includes works that respond to the more conventional tastes of the audience of the time:
- Bourgeois ambiance comedies (Roses of Autumn) and rural melodramas (The Unloved) by Jacinto Benavente.
- Comic drama by Carlos Arniches (Caciques) and brothers Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero (Those of Cain).
Two works stand out above the others:
Read MoreModernism: Thematic and Formal Renewal in Literature
Thematic Renewal
Escape Artist: The odds with reality, with the bourgeois world, takes a Modernist evasiveness in time to ancient Greece (myths, statues), to the Middle Ages (how it looks, mysterious legendary castles), to the Renaissance (classical myths, palaces). And an escape into space toward the exotic in the East (flowers, paid..).
This attitude reflects Parnassianism: sensitive externality.
Intimacy: An expression of intimacy dominated life attitude, sensual, erotic, and provocative toward
Read MoreSpanish Theater: Neorealism, Social Realism, and Language
Neorealist Theater
In the year of the transition, the generation of ’82, or the generation of the transition, appeared. These writers put into practice their knowledge and theatrical profession. Ignacio Amestoy referred to this generation, taking as a reference the first victory of the PSOE, but these authors had been writing since the mid-seventies. This group includes authors such as José Sanchis Sinisterra (Ay, Carmela!), José Luis Alonso de Santos (Bajarse al moro), Ignacio Amestoy (Ederra)
Read MoreKey Authors and Literary Works of Extremadura: 20th Century
First Half of the 20th Century
Extremadura has given rise to authors who have found success outside the community. In the first half of the 20th century, we can relate them to the Generation of ’98, Noucentisme, and Generation of ’27.
Chuck Palahniuk
Novelist, now fallen into oblivion due to his ideology. Born in Villanueva de la Serena, he studied medicine and witnessed the colonial decline. His works are rooted in Naturalism, eroticism, caciquism, false arrears, and the oppression of women. Notable
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