El Cantar de Mio Cid and Mester de Clerecía
El Cantar de Mio Cid
Date and Authorship
The Cantar de Mio Cid (The Song of My Cid) is the most important epic poem in Spanish literature and the only one that has survived almost entirely, with nearly four thousand lines.
The song was written in the 12th century by two anonymous minstrels from the land of Soria.
Content and Structure
The song tells of the exploits of the Castilian hero Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, known as El Cid. It is a historical work, but also literary and artistic. Events are inspired
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Early Indian and Western Literary Works
Early Examples:
- Banabhatta – Kadambari (Sanskrit)
- Panchatantra (Sanskrit)
- Dastan – Tales of adventure in Urdu and Persian
Early Marathi Novels:
- Baba Padmanji – Yamuna Paryatan (Marathi; about widows)
- Lakshman Moreshwar Halbe – Muktamala (imaginary romance)
Early Malayalam Novels:
- Chandu Menon – Subjudge from Malabar; tried to translate Henrietta Temple by Benjamin Disraeli into Malayalam; wrote Indulekha in Malayalam (first modern novel in Malayalam)
Early Telugu Novels:
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Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. He is usually remembered alongside his long-standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine. He studied at Oxford. His famous work is Cato, based on the last days of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis.
Mary Astell (1666-1731)
Mary Astell was an English feminist writer and rhetorician. Born in England, she studied in Cambridge and died in London. Her two most well-known books,
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Garcilaso de la Vega: Life and Work
Garcilaso de la Vega (c. 1501-1536) was one of the greatest Spanish poets, known for his formal perfection and significant influence on subsequent centuries of Spanish verse. His works remained unpublished during his lifetime and were first published in 1543. This cultivated poet from Toledo composed in both of the major poetic styles of his time:
- Traditional Castilian Poetry (primarily eight-syllable couplets)
- Italianate Poetry, to which he owes his fame and importance.
Giovanni Boccaccio and the Decameron: Influence on Literature
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Giovanni Boccaccio (Florence 1313 – Certaldo or Florence, 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer and humanist. He wrote in Latin and Italian and is considered, along with Dante and Petrarch, one of the fathers of Italian literature. His most famous work is the Decameron. This book was translated into Catalan in 1429, and its influence on Catalan literature was enormous. Sentences extracted from Boccaccio’s Decameron appear in Tirant lo Blanc by Joanot
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Literary Devices
- Alliteration: Repetition of one or more phonemes in a line.
- Anaphora: Repetition of a word at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences.
- Parallel Structure: Equal parallel structures.
- Pleonasm: Use of unnecessary words.
- Polysyndeton: Repetition of conjunctions.
- Allegory: Transformation of meaning.
- Antithesis: Juxtaposition of opposite words or sentences.
- Apostrophe: Use of an exclamation to address someone.
- Hyperbole: Exaggeration.
- Metaphor: A real term used with an imaginary one.
- Personification: