Garcilaso de la Vega and Fray Luis de León: Spanish Renaissance Poetry
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 His works remained unpublished during his lifetime and were first published in 1543.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
Giovanni Boccaccio: Father of Italian Literature
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
Read MoreLiterary Devices and Spanish Medieval Poetry Forms
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:
Sixteenth-Century Castilian Prose: Renaissance Literature
Sixteenth-Century Castilian Prose
Castilian prose in the Renaissance developed along four main directions:
Didactic Prose
Aimed at the improvement of man and the reformation of society. Examples include:
- Juan Valdés, Diálogo de la Lengua
- Fray Antonio de Guevera, Contempt of Court
Historical Prose
Driven by the expansionary effect of the time and the prospects created with the conquest of America. This stream is represented by Father Mariana’s Indian History, which has a formative purpose.
Religious Prose
In
Read MoreShakespeare’s Early Works: Themes, Styles, and Characters
Shakespeare’s Early Style
Shakespeare’s Early Style: The Two Gentlemen of Verona compares social classes, whilst The Taming of the Shrew is a sexist comedy. The servants are going to speak the truth in the first one; they will perceive reality better than the royal classes. One of the common things in his early comedies is the perception of reality, substance and shadow, and deception. The use of female roles disguised as men is one of the most repetitive topics in Shakespeare’s plays, normally
Read MoreRenaissance Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Prose
During the Renaissance, the creative energy of the English people burst forth into the greatest harvest of literature the Western world had yet known. Poets and playwrights, readers and listeners, all delighted in the vigor and beauty of the English language. The glittering Elizabethan court was a focus of poetic creativity. Members of the court vied with one another to see who could create the most highly polished, technically perfect poems. The appreciative audience for these lyrics was the elite
Read More