16th-Century Renaissance Thought & Culture: Humanism, Poetry, and Mysticism
16th-Century Renaissance Thought & Culture
Humanism
The Renaissance, spanning from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, saw a revival of classical studies and a veneration of Greco-Latin authors. Humanism, a cultural movement originating in Italy, placed man at the center of the universe and focused on the study of humanities. This movement reached its peak in the first third of the 16th century. Influential Italian humanists arrived in Spain, and the universities of Salamanca and Alcalá de
Read MoreCatalan Literature of the Modern Age
The Modern Age (fifteenth century):
General Characteristics:
- The political arena: powerful monarchies and authoritarian states were implanted.
- Science: the experimental method was applied, producing progress in all fields of scientific research and leading to technical advances.
- Thought: reason prevailed, fostering a critical anthropocentric vision of the universe and new social and political values.
- Spirituality: increasing skepticism led to religious conflict between Protestants and Catholic reformers.
Medieval Spanish Lyric Poetry: Origins and Evolution
1. Medieval Lyric Poetry in Spain
The first manifestations of lyric poetry in the Iberian Peninsula reflect the confluence of languages and cultures that characterized the Hispanic Middle Ages. Thematic and formal similarities are evident in both the cultured lyric (Catalan, Galician-Portuguese, Arabic, and Hebrew poetry) and the popular lyric (jarchas, ballads of friend, and carols).
1.1. Cultured Lyric Poetry
This category includes the sirventes in Catalan and Provençal, the Arabic and Hebrew muwassaha,
Read MoreThe Troubadours: History, Poetry, and Courtly Love
The Troubadours
History and Origins
Troubadours were lyric poets who flourished in Occitania (southern France) during the 12th and 13th centuries. Their influence extended to Catalonia, where poets adapted the Occitan language and troubadour traditions. The first exhibition of poetry in a Romance language, Occitan, emerged in the 12th century. Catalan troubadours initially composed in Occitan, a practice that continued until the 15th century with poets like Ausias March, marking the end of the troubadour
Read MoreRenaissance and Baroque Spanish Literature: Styles and Genres
Renaissance and Baroque Spanish Literature
Humanism
Renaissance thinkers rejected the culture of the preceding centuries, viewing the Middle Ages as a dark interval between Greco-Roman antiquity and the modern world, which they sought to recover and continue.
The study of Greek and Latin classical texts, along with grammatical research and language teaching, was termed Humanism. These activities began in fourteenth-century Italy with figures like Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, who wrote in both Latin
Read MoreSpanish Theater Before the Civil War: Trends and Renewal
PRIOR TO THE THEATRE THE Civil War
During the period preceding the Spanish Civil War there was a marked sense of crisis as the demographics, economics and mentality were in full decline, it was losing the idea of freedom. Meanwhile in Europe, fascism and begin renovation proposals hardline.
The theater scene began to be characterized by attempts to renew and the realistic drama, the Spanish were influenced mainly by European authors such as D’Anunzzio, Ibsen, and Wilde.
First, we must mention the
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