Pre-Renaissance Literature and Culture
The Pre-Renaissance (15th Century)
This period at the end of the Middle Ages saw a shift in attitudes and perspectives towards life, art, and religion. Literature focused on humanity and earthly existence, with writers addressing themes like wealth, death, and the enjoyment of life.
Society and Culture
The pre-Renaissance saw the rise of the bourgeoisie and flourishing commerce. Culture became a mark of distinction between nobles and wealthy bourgeois, with courts and universities replacing monasteries
Read MoreLiterary Terms and Movements Glossary
Dimensions
Annotations, enclosed in parentheses, serve as stage guides, highlighting key elements and their purpose.
Ballad
A ballad consists of poetic stanzas of equal length, wistfully recounting past events, often legendary, romantic, or traditional.
Ode
A lyrical composition expressing admiration for someone or something.
Calligram
A calligram is a text, usually poetic, where the arrangement of words creates a visual representation of the poem’s content.
Song
A collection of songs and poems, often by
Read MoreBaroque Literature in 17th-Century Spain: Quevedo and Góngora
THE BAROQUE: historical and cultural context:
the period is the cultural movement that develops in Europe during the seventeenth century. In Spain, part of the so-called Golden Age of literature. This century in Spain is ruled by the Habsburg monarchy: lll felipe, felipe lv, and Charles II. The current situation is decaying, and Spain lost its hegemony in Europe for France. All this is accompanied by an economic crisis and considerable social unrest. The pessimism and disappointment are the feelings
20th Century Spanish Theater
1. Introduction
In the late nineteenth century, the Spanish theater scene was dominated by realistic drama and the works of José de Echegaray, who brought an exaggerated Romanticism to the stage, characterized by extreme passion, conflict, and expressive language and gestures. The realists and the fin de siècle writers rejected Echegaray’s dramaturgy and sought to replace it with new European trends represented by Ibsen and D’Annunzio, among others.
2. Panorama of Spanish Theater in the Early 20th
Read MoreAnalysis of Love Sonnets by Lope de Vega
Go and Staying
Analysis
This love poem explores the theme of absence and separation. It uses vivid imagery, contrasting verbs, and mythological references to depict the speaker’s emotional turmoil.
The opening lines present opposing verbs (“Go and stay”) to illustrate the lover’s inner conflict. Part of him remains with his beloved in spirit, while the other part is torn away, leaving him heartbroken (“without a soul”). The poem alludes to Ulysses and the Sirens, comparing the speaker’s experience
Read More19th Century Romanticism in Spanish Literature
XIX Century: Romanticism
General Features:
- Irrationalism: Romanticism refuses to explain all of reality through reason alone.
- Subjectivism: If reason has limits, other ways of knowing are necessary (passion, intuition, imagination, instinct…).
- Idealism: Predilection for the ideal over the material.
- Individualism: The romantic individual is self-aware, the ego versus what surrounds him. This sometimes leads to loneliness.
- Creative Genius: The artist is not merely a craftsman who produces; art becomes