Medieval Literature: Origins, Characteristics, and Chronicles
Medieval Literature: An Overview
The Medieval period typically spans from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. It is usually divided into the Early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages.
Key Features of Medieval Society and Thought
- Society was divided into three estates: nobility, clergy, and peasants, who worked for a feudal lord. Later, a fourth group emerged: the bourgeoisie, engaged in trade and crafts.
- Culture was centered around the royal courts and monasteries.
Romanticism in Spain: Literature, Prose, and Drama
Romanticism: A Cultural and Artistic Movement
Romanticism was a cultural and artistic movement that emerged in Germany and England in the late 18th and 19th centuries. This movement marked the beginning of modernity and, in complex ways, laid the foundation of the ideology of the bourgeois liberal state.
Key Features of Romanticism
- Freedom and Individualism: Romanticism emphasized the importance of individual freedom and affirmed its supreme value: moral, political, and artistic freedom.
- Subjectivity
Spanish Theater Evolution: Valle-Inclán and Lorca
In the late nineteenth century, several attempts were made (Galdós Dicenta, Unamuno) to bring theater to an end, eliminating the rhetoric and melodrama that triumphed in the halls. The goal was to reproduce real, contentious issues with less rhetorical language. However, these attempts were unsuccessful. It was Jacinto Benavente (1866-1954) who was in charge of shaping the new theater and submitting to the demands of an audience. This led him to create a successful formula with a slight dose of
Read MoreNoucentisme: Catalan Cultural Movement & Josep Carner’s Poetry
Noucentisme: A Catalan Cultural Shift
Noucentisme represented the interests and aspirations of the Catalan bourgeoisie, intellectuals, and artists, contrasting with *Modernisme*. It marked a period of cultural transformation, aiming to elevate Catalan culture to a European standard, including linguistic reform. This movement was influenced by political currents, Catalan religious aspects, and traditional Catholicism. Prat de la Riba, a key figure from both Catholic and Catalan nationalist circles
Read MoreContemporary Playwriting and Manuel de Pedrolo’s Theater
Basic Features of Contemporary Playwriting
Modern theater is characterized by a return to the texts and a recovery of the author’s figure, after the stage performances that dominated the 1970s and 1980s. The support of institutions that emerged with democracy, and the expertise of veteran authors like Josep Maria Benet i Jornet, have favored the emergence of new artists, the most representative of whom began writing in the 1980s. They did so by abandoning the realism that had characterized the scene
Read MoreGothic Elements in Poe and Gilman’s Works
Gothic Elements in American Literature
Influence from eighteenth-century Gothic literature can be appreciated in most American literary works, and we can, therefore, see elements of such a trend in several authors. Here follows a list of some of the most significant Gothic elements:
Gothic Elements:
- Gloomy and uncanny settings
- An atmosphere of mystery and suspense
- Supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events
- Women threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male
- The metonymy of gloom and horror
- High,