19th Century Literary Movements: Realism, Naturalism, Modernism
Prior to the Twentieth Century
Realism
Realism is a literary current that developed in the second half of the nineteenth century. It has its origins in the work of Cervantes, the picaresque novel, serials, and novels of manners, customs, and the picture. It is characterized by impersonal, objective exposition using the principle of verisimilitude. Realism gives importance to the protagonist, who is typically middle-class, as realism caters to the bourgeois public and is often endowed with psychological
Read MorePoets of ’27: Influences, Styles, and Modernist Traits
Common Features of the Poets of ’27
Fervor for Góngora: Influence on Alberti, G. Diego, Miguel Hernández, Dámaso Alonso, who produced the edition of the Solitudes. It is the model for the development of image and metaphor, a fundamental element of these poets in the line of creationism and ultraism. Additionally, there is the influence of Garcilaso (Cernuda), Fray Luis, Bécquer…
Pure Poetry: Poetry that focuses more on the form, passing anecdote, elimination of any pathos, affects them all,
Read MoreJuan Ramon Jimenez and the Avant-Garde: A Study of Poetic Evolution
Juan Ramon Jimenez: A Poetic Journey
Juan Ramon Jimenez‘s poetry resists easy categorization into movements or trends, though his early works show a clear influence of modernism. His poetry is characterized by a formal concern and the pursuit of perfection, simplicity, and beauty. The poet seeks the purity of lyric expression, for which his writing is devoid of adjectives, rhetoric, and artifice. Juan Ramon aspires to a pure poetry that becomes the expression of self and knowledge of a transcendent
Read MoreJorge Manrique and La Celestina: A Literary Analysis
Jorge Manrique
Jorge Manrique is the most important poet of the second half of the fifteenth century. His poetry consists of 50 compositions that are grouped into two blocks: love poetry and ballads.
- Love poetry: It is partly inherited from courtly poetry.
- Verses from the death of his parents: It is the work that has brought him universal fame, one of the peaks of our literature. Manrique wrote these lines with the pain, resignation, and sincere emotion aroused by the death of his father.
Couplets for
Read MoreMiguel Hernández: Life, Poetry, and Social Commitment
Trajectory, Development, and Review of His Poetry
His path is a bridge between two stages of Spanish poetry. On one hand, due to his precocity and personal contacts, his starting positions are related to the Generation of ’27. On the other hand, due to his age and certain guidelines for his poetry, he belongs to the Generation of ’36. However, his human and poetic commitment also make him a model for social poets of the post-war period. His production reflects three clear attitudes of contemporary
Read MoreMedieval English Drama and the Rise of Printing
Characteristics of Mystery Plays
- They were all in verse and they were all short since the cycles had to be performed in the course of a single day or two days.
- They dramatized virtually the same biblical episodes, though sometimes their treatment is surprisingly different, and they contain apocryphal, folk, and invented materials to a greater or lesser degree.
- There are also many anachronisms because biblical events are set in a medieval present as if the message of the play were for all time.