Spanish Theater: Drama Evolution Before 1936
Drama Before 1936
Two main fronts in the theater prior to 1936 are:
The Theater That Wins
This stands out with:
- Bourgeois comedy: Characterized by recreating environments of the bourgeoisie and aristocracy with people of good taste, cultivated, ironic, and refined dialogue with ease and brilliance. Jacinto Benavente is the most representative, and his masterpiece, “Special Interests,” has moments of irony and drama in verse.
- Post-romantic character with modernist elements: Associated with a stale ideological
Baroque Literature: Formal Perfection and Innovation
Baroque Literature: In Search of Formal Perfection
In the seventeenth century, alongside moral and religious themes, satirical, burlesque, critical, and philosophical subjects emerged. New literary works incorporated folk traditions within a context of high formal artistry. Form took precedence over content, and formal complexity became synonymous with beauty.
The Birth of the Modern Novel
Key examples include Guzmán de Alfarache and Don Quixote.
The New Comedy
Evolution of Lyric Poetry
Two trends emerged:
Read MoreVirginia Woolf’s Feminist Critique in Three Guineas
Virginia Woolf’s *Three Guineas*: A Feminist Perspective
A simple definition of feminism emphasizes that it’s about having women’s voices heard, their ideas taken seriously, and their demands for equality and basic rights incorporated into everyday ‘democratic’ life. Lana Rakow has distinguished between four feminist approaches to popular culture:
- The recovery and reappraisal approach
- The images and representations approach
- The reception and experience approach
- The cultural theory approach
Feminists have
Read MoreImmanuel Kant: Life, Enlightenment, and Philosophical Context
Immanuel Kant: Life and Context
Context: Kant lived in Prussia during the Age of Enlightenment, of which he was a leading figure. In Germany, the Enlightenment began somewhat later and was directly influenced by France. It was fundamentally a movement driven by Frederick II’s modernization of Prussia. Legislation aimed to introduce Enlightenment ideas and reform education. The Enlightenment’s trust in reason didn’t equate to rationalism but transcended the differences between rationalism and empiricism.
Read MoreCatalan Modernism: Origins, Evolution, and Cultural Impact
Catalan Modernism: A Cultural Revolution
Modernism is a cultural movement that emerged in the West during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is often associated with artistic currents, particularly architecture and decoration, known as Art Nouveau, Modern Style, etc. It is characterized by the prominence of curved lines, rich and detailed decoration, frequent use of plant motifs, refined aestheticism, and dynamic forms. It represented a rejection of the mechanistic approach of
Read MoreNature in 19th-Century American Literature
The concept of Nature is central to some of the most important literary movements of the United States in the 19th century. In fact, we might say that it is their different views of Nature that determine the essence of those literary movements. This means that in order to understand the literary works of some of the most prominent American authors, we must understand what concept of Nature they had. For the Puritans, for example, Nature is marred by Original Sin and hence a source of evil and temptation,
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