The History of Spanish Literature
The Minstrels
The minstrels were true professional actors who toured towns, courts, castles, religious festivals, and roads reciting or singing poems. The minstrel’s job was called Master of Minstrelsy. The most numerous minstrels recounted the exploits of local heroes and were called minstrels of Deeds.
3.1: Lyrical Forms and Themes of the Renaissance. Garcilaso de la Vega
What sets the lyrical keys of the 16th century apart is the arrival of Petrarchism, a new model of lyrics that transformed the literary landscape. Petrarch’s footprint was first seen in the work of Garcilaso de la Vega. Petrarch’s influence is an essential renewal not only of themes and literary forms but also of aesthetic sensibility, mainly due to their intimacy.
The 16th century saw three lyrical streams:
- Poetry of songs, traditional and Italianate.
- Love: Petrarchan love is platonic, unrequited, melancholy, and produces dissatisfaction.
- Nature: Symbol of perfection and of the simple life. Idealized, it reflects the mood of the poet.
- Mythological themes: Admiration for Greco-Roman culture.
Garcilaso de la Vega
The most representative poet of the Renaissance spirit, who introduced Petrarchism. He embodies the model of a Renaissance man: he was the perfect courtier, cultivated, sensitive, and a brave warrior. His short work initiates a new intimate sensitivity, which he expresses in the analysis of the poet’s feelings. His work highlights the sonnets, about 40, and 3 eclogues.
The Realistic Novel: Lazarillo de Tormes
Introduction
A new kind of narrative: the picaresque novel, a realist novel that represents and critiques 16th-century society. It tells the adventures of Lázaro de Tormes, a servant of many masters. Narrated in the form of an autobiographical letter. The first edition was published anonymously in 1554. Older editions were titled The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities. The protagonist is unheroic and moves in vulgar and poor environments.
Structure
It is a letter to someone referred to as “your mercy”, and in it, the protagonist, Lázaro, chronicles his life from the beginning.
- Plausibility of the autobiographical form in the first person.
- It consists of a prologue and 7 treatises. The prologue justifies the purpose of the work, and the 7 treatises collect the adventures of the protagonist.
- At the end of the book, in Treatise 7, we learn that “your mercy” is a superior of the Archpriest of San Salvador.
The Protagonist: The Birth of the Modern Novel
Lázaro is a social antihero, both in origin and in the world in which he moves. He is a character who evolves throughout the work. It is the first learning novel that tells the story of a character from childhood to maturity. The adult Lázaro is presented as the result of previous experiences.
However, Lazarillo presents the educational process ironically, since the Lázaro who writes is an amoral and materialistic man who accepts his degradation, feels proud of himself, and sets a bad example.
- The imbalance between the different parts is evident. The first treatise is the most developed, while the second is merely outlined.
- Readers prefer the innocent child Lázaro to the cynical adult.
Themes and Intent
Mockery and humor, but also social and religious criticism. The general tone of the novel is gentle irony and humor.
- Evaluation of social virtue against lineage, but without the possibility of moral upward mobility.
Style
Natural, simple, and often colloquial language. This tone is a realistic feature that adds verisimilitude to the novel.
- Predominance of the plain style, with popular turns and ironic tone. The author’s ironic and sly voice is often reflected in Lázaro’s comments, which, from an apparent naiveté, reveal a deeper meaning.
3.3: Cervantes. Don Quixote
Cervantes
Cervantes (1547-1616) lived between two periods, the Renaissance and the Baroque. His work reflects this transitional period and the crisis of the time. He had experience in theater and literature. Cervantes wrote stories and poetry, but he is best known for Don Quixote.
Don Quixote
Cervantes satirizes chivalric romances, popular in his time. It chronicles the wacky adventures of a gentleman who loses his mind due to his excessive fondness for books of chivalry. Believing himself to be a knight, he leaves his village in search of adventure, accompanied by his squire Sancho Panza. Throughout the narrative, his adventures and misfortunes are recounted.
4 – The Baroque
4.1: Theater. Lope de Vega
The Baroque, the Theater of the 17th Century
Theater reaches its fullness and achieves great popularity with playwrights such as Lope de Vega and Calderón. The success of the theater of the corrales stands out, which coexists with religious drama and courtly theater.
Religious Drama
Short sacramental plays in one act, presenting characters as abstract allegories (good, sin, man…). They dealt with the religious theme of the Eucharist, or communion, and presented the conflict between good and evil, embodying the devil.
Courtly Theater
Performed in halls or gardens of palaces. Scenographic innovations allowed for spectacular special effects.
Corrales Theater
Popular theater achieved great success in the 17th century. In Spain, Lope de Vega was the most important playwright. Performances were true social events because theater was the most popular spectacle of the time. The corrales were open courtyards surrounded by houses, with a stage at one end without a curtain. The majority of the public crowded into the courtyard. On the stage, there were benches for those who paid, behind them stood the men of the village, separated from the women who were in an elevated position at the other end of the stage (the cazuela), and the nobles in the balconies. Performances took advantage of daylight, starting in the early afternoon and lasting several hours. They began with a loa, a presentation in verse, after which the first act was represented, followed by an entremés, usually a short humorous piece. After the second act, a song or dance was performed, and after the third act, a new entremés or a final vaudeville show concluded the performance. The plays were called “comedias” in the corrales.
Narrative and Poetry
Lope de Vega
Lope was an excellent poet, the most natural and simple of his time. He wrote traditional lyrical poetry, sonnets, and epic poetry. In love and religious poetry, with an autobiographical background, he achieves emotional intensity. As a narrator, he reached a notable quality in his novel in dialogue, La Dorotea.
Lope’s Theater
At the end of the 16th century, Lope created a simple theater, closer to the people, that was molded to the public’s taste and gave a boost to theatrical representation.
The New Comedy (Characteristics of Baroque Theater)
Numerous innovations. Lope’s new formula for success was outstanding and became the standard throughout the 17th-century theater. The renewal is based on breaking with classical rules:
- Rejection of the three unities: time, place, and action. Lope breaks with this tradition that imposed restrictions on the play and makes changes to suit the public’s taste. He uses numerous scenarios that provide dynamism and spectacle, while lengthening the time of the action. He respects the unity of action, and there is a variety of characters.
- The work is presented in three acts instead of five, streamlining the representation, corresponding to the exposition, knot, and denouement of the plot.
- Mixture of the tragic and the comic: different tones and environments are mixed.
- Use of different types of verse, predominantly octosyllabic, but also including romances, sonnets, and décimas.
Lope gives a series of recommendations on language, characters, and themes:
- Decorum: the manner of speech of each character is characteristic of their social status.
- The figure of the gracioso or witty servant: a character that comes from the expansion and deepening of the role of the fool.
- Inclusion of lyrical elements, songs, and dances to give spectacle and color to the performance.
Themes of Lope’s Theater
With freedom of choice of subjects, he presents a wide thematic range: religious, historical, legendary, love affairs… Honor and love themes were the most popular. His works are classified by themes:
- Religious themes: dramatized lives of saints or inspired by the Bible.
- History and legends: Spanish historical comedies set in the Middle Ages, romances, and ballads, including dramas of unjust power, always supporting the monarchy.
- Contemporary comedies and love affairs: plays full of intrigue in rural or urban settings, with a casual tone and happy endings.
Characters
Characters are defined by their social roles and become social archetypes:
- The king, the powerful nobleman, the knight or gentleman, the gallant and the lady, the gracioso, and the maid.
5 – The Eighteenth Century
5.1. Culture and Society. General Characteristics
Similar to the previous century. In politics, the absolute monarchy was imposed, and the Church dominated social matters. However, the middle class was growing, while the nobility and clergy maintained their privileges. The greatest renewal was in thought and culture: science and philosophy were valued, and theories about social welfare, humanitarianism, and deism were disseminated. Finally, a didactic or “utilitarian” art was advocated.
Baroque splendor was no longer enough. Three stages can be distinguished:
- Post-Baroque: nothing new compared to the previous century.
- Neoclassicism: under Charles III, a uniform and rational style was imposed.
- Pre-Romanticism: the last two decades of the century. Literature combines philosophical rationalism and emotion.
6 – The Nineteenth Century
6.1. Romantic Ideals
Romanticism is characterized by individualism (the romantic rebels against everything that opposes their personal ego), rejection of reality (a limited world, producing frustration and a feeling of evasion or defiance), defense of freedom (based on Romantic thought in the social, political, or artistic spheres), nature (nature adapts to and reflects the poet’s state of mind), and nationalism (romantics value the unique characteristics of their country).
Espronceda
A liberal romantic whose exalted poetry is a passionate hymn to freedom with a bright, showy, and musical style.
Work
Although he also wrote historical novels and plays, his literary training is evident in his juvenile poems and in ‘Pelayo’, which deals with the conquest of Spain after the exile caused by the Moors. He encountered English Romanticism in exile, and its influence is evident in his poems. His poetry notably develops upon his return to Madrid. He creates personal and exalted compositions, and his poems deal with social outcasts (the beggar, the executioner…). He also laments lost youth or expresses political and social ideals. His most important works are ‘El estudiante de Salamanca’ and ‘El diablo mundo’.
Style
In general, it is grand and emphatic. Images of violent contrasts, frequent metric changes… give his poetry great evocative power and musicality.
Late Romanticism
: intimate lyrical, romantic bows x culminacion.Se reaches introspective lyrical and simple