The Spanish Novel: Chivalry, Moorish Tales, and Picaresque Adventures

Posted on Sep 26, 2024 in Latin

The Spanish Novel

Prose Fiction: The Novel

The Books of Chivalry: Amadis of Gaul

Driven by a thirst for justice and service to his lady, Amadis’s tale unfolds.

Structure and Plot

Abandoned as a newborn, Amadis is raised by a gentleman. As a young man, he embarks on a quest to uncover his origins, encountering numerous adventures along the way. Deeply in love with Oriana, to whom he remains eternally faithful, they have a child together: Esplandian.

Main Character

Amadis embodies the quintessential invincible hero, chivalrous and noble. His adventures transpire in an atmosphere of pure idealism.

The Moorish Novel

This genre descends from the frontier romances of the 15th century.

Themes

Drawing inspiration from the final stages of the Reconquista, these novels often use Granada and its surroundings as their backdrop.

Characters

These stories feature archetypes of nobility, courage, and beauty. The Muslim figure is idealized, showcasing examples of coexistence between Arab and Christian cultures.

Works

Notable examples include the anonymous and deeply sentimental chivalric tale, The Story of Abencerraje and the Beautiful Jarifa.

The Pastoral Novel

Background

The pastoral novel draws from the bucolic tradition of the Latin poet Virgil, who envisioned an idyllic realm called Arcadia. This timeless and placeless space offered respite from the bustling city.

While Renaissance thinkers acknowledged Arcadia’s non-existence, they embraced its ideal, fostering introspection and dialogue with oneself and others.

Features
  1. Poetic traits
  2. Characters are often disguised shepherds in a bucolic setting, expressing their love woes. Love is portrayed as honest and virtuous, tinged with wistful sadness.
  3. Serene and pleasant scenery, reflecting the Renaissance locus amoenus motif.
  4. Frequent intervention of mythological characters.
Works

The Seven Books of Diana by Portuguese author Jorge de Montemayor established the genre in the Iberian Peninsula. The novel emphasizes the power of love in shaping destiny and the dignity of suffering for love. Montemayor presents his novel as a true story, adhering to ancient tradition.

Another renowned work is Cervantes’s La Galatea.

The Byzantine Novel or Novels of Outlandish Adventures

These novels recount a series of adventures, culminating in the joyous reunion of lovers or family members.

Representative works include Jerónimo Contreras’s Selva de Aventuras and Miguel de Cervantes’s Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda.

The Picaresque Novel

Key characteristics:

  1. Protagonist: The rogue, a person of low social standing, whose sole aim is to climb the social ladder through cunning, deception, and fraud.
  2. Autobiographical Style: The rogue narrates their own adventures, providing a single point of view.
  3. Open Structure: The novel unfolds in various locations with diverse characters, connected only by the rogue, who serves many masters.
  4. Determinism: The rogue’s low-born parentage dictates their life’s trajectory.
  5. Realism: Reality is depicted without idealization.
Lazarillo de Tormes

Published in 1554, Lazarillo de Tormes marked the beginning of one of the most significant genres in Spanish Golden Age literature. Contrasting the idealized world of epic and chivalric romances, Lazarillo offers a realistic portrayal of society, exposing the harsher aspects of human nature.

Editing and Authorship
  1. The earliest attribution to a specific author dates to 1605, when Fray José de Sigüenza, in his History of the Order of St. Jerome, credited Juan de Ortega, general of the Order.
  2. In 1607, Belgian scholar Andrés Valerio, in his Catalogus Scriptorum Hispaniae clarorum, attributed it to Diego Hurtado de Mendoza.
  3. 20th-century scholarship suggested authors within Erasmus’s circle, even proposing the Valdés brothers or Sebastián de Orozco, whose work features a young rogue named Lazarillo.

Despite extensive research, the author remains unknown, and Lazarillo is considered an anonymous work.

Argument

Lazarillo is an autobiographical epistolary novel comprising a prologue and seven treatises.

Structure

The novel begins with a prologue and seven treatises. Lázaro writes his story to “Vuestra Merced,” who has requested an account of a certain affair. He postpones the answer until the end, recounting his life from birth.

  • The first treatises establish Lázaro’s character.
  • From the fourth treatise onwards, his social ascent begins.
  • The seventh treatise sees Lázaro achieve material well-being, but he remains morally compromised. His mother cohabits with a man at the beginning, and he ultimately becomes a cuckold.
Themes

Key themes include honor, glory, hunger, and religion.

Characters
  • The Blind Man: Selfish, cruel, cunning, and mean.
  • The Cleric of Maqueda: Greedy and deceitful.
  • The Poor Squire: Obsessed with appearances.
  • The Mercedarian Friar: Attached to worldly possessions.
  • The Pardoner: A skilled con artist driven by self-interest.
  • The Chaplain: Exploits Lázaro while offering him employment.
  • The Archpriest of San Salvador: Hypocritical and lustful.
Style
  • Simple, agile, and expressive language.
  • Phatic function to convey obsession with material things.
  • Use of colloquialisms and sayings.
  • Rhetorical devices (antitheses and paradoxes).
  • Use of euphemisms.