Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Arts and Humanities

Media Classification

Media can be classified according to the communication codes employed:

• Written Press: Employs linguistic, iconographic, and typographical codes.
• Cinema and TV: Utilize linguistic, iconographic, and chromatic codes.
• Radio: Relies on sound and linguistic codes.

Features of Mass Media

• The receiver is plural.
• Economic interests and the issuing companies' ideologies largely determine the transmitted content.
• Advertising funds the media.
• Feedback is difficult; the receiver usually cannot influence the program and its development.
• The importance that the receiver gives to the medium, for example, when we sit down to watch TV and do not see a previously selected program, that is, priority is given to the medium before the message.

Interpretative

Understanding Language Structure

Language: A system of signs and rules for combining signs, shared by speakers within a specific linguistic community. It is a social system with a general pattern common to all speakers, stable and fixed.

Speech: The individual use of language in a given circumstance. It is variable depending on the context. These terms were defined by Ferdinand de Saussure.

André Martinet introduced the concept of double articulation. The linguistic sign consists of monemes and phonemes.

Phonetics and Phonology

Phonetics: Deals with the oral language level. Its units of study are the phoneme (an abstract minimum unit without meaning that differentiates words) and the sound (a concrete realization of a phoneme uttered by an individual)... Continue reading "Understanding Language: Phonetics, Morphology, and Syntax" »

Characters in Narrative

Characters are fictional beings that experience events and perform actions in a narrative.

• Simple or flat characters: They think and act in a predictable manner.
• Complex or round characters: They modify their way of thinking and acting.

Argumentative Text

An argumentative text presents a thesis and supporting arguments to convince the recipient.

• Introduction: Presents the thesis.
• Argument: Discourse used to convince others.
• Conclusion: The resolution of the initial problem.

Word Composition

Compound words are formed from the combination of two or more simple words.

• Own composition: A word formed from two Catalan words (e.g., "painted lips").
• Cultured composition: A word formed from two Catalan words (e.g., "biblio" + "teak").
• Syntagmatic

Literary Genres: Lyrics, Epic, and Drama

Lyrics

Lyrics deal with a subjective vision. They offer an intimate perspective, revealing the mood and experiences of the speaker. The description of real elements and the narrative of events always serve to evoke the spiritual and emotional state of the poet.

Subgenres:

• Ode: The poet expresses thoughts and feelings in a restrained and rational manner.
• Hymn: A solemn composition for song.
• Elegy: A funeral chant.
• Song: Expresses emotions of the amorous type.
• Epistle: In the form of a letter, it addresses philosophical or moral issues.
• Eclogue: An exhibition of feelings of love and excitement for nature put into the mouths of shepherds.
• Sonnet, Madrigal, Lyrical Romance

Epic

The Epic genre presents an external perspective.... Continue reading "Literary Genres and Devices: A Comprehensive Breakdown" »

Roussillon (Northern Catalonia)

• Absence of words with stress on the antepenultimate syllable (esdrúixols).
• Endings in the first-person present tense, the preterit, the imperfect indicative, and the conditional: canto (I sing), regava (I watered), regava (I watered).
• Use of the verb "to be" as an auxiliary verb for verbs of motion: sempre he anat (I have always gone).
• Use of Occitanisms, Gallicisms, Welsh words, and exclusive words like nugues (new).
• Negation with the particle pas: pas sense (not without).

Alghero (Alghero, Sardinia)

• Confusion of "l" and "d" with "r".
• Lack of desinence in the first-person present indicative: canto (I sing).
• Use of archaisms, Sardisms, and Italianisms.

Central Catalan

• Tonic vowel system consisting of 7 sounds and 3 atonic

Renaissance Art

Origin: Florence, Italy.

Renaissance: The rebirth of arts, beliefs, politics, and education in the context of Greco-Roman antiquity.

Causes of the Renaissance Origin

• Emergence of Greco-Roman sages.
• Religious coldness.
• Conscience to assert itself in the artist (artist's name in paintings).
• Environment that exists in classical Italian history.
• Invention of printing and paper use.

Renaissance Periods: 15th and 16th centuries.

General Characteristics

• Rational thought (It starts to think) takes on importance in the artist.
• Naturalism (works with natural appearance).
• Monumentality.
• Expressive dynamics.

Architecture

• Domes on scallops are replaced by flat domes.
• Pointed arches are replaced by round arches.

Materials: White marble, brick.

16th Century

Martyrdom of St. Philip

Artist: José de Ribera

This work depicts the martyrdom of St. Philip. The composition is vertically oriented with horizontal planes. Light falls directly onto St. Philip and his executioners. St. Philip's body displays anatomical detail. His serene face and strained muscles add realism to the image. The piece showcases Ribera's study of light and shadow and his naturalistic style.

Still Life

Artist: Francisco de Zurbarán

This still life emphasizes the quality of the objects, highlighting the textures of fabrics, ceramics, clay, glass, and metal against a dark, matte background. The tenebrist style uses direct light on the objects, creating a strong contrast of light and shadow. The drawing is precise, and the composition... Continue reading "17th-Century Spanish Pictorial Works" »

What is home? - Kaj je dom?

• A roof and four walls - Streha in štirje zidovi
• A shelter where you can hide from the outside world - Zavetje, kjer se lahko skriješ pred zunanjim svetom
• A place where you go after school - Prostor, kamor greš po šoli
• A place where you can daydream - Prostor, kjer lahko sanjariš
• A place where you feel safe, warm, relaxed, loved, needed, respected - Prostor, kjer se počutiš toplo, varno, spočito, ljubljeno...

Roles - Vloge

• Breadwinner - Tisti, ki največ zasluži in ima tapravo službo
• Head of the family - Glava družine
• The Strength - Tisti, ki se odloča, kako in kaj
• The Love - Tisti, ki ohranja družino, da se ne bi kregali, da se imajo radi
• Careerist - Uspešen z vsemi možnimi sredstvi - tisti, ki mu je mar samo

The Renaissance: Golden Age of Spanish Literature

16th (Renaissance) and 17th (Baroque) Centuries

This period is known as the Golden Age because some of the most important authors and works of literature in Castilian Spanish arose during this time.

The Renaissance was a cultural current that revived Greco-Roman classical culture, drawing from the ideas of humanism. It brought about a profound change in the worldview of the time. Originating in Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries, it reached its peak in Europe during the 16th century.

Garcilaso de la Vega: Renaissance Lyric Poetry

Garcilaso de la Vega was a noble warrior and a refined, cultured man who channeled his love for a court lady into poetry.

Garcilaso used hendecasyllables (11-syllable... Continue reading "Spanish Golden Age: Renaissance Literary Masterpieces" »

Three Nudes in the Woods by Joaquim Sunyer: A Noucentisme Analysis

Chronology

First quarter of the 20th century.

Mancomunitat of Catalonia

It was the union of Catalonia. Enric Prat de la Riba was elected the first president. The Mancomunitat promoted educational and cultural works.

Style of the Author

Sunyer was a key figure in Noucentisme, a movement that ran parallel to Modernisme and advocated for change. Eugeni d'Ors was the major theorist of this movement. Noucentisme was a movement with its own angles. It was a movement of change from Modernisme but not a complete break.

This movement was driven by the Mancomunitat, specifically during the presidency of Enric Prat de la Riba. Noucentisme shared some ideological points with Modernisme, such as:... Continue reading "Joaquim Sunyer's Three Nudes in the Woods: A Noucentisme Masterpiece" »