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

Avant-Garde Movements

• Futurism: Argues that art should reflect the modern world and celebrates speed.
• Cubism: Uses geometric shapes to represent objects.
• Dada: Seeks to shape chaos and reflect the absurdity artists felt toward the social crisis generated by World War I.
• Surrealism: A French movement led by André Breton that exploits dreams and incorporates the ideas of Freud's psychoanalysis.

Vanguards in Portugal

In the 1920s and 1930s, a profound literary renewal occurred in Santa Catarina. Social limitations within Portuguese culture prevented the full development of avant-garde movements. The Manifesto Poético (beyond 1922) and various literary journals are the most significant samples of the role of the vanguard in Rio de Janeiro.

• Alfaro Madrid
• Colored

Mass Communication Media (MCM) Defined

Mass Communication Media (MCM) are artificial channels through which messages are transmitted to a receiver or social group.

Purpose of Mass Media

The primary purposes of mass media are to inform, educate, entertain, and shape public opinion.

Impact and Effects of Media

Regarding the effect of delivering information and advertising, mass media can:

• Convince people to adopt (persuasion) or avoid (deterrence) a certain attitude.
• Influence and shape public opinion.

Types of Mass Communication Media

Mass media can be categorized by their sensory elements:

• Verbal/Auditory Media (e.g., Radio): Utilize paraverbal elements (intonation) and nonverbal elements (music, sound effects).
• Written/Visual Media (e.g., Newspapers,

Evening Animation: Fostering Social Skills and Autonomy

Evening sessions are night meetings led by an animator that utilize expression techniques and animation to provide entertainment and fun. These sessions serve as an opportunity for developing positive social skills and autonomy. Rooted in family, neighborhood, and workplace traditions, these activities mirror historical practices such as storytelling, singing, and theater, which were traditionally performed at night to create an atmosphere of quiet mystery and intimacy.

Key Features of Evening Sessions

• Leisure Situation: A relaxed environment for participants.
• Supervised Activity: Facilitated by a professional animator.
• Expression Techniques: Utilizing tools to help participants express themselves

Key Figures in Postwar Spanish Literature

• Miguel Delibes: With his first book, The Shade of the Cypress is Long. The rural life of the people of Castile, the mentality of the provincial middle classes, the world of children, and the lives of humble and marginalized people are the most frequent themes of his novels, alongside his deep concern for nature.
• Carmen Laforet: Nada. Her novel offers a portrait of the sordid and monotonous life of the postwar years in Barcelona through the experiences of the protagonist.

The Social Novel of the 1950s

The dominant current in the 1950s was social realism (or critical realism), characterized by the following features:

• The novel serves as a direct testimony of Spanish society, aiming to denounce social injustices

The following profiles detail the main characters and their roles in the drama:

Bernarda Alba: Tyrant and Despot

Everything negative is focused on her. She is tyrannical, hypocritical, and despotic, making her the target of most criticism in the work. Her language reflects her character: the repeated use of prescriptive words and her reliance on the staff (bastón), symbolizing absolute power.

Angustias: The Eldest Daughter

Angustias is the eldest child, born from Bernarda's first marriage. She is expected to marry Pepe el Romano because of his money. Although aware of this arrangement, she is indifferent, as her only desire is to leave the house and escape her mother's power. At over 40 years old, she is devoid of passion and joy.

Magdalena: Resignation

Calderón de la Barca: Master of Spanish Baroque Drama

Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681) was a pivotal playwright and poet of the Spanish Golden Age. His extensive body of work profoundly influenced Spanish theater, evolving Lope de Vega's dramatic formula with deeper philosophical and psychological dimensions.

Key Works and Genres

• Entanglement Dramas (Comedias de Capa y Espada)

  These plays often feature intricate plots, mistaken identities, and honor conflicts, typically set in urban environments.

  • The House with Two Doors is Hard to Guard (La casa de las dos puertas es difícil de guardar)
  • The Phantom Lady (La dama duende)

• Tragic Dramas

  Calderón's tragedies explore profound conflicts, often between individual freedom and destiny, or the complexities

Sculpture

In sculptural representations, there was a clear dominance of religious imagery. The Castilian school was distinguished, represented by the works of Gregorio Fernández, and the Andalusian school, with Martínez Montañés, Alonso Cano, and Pedro de Mena.

Sculpture Characteristics

Work and Author: La Piedad (1616), by Gregorio Fernández (1576-1636).
It was done in polychrome wood, as this allowed for greater realism, emphasizing the expressive ability and drama of the scene.
The figures were part of altarpieces or processions; this work was destined for the church of the Augustinians in Valladolid.
Theme: Religious. The Virgin holds the body of Christ in her arms.
Expressiveness: It tends to emphasize the expressive drama, as seen... Continue reading "Spanish Baroque Art: Sculpture & Painting" »

Foundations of Galician Contemporary Narrative

Vicente Risco and Ramón Otero Pedrayo are considered the architects of contemporary Galician narrative.

Vicente Risco: Criticism, Occultism, and Humor

Risco employed sharp criticism of the society of his time, often incorporating the presence of the occult, balanced with a dose of humor.

Ramón Otero Pedrayo: History and the Old Regime

Pedrayo, an intellectual scholar and historian, sought to reconstruct key moments in the country's history. His works depict the disappearance of the Old Regime, led by nobles, clergy, and peasants. A notable work is The Pilgrimage of Gelmírez.

Castelao's Art and Social Critique

Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao used hand-drawn narratives of great formal perfection to... Continue reading "The Nós Generation: Risco, Pedrayo, and Galician Literary Modernism" »

Hyponymy Defined

Hyponymy establishes a semantic relationship between a word and its hypernym. A hypernym always indicates the generic term, while hyponyms are specific words belonging to a set that can be defined using the same hypernym. For example: Bird (hypernym) > Sparrow (hyponym).

Homonymy

Homonymy is the property where two or more words are written the same but have different meanings.

• Homographs: Words that are written the same, although sometimes pronounced differently.
• Homophones: Words that are written differently but pronounced the same.

Spelling the Sound [s]

Rules regarding the representation of the sound [s]:

At the Beginning of a Word

• Regarding the letters c, z, or s, we always write s: sangre (blood), susto (fright), socorro (help)

Realism Literary Movement

Realism was a literary movement that appeared in France in the second half of the nineteenth century, manifested in the narrative genre. Realists rejected the idealism of Romanticism and defended an art inspired by nature to represent in their work, adopting an attitude of thorough observation of the social environment.

Realism Characteristics

• Aims to reflect contemporary everyday life.
• Detailed description of location and time of action.
• Characters typically belong to the middle and lower classes; authors delve into psychological aspects explaining behavior.
• Narrative Techniques: third-person omniscient narrator, free indirect style, and interior monologue.

Naturalism Literary Movement

Naturalism was a literary movement that... Continue reading "Realism and Naturalism Literary Movements" »