Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Latin for Baccalaureate

Generation of '27:

The poets of the Generation of '27, who contributed to publications like La Gaceta Literaria and Revista de Occidente, employed elaborate language in their pursuit of "pure" intellectual poetry, devoid of sentimentality. They emphasized beauty, poetic play, metaphors, and other literary devices, making abundant use of imagery and visionary elements.

Key Figures:

• Luis Cernuda: Eclogue, Elegy and Ode, The Forbidden Pleasures, Where Oblivion Dwells, Desolation of the Imagination, Reality and Desire, Profile of the Air (first book of poetry).
• Pedro Salinas: Secure Chance, The Voice You Love, Due and Reasonable, All Things Clear, The Defender (essay).
• Jorge Guillén: Cántico (as a whole: chant, cry, and tribute).
• Vicente Aleixandre:

Quattrocento Painting Characteristics

The Quattrocento painting style is characterized by:

• Naturalism and realism with a great interest in the study of human anatomy.
• Greater freedom regarding rigid Gothic schemas.
• Use of the laws of perspective with the creation of a vanishing point toward which most lines of composition converge.
• Emphasis on drawing.
• Importance of using light planes to define and unify the environment.
• Panel paintings were still used as a support with tempera as the primary technique, but in the second half of the 15th century, oil on canvas began to be used.
• Religious themes remained prevalent in churches.
• Portraiture emerged as a consequence of the bourgeoisie's desire to be immortalized by leading painters.

Leading Quattrocento

Early Life and Education

Rosalía de Castro was born in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on February 24, 1837. Her mother, Teresa Castro y Abbey, was a gentlewoman of dwindling fortune. There is no evidence to support the claim that her father was the priest José Martínez Viojo. Rosalía was named Rosalía de María Rita. She spent her early years in Padrón before moving to Santiago de Compostela in 1850. Rosalía received a higher level of education than was typical for girls of her time, studying French, drawing, and music at the Sociedade Económica de Amigos del País. She also participated in activities and meetings at the Liceo de la Juventud, where she made her theatrical debut and likely met Aurelio Aguirre and Eduardo Pondal.

Literary

Medieval Spanish Lyric and Epic Poetry

The lyric was composed to be recited but also to be sung. It was always accompanied by music and gentlemen troubadours. Clerics or nobles from southern France originated the courtly lyric, with the Provencal language and artistic intention. The beloved theme was the court. Idealization of love pays homage and creates a code where the poet devotes his life to love, not to praise a lady who reciprocates. This is the lyric of Provence.

Lirica Mozarabic: Christians lived in Muslim territory, and jarchas were preserved, an ancient manifestation of European literature. These short, learned poems were inserted at the end of Hebrew or Arab moaxajas. They show Christian coexistence and relations with Muslims. The...

Roman Theater

It is a literary genre of ancient Roman literature. It emerges from the adaptation of Roman schemes observed in Greek dramatic theaters. The Greek colonies in Italy, attracted by its beauty, copied schemes of tragedy and comedy.

Dramatic Manifestations:

• The Atellans: Improvised representations with humorous and burlesque themes. The characters were fixed, and characteristics were determined.
• Fescennine Verses: Representations of dialogue full of irony during games. The actors wore masks.
• Mime: Actors and actresses representing eroticism with comic situations.
• Pantomime: Dramatic pieces based on dance and mime, represented by a single actor embodying the various characters in the play.

Roman Comedy

Based on Greek New Comedy, it adapts...

Lope de Vega and the New Comedy

In the 17th century, Lope de Vega combined literary quality with the ability to attract the public. In 1609, Lope wrote his New Art of Making Comedy, a short, ironic work in which he attempts to explain and defend his theatrical conception against those who criticize the apparatus of classical acts. He proposed the following:

• Divide the comedy into 3 acts, calling them "jornadas".
• Mix the tragic and the comic.
• Mix social strata in the comedy, even appearing in the most serious works.
• The work should have a single action and develop in the same place and during one "jornada".
• Plays are written in verse.
• The writer uses different types of stanzas according to the situations.

Lope admits that the rules of Classical Theater...

The Ballad

Its origins date back to the Middle Ages, and it remains relevant today. This is a wide range of compositions called romance epics, with an unspecified number of eight-syllable verses with rhyme and assonance in pairs. Present forms and traditional themes are compiled by the people and passed on orally from father to son.

Origin and Transmission

There are several theories:

• The traditionalist theory states that they come from the songs of minstrels, repeated gestas. The favorite parts, isolated by the public from singing, and the verse romance come from the division of the epic verse into two parts.
• The individualistic theory argues that the ballads were composed by anonymous authors, just like any other poetry. In favor of this thesis

La Celestina: A Tragic Love Story

Story: A tragic love story where Calisto, a young bourgeois, falls deeply in love with Melibea, a beautiful young woman of a higher class. She initially rejects him. Calisto seeks help from his servant Sempronius, who suggests the bawd Celestina. Celestina uses her wisdom and spells to unite the young lovers. However, the servants are killed for not sharing their payment. Calisto dies after falling from Melibea's house wall, and Melibea commits suicide out of love.

Editions:

• Comedy of Calisto and Melibea (Burgos, 1499): 1st edition, 16 acts. Includes the Author's letter to his friend, detailing the text's creation.
• Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea (Seville, 1502): 21 acts. A foreword explains the title change

Lazarillo de Tormes: Author, Publication, and Context

The original title of this seminal work is "The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities."

This book first appeared in 1554, published simultaneously in three different editions. Notably, none of these editions revealed the author's name. The anonymous nature of the work is often attributed to its harsh social criticism, particularly against the clergy.

Some scholars have suggested that its author might have been a reformer influenced by Erasmus. The exact date of the book's writing also remains unknown.

Despite its initial success, Lazarillo de Tormes was banned in 1559 and was not reissued completely until the nineteenth century.

Structure of the Work

The book is written...