Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Latin

Mariano José de Larra (1809-1837)

Mariano José de Larra (1809-1837) lived in exile and possessed a strong, cosmopolitan background. He aimed to improve the country, advocating and disseminating his views through his journalistic articles. Larra's journalistic prose style is straightforward, employing irony, simple vocabulary, and a bitter, pessimistic tone.

Romantic Theater

Romantic theater authors drew inspiration from 17th-century Spanish theater. Key formal features include the use of verse, the replacement of acts with days, and the rejection of the three unities. Thematic aspects often revolved around medieval origins and concepts of honor.

Romantic Heroism

The hero and heroine of romantic drama become symbols of freedom, defying social norms... Continue reading "Mariano José de Larra & Spanish Romantic Drama: Key Aspects" »

Remember José Sanchis Sinisterra, author of realist theater; Lauro Olmo, José Rodríguez, and so on. The 1960s saw the overcoming of realism's vanguard due to European theater: theater of the absurd, theater of cruelty. Fernando Arrabal is characterized by elemental scenic design, personality, and naive language. He uses the form of the ceremony. Arrabal's panic theater is characterized by confusion, terror, humor, randomness, and euphoria; incorporating surrealist elements in language. His themes are religion, sexuality, politics, death, and love. It converges on the positive through surrealism, theater of the absurd, and the theater of cruelty. "The Graveyard of Cars" is based on a dying society with hidden characters, doomed to an uncomfortable... Continue reading "Spanish Theater: Realism, Absurdity, and Innovation" »

Poetry in the Postwar Period

• Existential Poetry

  • Themes: Loneliness, anguish, love.
  • Authors: Luis Rosales (religious poetry), Luis Alonso (Sons of Life), Blas Otero (Angel Human Beast).

• Postismo

  • Author: Carlos Edmundo de Ory.
  • Vanguard characteristics: Playfulness, creative freedom.

• Cántico Group

  • Imitated the Generation of '27 (aesthetic perfection).
  • Authors: Pablo García Baena, Ricardo Molina.

Poetry of the 1960s

• Synthesis between existential poetry and social poetry.
• Poetic renewal.
• Authors: Claudio Rodríguez, Jaime Gil de Biedma, José Manuel Caballero Bonald.

Poetry of the Novísimos (Last Things)

• Anthology: Nueve novísimos poetas españoles by José María Castellet.
• Allusions to movies or comic books.
• Authors: Pere Gimferrer, Leopoldo María Panero.

Comprehensive Framework for Text Analysis

Understanding Textual Context

• Era and Literary Movement: Identify the historical period and literary movement.
• Setting and Author's Origin: Analyze the geographical and cultural context, and the author's background.

Analyzing Textual Elements and Style

• Forms of Discourse: Examine description, narration, dialogue, exposition, and argumentation.
• Text Type: Determine if the text is journalistic, literary, humanistic, scientific, or other.

Exploring Theme, Purpose, and Argumentation

• Theme and Treatment: Identify the main theme and how it is developed.
• Author's Intention and Text's Purpose: Understand what the author aims to achieve and the text's overall goal.
• Universality or Localism: Discuss whether the theme has

Latin Comedy

Latin comedy dramatists, influenced by Greek theater, adapted Greek stories and characters while incorporating Roman themes. Two prominent playwrights, Plautus and Terence, flourished during the third and second centuries BC.

Epic of America

Virgil's Aeneid narrates the mythical founding of Rome, attributing it to Aeneas, a Trojan hero who escapes Troy's destruction by the Greeks and lands in Latium. This epic draws inspiration from Homer. Virgil also contributed to pastoral poetry with his Eclogues and other works that would later be imitated.

Latin Lyric Poetry

Latin lyric poetry during the reign of Emperor Augustus boasts renowned figures like Virgil, Horace, and Ovid. Horace achieved his peak with Odes, where everyday life is transformed... Continue reading "Latin and Medieval Literature: Comedies, Epics, and Lyrics" »

Key Characteristics

• Formal Renewal: Poets employed a diverse lexicon, ranging from elevated, almost worshipful terms, to colloquialisms and innovative poetic expressions.
• Metrical Renewal: They sought a balance in their poems' metrics, blending traditional forms like the sonnet or romance with the use of blank verse and free verse, rather than complete freedom.
• Varied Themes: Their thematic scope was broad, encompassing love, death, fate, and other profound human experiences.

Literary Stages

• Avant-garde Influence: Initially, they were influenced by the European avant-garde, tending towards the ideal of pure poetry and seeking to eliminate overly human or sentimental elements from their works.
• Commitment: Later, they embraced feelings and engaged

Antonio Machado: A Biographical Sketch

Early Life and Education (1875-1902)

• Born in Seville in 1875 into an intellectual, progressive, and liberal family.
• At age 8, he moved to Madrid for 5 years of schooling, studying at the Institución Libre de Enseñanza.
• 1888: His brother Manuel inspired him towards theater and introduced him to a bohemian life.
• 1893: His father died. Two years later, his grandfather cut off financial support, leading to a halt in his formal studies.
• 1898: Witnessed the loss of Spain's colonies and the emergence of the Generation of '98.
• 1899: Traveled to Paris and Tours, making contact with contemporary poets, including Rubén Darío. He worked as a translator, and his brothers traveled with him from Madrid to Paris until 1902.

Theater

Origins of Latino Theater

The first theatrical performances were very primitive: no written text, these were simply improvised. In some cases, the actors wore fixed masks. In all these representations, music, singing, and gesturing were very important. Livio Andronico arrived in Rome as a prisoner of war, wrote, and staged the first play in the Greek style. The Greek theater, in its two forms, tragedy and comedy, had already produced great works of art. Livio Andronico and his successors wrote their works imitating the Greek theater, translating Greek authors but adding elements such as gesture, more music, and sung parts...

Classification of Dramatic Works

The first and fundamental division is that of tragedy and comedy.

Tragedy

Tragedy... Continue reading "Latino Theater: Origins, Dramatic Works, and Key Authors" »

The Middle Ages: Historical Context

The Middle Ages span from the 5th century (Fall of the Roman Empire) to the 15th century (Discovery of America).

Mester de Juglaría: Minstrelsy & Epic Poetry

The Mester de Juglaría refers to the craft of minstrelsy. It was a collection of poems created by anonymous bards and passed down orally during the 12th and 13th centuries. These minstrel epics were performed by artists who sometimes received only food and shelter. They would travel to towns and castles, singing about great heroes.

El Cantar de Mio Cid: A National Epic

El Cantar de Mio Cid is the oldest epic poem that has reached us. Its author is unknown, but it holds significant historical value as it was written around 1140, after the death of El... Continue reading "Medieval Spanish Literature: Periods, Authors, and Masterpieces" »

Spanish Narrative Forms

Behave like courtiers and are characterized by the prominence of castidad. Highlight some femeninos characters. The discourse of the pastoral novel coincides with the adventure story in the beginning in medias res and interpolated stories of pastors.

Dialogue in Pastoral Novels

The dialogue can break in two ways:

• Letters: In every story there is an exchange of letters, but not the basic building block.
• Poems: Sometimes it works like knots of the story; they have events to better understand the history, and sometimes they are just resting in the Celestinesca novel.

Other narrative models develop using the servants of love and a procuress.

The Chivalry Novel

This subgenre saw extraordinary development, following the same narrative... Continue reading "Spanish Narrative Forms and Key Works" »