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Theatrical Structure: Acts and Scenes

Theatrical works are typically divided into acts (separated by an interval, usually three) and scenes (marked by the separate entrances and exits of characters).

Major Theatrical Genres

Tragedy: Origins and Characteristics

Tragedy, the oldest theatrical genre, originated in Classical Greece. It often revolved around the cult of the dead and depicted heroes who suffer, frequently written in verse.

• Topics: Serious, transcendental, and grand, treated with a high tone.
• Personalities: Heroes, kings, and gods.
• Action: Acts are dominated by strong passions.
• Denouement: Usually fatal, with characters often dying.

Notable tragedians include William Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Corneille, Racine, Schiller,... Continue reading "Theatrical Genres: From Tragedy to Drama & Ausias March's Legacy" »

Spanish Golden Age Theater: Key Playwrights

Short works, often comical, were interspersed between longer plays. These humorous one-act burlesques, or entremeses, frequently featured erotic themes or bizarre characters, adding variety to theatrical performances.

Lope de Vega: Master of Spanish Comedy

Lope de Vega, a prolific writer with probably over 300 plays, championed the national comedy, or Comedia Nueva. Despite his humble origins and scandalous life, he became an established figure in the theatrical world, though not fixed at court.

Characteristics of Lope de Vega's Work

• Characterized by a mixture of popular and cultured elements.
• Conscious of his diverse audience in the public courtyards, he aimed to satisfy all by various means.

Types of Lope

Catalan Lyric Poetry: Emerging in Provence in the 12th century, troubadour poetry moved to Catalonia in the following century. This poetry is reflected in nearly 100 songbooks. Troubadour poetry, with its lyrical character, was created by known authors and expressed in a homogeneous language. It was cultivated by troubadours whose songs were performed by minstrels. These performers were required to be very loyal to the texts. The poetry featured consonant rhyme, and the most common stanza length was 8 verses with the same rhymes.

Forms of Provencal Poetry:

• Canso: A composition of loving themes, always from a male perspective to a female, reflecting feudal ideology.
• Sirventes: A composition used as a form of expression for anger or personal attack.

Reality and Poetry in The House of Bernarda Alba

Many features and notes are taken from reality. In the first act, a surprisingly vulgar and prosaic scene comes in a conversation where Poncia is eating bread and sausage. Other elements of a realistic character in this first act are the beggar who comes to beg, the tolling of the bells for the death of Bernarda's husband, the arrival of the notary to read the will, and the story of Adelaida's father. In the second act, the realistic details are reduced, but we can still see the image of women sewing, the declarations of love, the visit of the man selling lace, the songs of the reapers, the sultry color, the episode of the portrait, and the lynching of Librada's daughter. In the third act, realism... Continue reading "Reality vs. Poetry in The House of Bernarda Alba" »

Literary Genres and Their Evolution

Defining Literary Genres

Literary genres are grouped into categories or models of literary texts with common features of form and content.

Evolution of Text Transmission

• Oral Transmission: Primarily for plays.
• Written Transmission: Led to print, which was easier to read, and new technologies, resulting in the individualized printed book.

Medieval Literature in Western Europe

Historical Context: The Medieval Period

This period develops in Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire until the Renaissance.

Medieval Society and Economy

• Social Structure: Nobility, clergy, and peasants (with varying privileges).
• Cultural Focus: Theocentrism (religion and culture).

Literature by Social Class

• Common People: Lyric songs.
• Nobility:

Aesthetic Development in Spanish Poetry

Synthesis Features: Cutting-Edge and Tradition

Diversity of Aesthetic Trends

1. Spanish Avant-Garde Poetry: Ultraísmo and Creationism

• Influenced by topics like the city and enthusiasm for modern life.
• Characterized by poetic experimentation:
  • Crop image
  • Plastic and visual values
  • Suppression of rhyme and punctuation

Notable figures: Salinas, Navacerrada, Alberti.

2. Pure Poetry

• Poets seek substantive representation in the world.
• Reject sentimentality and the anecdotal.
• Tend to be sober and nominalist, stressing the importance of words, even isolated in verses.
• Preference for nouns.
• Predominant juxtapositions and short sentences, creating images through new partnerships.
• Predominant metric: regular, tenths, sonnets, lyres.

Spanish Post-Romanticism: A Literary Movement

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the influence of German poetry, with its rhythmic qualities and popular lyrical resources, arrived in Spain. This culminated in the movement known as Post-Romanticism, characterized by an intimate poetry that expressed deep emotions and feelings, often reflecting on nature.

Rosalía de Castro (1837-1885)

Born in 1837 in Santiago de Compostela, Rosalía de Castro possessed a melancholic personality and moved within prominent literary circles, where she met Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. She died in 1885, having played a key role in the development of Galician literature.

Major Works by Rosalía de Castro:

• Cantares Gallegos: Written in Galician, this collection uses

Celestina: A 1499 Tragicomedy

Publication History

Celestina was published anonymously in 1499 as the Comedy of Calisto and Melibea, consisting of 16 acts. It was reissued a year later with a preliminary text revealing the author's name, Fernando de Rojas. Rojas claimed to have found Act 1 written by an unknown author and continued the work. In 1502, it was printed with new developments and titled Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea. This is the definitive text, later renamed La Celestina.

Genre and Style

Celestina is a dialogue work of considerable length. Some consider it a play, while others believe it is a dialogue novel. Traits such as free treatment of space and time, dramatic scenes, and parallel character design suggest it is more of a novel... Continue reading "Celestina: A 1499 Tragicomedy by Fernando de Rojas" »

Structuralism and Semiotics in Myth Analysis

Key Figures and Concepts

Claude Lévi-Strauss studied the internal structure of myth. He proposed that language consists of minimal units of significance (phonemes), and similarly, myths are composed of minimal units of significance, which he termed mythemes.

The Circles of Paris, including scholars like M. Detienne and J.P. Vernant, also contributed significantly to these fields.

Semiotic Analysis, notably by Roland Barthes, examines how myths often use a different language than usual, composed of these minimal units.

Origin of the Gods: Theogonies

The concept of theogony refers to the origin and genealogy of the gods. Hesiod's Theogony, dating from the 8th century BCE, is a foundational text for Greek... Continue reading "Mythological Origins: Gods, Humanity, and Structuralist Interpretations" »