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

Spanish Theater After the Civil War

The Aftermath and Early Trends

After the Civil War, the Spanish theatrical landscape was marked by the exile and disappearance of major playwrights. Following the war, a national theater emerged, supported by the dictatorship and used to transmit its ideology. Both the State and the Church exercised rigid censorship.

Two main dramatic lines developed:

• Teatro de humor (Theater of Humor): Focused on portraying truth through humor. Notable authors include:
  • Enrique Jardiel Poncela (Los ladrones somos honrados - The Thieves Are Honest People)
  • Miguel Miura (Tres sombreros de copa - Three Top Hats)
• Comedia burguesa (Bourgeois Comedy): Aimed to educate through the praise of virtue. Works were characterized by perfect construction

Romance in Spanish Literature

Romance: A romance is a series of indefinite assonant rhyming eight-syllable verses in pairs. The rhyme is the repetition of phonemes in the final verse from the last accented vowel. When all phonemes agree, it is a consonant rhyme, and when only the vowel sounds match, it is an assonant rhyme.

The Origin of Romance

Romance is an indefinite series of eight-syllable verses because they have no proper structure. They are an import of what were the "epics". These songs were oral poems, songs of people who were in town for minstrels. There comes a time when some parts of the most popular songs were made, then the people started again and learned, becoming a new poem. Thus, the romance was born. All parts did not remember... Continue reading "Understanding Romance in Spanish Literature: Definition and Characteristics" »

Spanish Literature in the 14th and 15th Centuries

The Evolution of Poetry and the Rise of Romance

Late 14th-century poetry saw a decline, giving way to shorter compositions with assonance and rhyme. A prominent form that emerged during this period was the Romance, characterized by short, oral poems composed of an indeterminate succession of octosyllabic lines rhyming in assonance in pairs.

Romances are broadly classified into two categories:

• Old Romances: Originating in the 15th and 16th centuries, these are characterized by their oral, traditional, and anonymous nature.
• New Romances: Emerging in later centuries, these are more elaborate, written, and often attributed to individual authors.

Origin and Formation of Romances

Two main theses explain... Continue reading "Spanish Literature in the 14th and 15th Centuries: Romances and La Celestina" »

Latin Literary Topics

• Beatus Ille: Praises country life over city life.
• Locus Amoenus: Presents the idealization of a paradise where man is in harmony with nature.
• Carpe Diem: Encourages seizing the moment. Widely used, especially in the Renaissance, it emphasizes enjoying every moment of life.
• Collige, Virgo, Rosas: Highlights unrecoverable youth and beauty; an invitation to enjoy love (symbolized by the rose) before time passes.
• Tempus Fugit: Time is intangible and cannot be stopped or retrieved. This phrase is a call to use time wisely.
• Ubi Sunt?: A lament; a rhetorical question about moments, places, or people lost to time, leaving only memories.

Lope de Vega

Biography

Félix Lope de Vega Carpio (1562-1635) explored nearly all literary genres of... Continue reading "Lope de Vega: Life, Works, and Literary Influence" »

The Enlightenment in 18th Century Spain

The Illustration, also known as the Enlightenment, was a philosophical and political movement characteristic of the 18th century. The enlightened thinkers believed that knowledge should be based on reason and that progress should challenge European traditions, customs, etc. Rationalism promoted scientific development, and numerous discoveries were made, such as the steam engine, electricity, lightning rods, and vaccines. Progress and reforms were aimed at utility for all. Religion was sidelined, and there was a belief that progress would improve living conditions. The principles of the Enlightenment were reflected in social life through the elimination of slavery and the extension of education.

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism... Continue reading "18th Century Spain: Enlightenment, Neoclassicism, and Literary Reform" »

Joan Roís de Corella (1435? - 1497)

Joan Roís de Corella, probably born in Gandia, belonged to a noble family that maintained close relations with the poet Ausiàs March. He was intended for military studies, but ultimately pursued religious ones. Despite his religious vocation, he had several relationships and a son and a daughter, Isabel Martínez Vera.

Works

Given the thematic diversity of his prose, it is classified into four groups:

• Love-themed
• Religious-themed
• Mythological-themed
• Works of circumstance

Style

Corella's prose is rhetorical, a new Latinizing style that was called *Valencian prose*. He was an aristocrat, a writer, and a teacher of theology, with extensive and varied literary works that include both prose and poetry.

Poetry

As a poet,... Continue reading "Joan Roís de Corella and Jaume Roig: Valencian Literature" »

The Generation of 1927

The Generation of '27 was an innovative group of Spanish poets who combined tradition and avant-garde styles, bursting onto the literary scene in the 1920s. The year 1927 marked the third anniversary of the death of Góngora.

Key Authors

This generation included Federico García Lorca, Pedro Salinas, Rafael Alberti, Jorge Guillén, Gerardo Diego, Luis Cernuda, and Vicente Aleixandre. Miguel Hernández and Dámaso Alonso are often added to this list.

Stages in the Generation of '27

• 1922-1928: Dominated by pure poetry and admiration for Juan Ramón Jiménez. This period sought the suppression of sentiment and the purification of language.
• 1928-1936: A fracturing of the group's unity occurred. While Guillén and Salinas remained

17th Century Poetry and Prose

1. Conceptismo and Culteranismo

Conceptismo and Culteranismo are underlied by a deep vital skepticism that causes a flight in two different directions. Both strands break the balance of the Renaissance and attend to Baroque literary artifice and difficulty.

• Culteranismo: Represented by Luis de Góngora, it seeks to create a literate poetic language itself. It tends to formal beauty, brilliance of color, and sensory experience. It achieves this through the careful development of language and the abundance of resources (bold metaphors, hyperbaton, etc.).
• Conceptismo: Represented by Francisco de Quevedo, it tends to be concise and expressively dense, and to find wit and ingenuity. It uses ellipsis, paradoxes, word games,

Spanish Modernism

Modernism employed an innovative poetic style, brilliant and often difficult to comprehend, full of metaphors and symbols with a lexicon of textures and sonorities in which we hear colors and see sounds, seeking a raw aesthetic in which content is paramount.

Key authors include: Rubén Darío, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Antonio Machado.

Antonio Machado

Seville was the stage for his early, more intimate and simpler language than that of Rubén Darío. But he soon began to address the problems of the people, adopting a more sober, direct style, less fraught with symbols. He became a major exponent of the poetic Generation of '98 with Campos de Castilla. He lived in Soria for years as a French teacher, was in favor of the Republic during... Continue reading "Key Authors of Spanish Modernism and Gen '98" »

Evolution and Characteristics of Catalan Poetry (1970s-1990s)

In 1973, Valencian poetry, which happened simultaneously with shifts in Catalan poetry (notably the 1973 publications by Llibres del Mall, and works by Ramon Pinyol and Xavier Bru de Sala), moved away from the preceding realism. New reference points included Joan Navarro (1974: Grills us sharpen knives to break fear) and Salvador Jàfer (1974: The muffled footsteps from the beach). The anthology by Damià Fabregat (1974: Fresh Meat) collected this change in orientation.

Poetry during the '80s continued more or less with the same parameters. Poets constructed a view of reality from the self through the sum of personal experiences, considering poetry as an expression of intimacy and... Continue reading "Catalan Poetry Shift: 1970s-1990s Evolution & Features" »