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

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" »

Renaissance Spanish Literature

Didactic Prose

Works by authors like Hermanos Valdés explored educational themes common in Renaissance literature.

Miscellaneous

Varied subjects with didactic purposes are seen in works preceding the trial, including those by Juan Huerta de San Juan, Fray Antonio de Guevara, and Melchor de la Cruz.

Historiography

This involves the study of historical writings, their sources, and authors dealing with these matters. Mariana aimed to present...

Lazarillo de Tormes

This 1525 composition, with an unknown author, is an autobiographical novel in letter form. It features a foreword and seven treatises. The first three treatises, and the fourth, focus on Lázaro's personality and social climbing. By the seventh, he achieves... Continue reading "Renaissance Spanish Literature: An Overview" »

Joanot Martorell: Life, Legacy, and the Birth of a Masterpiece

The Author's Troubled Life

While the exact circumstances surrounding the completion of Tirant lo Blanc remain debated, it is believed that the manuscript, perhaps unfinished at the time of Joanot Martorell's death in 1468, passed into the hands of Martí Joan de Galba, who seemingly completed its revision. Martí Joan de Galba, a friend of Joanot Martorell, may have received the manuscript from the author, perhaps due to Martorell's severe financial difficulties.

Joanot Martorell was born in Gandia, the son of a noble family. Educated as a courtly knight, he read extensively while learning to fight, aspiring to be a perfect gentleman even as the era of chivalry had long entered a crisis.... Continue reading "Joanot Martorell's Life and the Masterpiece Tirant lo Blanc" »

Spanish Theater Before 1936

The theater movement before the Civil War was characterized by two main currents: commercialism and renewal.

Commercial Theater: Conventional Works

Commercial theater formally included more conventional works that responded to the public taste of the times. This current featured two main types of drama:

1. Bourgeois Atmosphere and Melodrama: Works that satirized or critiqued the bourgeois atmosphere, such as Jacinto Benavente's rural melodramas and plays like Rosas de otoño.
2. Comic Theater: Works by authors like Carlos Arniches (e.g., Los caciques) and the Quintero brothers, Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero (e.g., Los de Caín).

Two works stand out above all others in this category:

• Los intereses creados (The Vested

The Basques in Roman Times

In Roman times, the Basques were the inhabitants of the future Navarre, reaching as far as Oiasso (Irun). Beyond them were the Varduli, Caristii, and Autrigones, who would later form the 'Vasconized' Basque Provinces.

The Basques did not confront the Romans but were their allies and even became adherents of Pompey, who founded Pamplona (Pompaelo) in 75 BC on the Basque city of Iruña. The Romans granted them territories and cities along the Ebro that had previously been Celtiberian, such as Calahorra (Calagurris) and Alfaro (Gracchurris), and lands east of the Iberians beyond Jaca and Alagón.

Romanization in Hispania

Romanization is the process of integrating peoples, such as those in Hispania, into the civilization... Continue reading "The Basques and the Romanization of Ancient Hispania" »

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" »

The Spanish Renaissance: Literature and Humanism

The national revival, which began in the cities of northern Italy in the 14th century and spread throughout Europe, arrived in Spain in the 16th century. The Renaissance is the result of the diffusion of humanist ideas, which established a new conception of man and the world.

Renaissance Poetry: Innovations and Themes

The lyrical model of the Renaissance was Petrarch, which resulted in a profound renewal of themes and metrical forms. The main formal innovation in Renaissance poetry was the use of the hendecasyllable verse, an Italian heritage, sometimes combined with the heptasyllable. This led to stanzas such as:

• Lira
• Octava real
• Estancia
• Tercetos encadenados (Chained tercets)

This evolution also included... Continue reading "Spanish Renaissance Literature: From Poetry to Don Quixote" »

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.