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" »

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.

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.

Valencia School Satirist
The Aristocrats: At the home of Berenguer Mercader, I attended Joan Rois de Corella, who cultivated a classic style of literature.
The Burguesos: Meeting at the home of Bernard Fenollar, they favored a more realistic literature and burlesque texts. They wrote collectively, using the fresh and colloquial language of the street.
The satirical works ridicule aspects of everyday life. They are dominated by expressive resources, such as wit, playful rhymes, double meanings, and allusions to the realities of the moment.
Among the most outstanding works are Lo Process of Olives (written by Fenollar, Gassull, and Moreno), a discussion about power reflecting sexual themes; Lo Dream of John John (by James Gassull), which describes... Continue reading "The Satirical Literature of Valencia: A Cultural Insight" »

If I had to define Hernandiana's poetry, we would call it "love poetry." Three injured Hernandiana themes are love, life, and death. The first is the one that wounds you more deeply and abundantly, causing your heart to bleed with passionate wounds. His love is manifested in his poetry in several phases and variants.

Early Expressions of Love

In his first book of poems, moons Proficient, the theme of love appears with a clear intention of a sexual nature. This is demonstrated by the eighth poem, "Sex and the Moment." The baroque Gongora style of these compositions does not prevent the discovery of the sexual connotations they contain. This sexuality is endowed with a certain mysticism in the compositions belonging to Perito on moons, where fruit... Continue reading "The Passionate Love Poetry of Hernandiana" »