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

Spanish Narrative Evolution in the 1960s

The 1960s combined various factors that determined a change of direction in the novel. On one side, Spanish society experienced a major transformation due to industrialization, tourism, and the easing of censorship. A depletion of the social novel occurred, leading to the emergence of new narrative patterns inspired by great foreign novelists. The social realism of the 1950s evolved into the structural novel. With the arrival of democracy, the novel abandoned earlier experimentalism to return to traditional storytelling, evolving in the 80s and 90s into a large variety of themes and neo-realism.

New Narrative Modes

The novel in the 60s did not abandon critical reflection on Spanish society, including broad... Continue reading "Evolution of the Spanish Novel Since the 1960s" »

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" »

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer: Life, Works, and Context (1836–1870)

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836–1870) was a short-lived but intense writer. His works include the Legends (narrations combining costumbrismo prose, fantasy, and mystery) and the Rhymes (poems). The poems appeared sporadically while he lived (between 1857 and 1868), but his friends collected them for the first time in an edition of 1871, shortly after his death. Later, in 1914, another edition appeared, based on Bécquer's own handwritten manuscript, found within his Book of the Sparrows, containing 79 poems and a different arrangement.

Bécquer is situated at a moment of transition from Romanticism to Realism. His themes and sensibility often lead him to be considered a post-romantic

Noucentisme (Generation of 1914) - Key Authors

The Essay Genre and Ortega y Gasset

The essay is a genre developed by the Noucentisme authors, including figures like Eugenio d'Ors (Eugenio Manuel d'Ors). However, José Ortega y Gasset stands out, covering topics ranging from philosophy to politics. His major works include The Revolt of the Masses and The Dehumanization of Art. In the latter work, he develops the principles of Renaissance art.

Prominent Noucentisme Authors

Gabriel Miró

His novels are characterized by intellectual art, high lyricism, and minimal action.

Ramón Pérez de Ayala

Known for novels with little action, often closely resembling slightly fictionalized essays.

Ramón Gómez de la Serna and the Avant-Garde

Ramón Gómez de la Serna... Continue reading "Noucentisme and the Generation of 1914: Literary Figures and Avant-Garde Movements" »

Lope de Vega and the National Theater

Lope de Vega is enshrined by the Teatro as one of the best playwrights of the theater, serving as the creator and promoter of the national theater of the seventeenth century.

Major Works of Lope de Vega

• Fuenteovejuna
• El caballero de Olmedo (The Knight from Olmedo)
• El castigo sin venganza (Punishment Without Revenge)
• El perro del hortelano (The Dog in the Manger)
• La dama boba

Key Features of Lope's Drama

Themes and Issues

His work focuses on love, honor, religious ideals, and monarchists; there is a defense of the crown and aristocratic society.

Dramatic Action

Lope breaks the rule of the three units and divides the work into three jornadas (acts). His plays stand out for the great dynamism and liveliness of the action.... Continue reading "Masterpieces of 17th-Century Spanish Theater" »

Carmen Martín Gaite: Biography and Legacy

Born in Salamanca in 1925, Carmen Martín Gaite studied Philosophy and Letters. In 1958, she won the Nadal Prize for her novel Between Curtains. She is notable for being the first woman to receive the National Prize for Literature for The Back Room (1978). She died in 2000 from cancer.

The Back Room: Synopsis and Metaphor

The title refers to the "room" as a physical space—the game room associated with the protagonist's childhood. This room had been a chaotic place for Carmen's children, but after the Civil War, it was transformed into a useful and orderly space. This room eventually becomes a space that exists only in the protagonist's memory and is finally revealed as a metaphor for her own childhood.... Continue reading "Carmen Martín Gaite: Postwar Literature, The Back Room, and Legacy" »

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" »

The Baroque was a profound cultural and artistic movement that developed during the 17th century. This period coincided with a significant era of economic, political, and social crisis, particularly in Spain.

Spain's 17th Century: Decline and Social Upheaval

At the start of the 17th century, the peninsular kingdoms adhering to the Habsburgs still controlled a vast extent of territory. However, a process of decomposition soon began. The primary causes of this decline included:

• Widespread misery and internal depopulation due to serious epidemics, continuous wars, and religious conflicts.
• The expulsion of the Moriscos, which resulted in a significant loss of capital and a skilled labor force.
• Kings increasingly left the government in the hands of validos

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" »

Juan Ramón Jiménez (JJR): His Onuvense character and melancholic style exemplify a path from modernism to poetic vanguardism. He died in exile and won the Nobel Prize in three stages, beginning in 1956. His poetry includes sentimental, romantic, and intimate pieces, as well as 'Diary of a Newlywed Poet'. As an intellectual, he sought the ultimate maxima and purification of transcendence, reflecting on death, transition, and eternity. Every effort was like that of a silversmith.

The second stage of his generation, the '27 group, shared intellectual concerns, influenced by figures like Salinas, Guillén, and Gerardo Diego, who had contact with JJR. The poetry of popular features unites them with Alberti, Lorca, Cernuda, García Pradovicnte,... Continue reading "Juan Ramón Jiménez: Modernism to Vanguard Poetry" »