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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

1. The Literary Genres

Literary genres are the different possibilities for an author to present their work, reflecting the attitude they wish to communicate.

Types of Literary Genres

• Lyrical Genre
• Dramatic Genre
• Narrative Genre
• Didactic Genre (developed by some scholars)

The Lyrical Genre

Poets resort to the lyrical genre to express their subjectivity and feelings, introducing the reader to intimate personal experiences, usually from their own lives. It is typically written in verse.

The Dramatic Genre

In the dramatic genre, the author sets the scene for characters represented by actors, using dialogue to drive the action. Theatrical works can be written in both prose and verse.

The Narrative Genre

The narrative genre tells us, often with objectivity,... Continue reading "Main Types of Literature and Their Characteristics" »

Post-War Suppression and Exile

After the Spanish Civil War, the once-splendid Catalan cultural scene was reduced to nothing, with the Catalan language and its institutions abolished and prohibited. Writers committed to the Republic went into exile, including Carles Riba (who would return shortly after), Josep Carner, Joan Oliver, Pere Calders, Mercè Rodoreda, Francesc Trabal, Agustí Bartra, and Lluís Ferran de Pol. Others, like Josep Pla, J.V. Foix, and Salvador Espriu, were forced into silence or had to resort to clandestine editions of their work.

The Cultural Revival of the 1960s

The situation began to change somewhat in the early sixties. Although the country was still under Franco's regime and Catalan culture was far from official, small... Continue reading "Catalan Cultural Resistance and Revival Under Franco" »

The Life of Ausias March

Ausias March holds the same importance for Catalan poetry as Ramon Llull does for prose. While Llull belongs to the 13th century (XII), March belongs to the 15th century (XV). Poetry appeared two centuries later than prose because, until the fifteenth century, poetry in the Catalan territories was written in Provençal.

Ausias March is the first author who was educated to write Catalan poetry without Provençalisms. Apart from the abundant production of existing popular poetry, he was the first to break with tradition. The son of the soldier and poet Pere March, Ausias was born in Gandia in 1397.

Military Career and Personal Life

Armed as a knight while still young, he participated in several military campaigns, including... Continue reading "Ausias March: The Pioneer of Catalan Poetry" »

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" »

Stage 3 — Generation del 14

3ª etapa: The Generation del 14 was composed not only of writers but also of intellectuals. Questions were raised about the novel and its future. José Ortega y Gasset raised the question of the novel and from this emerged the concept of the intellectual novel. According to Ortega, renewal comes with the intellectual novel that allows readers to develop new inquietudes. The dehumanized novel is the one that deals with more intellectual problems.

Key authors and works

Concha Espina is the author of La esfinge maragata (a realistic novel of manners). A refreshing presence is Gabriel Miró, author of lyrical novels with heated prose. His poetics are not very systematic; he highlights description of landscape. Around... Continue reading "Spanish Novel Renewal: Generation del 14 and Generation of 27" »

Post-War Galician Literature (1950s)

The Civil War significantly impacted Galician literature for over a decade. During this period of exile, some of the most important works of post-war Galician fiction were produced, such as A Esmorga by Eduardo Blanco Amor. This situation persisted until the late 1950s.

In 1951, the first post-war Galician novel was published: Xente da Barreira by Ricardo Carvalho Calero. From this point on, the Galician narrative began its recovery through the works of authors like Ánxel Fole, Álvaro Cunqueiro, and Eduardo Blanco Amor.

Key Literary Movements and Authors

• Ánxel Fole: His storybooks, such as Á lus do candil and Terra Brava, are classified as popular realism. They are characterized by rural settings, dialectal

Garcilaso de la Vega: The Renaissance Ideal

Garcilaso de la Vega represented the ideal of the Renaissance: a man of arms and letters. He served Charles I and was immersed in Italian Renaissance culture. His literary output was very short: just over 50 poems, including 38 sonnets, three epistles, three Eclogues, and two elegies (one of which was dedicated to Juan Boscán).

More relevant, perhaps, is the significant expansion of themes: love, female beauty, idealized nature, and the exhortation to enjoy youth. In his style, there is a profound renewal of poetic language: elegance, naturalness, and harmony, while retaining the abundant use of mythological references and careful adjectives. With serene and beautiful aspects of reality, the reality... Continue reading "Spanish Renaissance Poetry: Masters of the Golden Age" »