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

Miguel de Cervantes: Life and Works

Miguel de Cervantes had a very eventful life. After an altercation, he fled to Italy. As a soldier, he was wounded in his left hand at the Battle of Lepanto. Upon his return to Spain several years later, he was captured by Turks and taken to Algiers, where he attempted to escape multiple times. He was released five years later after a ransom was paid through the Trinitarian Friars. Back in Spain, he served as a supply curator in Andalusia. The imprisonment Cervantes suffered allowed him to meet all kinds of people, whom he later portrayed in his varied work.

Poetry and Theater

Most of his poetry is Renaissance in style, naturally employing the verses, meters, and themes introduced at the beginning of the century.... Continue reading "Miguel de Cervantes and Don Quixote: Life, Works, and Literary Impact" »

Spanish Romantic Literature: Authors and Prose

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer: The Rimas

The Third group (Rimas XXX-LI) is about the failure of love. The woman is the executioner of the poet's illusions, and her portrait becomes bleak.

The Fourth group (Rimas LII-LXXIX) shows loneliness and anguish. The world is a hostile place, and the poet is isolated within himself.

Technical Aspects of the Rimas

The most important technical characteristics of the Rimas are their brevity and condensation, simple rhetoric, and symbolism of the reality of love. The stanza form of the poems is free, but with a predominance of assonance rhyme and verses of seven (heptasyllable) and eleven (hendecasyllable) syllables.

Rosalía de Castro: Life and Works

Rosalía de Castro (... Continue reading "Key Figures and Prose of Spanish Romanticism" »

Miguel de Cervantes: Life and Works

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) was born in Alcalá de Henares and died in Madrid. His life was marked by adventure and hardship. In 1570, he traveled to Italy, where he was deeply influenced by the art, literature, and culture. He served as a soldier, fighting against the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto (1571), where he sustained a severe injury to his left hand. On his return to Spain, he was captured by Turkish pirates and spent five years as a prisoner in Algiers. After being rescued by Trinitarian Fathers, he returned to Madrid and began writing plays to alleviate his financial struggles.

Cervantes lived in various locations, working as a tax collector, and faced imprisonment due to irregularities... Continue reading "Cervantes: Life, Works, and Don Quixote" »

Federico García Lorca

Gypsy Ballads: Romance of the Black Sorrow

This poem from Gypsy Ballads (Romancero Gitano), specifically the "Romance de la Pena Negra" (Ballad of the Black Sorrow), features the Gypsy protagonist Soledad Montoya. At dawn, she searches for love, freedom, and joy, yet seems only to know grief and mourning. Soledad Montoya symbolizes the sorrow and marginalization of the Roma people. The narrator's voice speaks of loneliness, acting as a companion to Soledad. The poem employs various literary devices:

• Metaphors: e.g., "the spurs of the roosters dig / searching for the dawn" (las espuelas de los gallos / cavan buscando la aurora) refers to the rooster's crow signalling dawn.
• Symbols: e.g., the horse often represents passion

Poets at the Turn of the 1960s to 1970s

The poets at the turn of the 1960s to 1970s adopted a more intimate, individualistic, and dualistic stance. They were more concerned with personal freedom and their own destiny. The end of Francoism, the creation of publishing houses, new literary prizes, the relaxation of censorship, and the recognition of linguistic rights facilitated the work of poets of the 1970s. This period involved social and cultural consequences suffered from the war, experiencing the culture of mass media and the youth of the 1960s, and revolting in the street fight against Francoism. They also had more information about European culture.

Characteristics

• Break with realism
• Culturalism
• Ideological and moral transgression
• Return to

Vocabulary Expansion: Uncommon Words and Definitions

Expand your vocabulary with this list of uncommon words and their definitions:

• Apocrypha (n/adj): The parts of the Bible called into question; of spurious authorship or intent; false.
• Arabesque (n): A sinuous, spiraling, undulating, or serpentine line or linear motif.
• Assiduous/Assiduity (adj/n): Constant, tireless, diligent, persistent.
• Balustrade (n): Railing or barrier.
• Banal (adj): Devoid of originality; clichéd or hackneyed.
• Celerity (n): Swiftness or speed.
• Clavichord (n): A soft keyboard or organ music instrument.
• Cloying (adj): Trying too hard to be nice and in the process evoking disgust.
• Coalesce (v): To grow together; to join together.
• Collude (v): To act together with a shared understanding;

Modernism in Visual Arts and Literature

Modernism is a movement that significantly impacted the visual arts (painting, sculpture, decoration, and architecture) and literature. Nicaraguan writer Rubén Darío (1867-1916) marked an important milestone in 20th-century Castilian poetry. His collection of short stories and poems, titled Blue (1888), initiated his modernist path under the influence of French poetry. This new aesthetic is emphasized in his verses in Profane Prose (1896), which features exotic, elegant, and sensual expression, colorful language, and rhythmic verse. Songs of Life and Hope (1905), his masterpiece, includes poems of great brilliance and a marked formal pace. However, it is more guarded in book form and more intimate and... Continue reading "Modernism in Visual Arts and Literature: Key Figures" »

Miguel de Unamuno

Miguel de Unamuno was born in Bilbao in 1864.

Work

Unamuno's work spans culture, poetry, plays, novels, and essays. His writings maintain continuity through the repetition of certain themes and a personal style.

Topics

• Early works reveal a juvenile stage dominated by concerns about regeneration and evolution.
• Later works transition toward existential and religious themes, reflecting maturity.

Style

His style is characterized by expressiveness, passion, vividness, and directness, often incorporating exclamations.

Theater

Unamuno's philosophical theater recalls classical tragedy. It directly addresses the existential issues that obsessed him.

Lyric Poetry

Two broad themes dominate his poetry:

• His reaction to scenery
• His existential and religious

Ramón Gómez de la Serna: Spanish Avant-Garde Pioneer

Ramón Gómez de la Serna was a main introducer of the avant-garde (vanguardia) in Spain, starting at only 20 years old. He founded the Prometheus magazine, where he defended new European trends. He created a body of work that broke with conventions due to its originality.

Characteristics and Ramonismo

As a major literary figure, Gómez de la Serna helped shape his own movement, Ramonismo. This way of understanding literature is conceived as a phenomenon transcending genres. Its key features include:

• Fragmentary vision
• Objectification and dehumanization
• Unusual associations
• Humor

Major Works

• Theatre: Seres y medios (approximate title based on original text 'beings means')
• Novel: El novelista
• Ramón:

The Generation of '27: A Defining Spanish Literary Movement

The Generation of '27 was a prominent group of Spanish writers born around the same time, deeply influenced by contemporary events. They faced similar challenges and reacted to them in comparable ways. Many came from the gentry, with a significant number residing at the famous Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid, where they were mentored by intellectuals like Juan Ramón Jiménez and José Ortega y Gasset. The homage to Góngora is widely considered the pivotal event in the group's formation. Their collaboration in influential literary magazines such as Verso y Prosa, Litoral, and La Gaceta Literaria was also crucial to their collective identity.

Key Characteristics of the Generation