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

Ovid's Poetic Evolution and Context

Ovid was a generation after Virgil, meaning the social situation was significantly different; the Augustan Pax (or Pax Romana) was a reality. Ovid's career demonstrates a clear poetic evolution, typically divided into three major blocks:

1. Block 1: Love Elegy and Didactic Poetry

   This block focuses on love elegy, retrieving the language, situations, and history of Latin elegy and playing with them creatively. Ovid often plays with conventions, forcing changes and new approaches, making the work less naturalistic than earlier elegists.

   • Amores: Love elegy, focusing on the ode to love.
   • Heroides: Letters from heroines to their lovers, combining epistolography with the theme of love, thereby creating a new genre.
   • Ars Amatoria:

Jorge Manrique's Couplets: An Analysis

Metrics:

The *copla manriqueña*, or Manriquean stanza, uses a twelve-verse structure, divided into two sextuplets. These lines are *pie quebrado*, meaning broken-foot. The verses are octosyllabic, except for the third and sixth, which are tetrasyllabic. The rhyme scheme is *abcabc / defdef*.

Structure:

The poem is divided into three parts:

1. Exposition: A debate on human life and the destructive power of fortune, death, and time.
2. Examples: Citations of past personalities who were victims of the aforementioned agents.
3. Eulogy: A tribute to the deceased and his encounter with death.

Themes:

The poem expresses universally accepted truths in the Middle Ages:

• World: The world is a place of transit. Through good deeds,

Key Spanish Lyric Poets

Juan Ramón Jiménez: A Poetic Evolution

Juan Ramón Jiménez remains one of our greatest poets. His impressive career exemplifies the evolution of Spanish lyric poetry from Modernism almost to the present day.

Modernist Stage (Pre-1908)

• From his modernist stage, we can find authentic poems of sensuality, innocence, and beauty.
• This corresponds to his sensitive stage, which ends in 1916. However, we can categorize only the first part of this stage, until 1908, as truly modernist.
• Notable works from this trend include Arias Tristes and Jardines Lejanos.

Second Stage (1908-1915)

• From 1908, Jiménez began to use rich adjectives and many vivid images to achieve brighter and more sensory effects.
• His metric features an extensive rhythm,

Prose Works

While less known, Vicente Aleixandre also has a prose production, as exciting as it is brief. Key works include A Life of the Poet (1950), Some Characters of the New Spanish Poetry (1955), and most notably, Encounters (1958), a collection of reminiscences of Spanish writers, which expanded to fifty-two portraits. A comprehensive collection, Complete Prose, including his correspondence, was published in 2002.

The Generation of '27

The Generation of '27 was a diverse group, often categorized in pairs or trios. Neopopularist poets like Rafael Alberti and Federico García Lorca drew inspiration from Gil Vicente, ballads, and traditional lyric. Gerardo Diego, after his creative phase, explored the poetry of Lope de Vega.

Poetic Works

Aleixandre'... Continue reading "The Poetic Journey of Vicente Aleixandre" »

Spanish Poetry: Late 1970s Trends and Style

On the multiplicity of the final years of the 70s, continuing trends among critics highlight:

• The avant-garde and surrealism trends;
• The trend towards neo-modernism;
• Culturalism;
• Classicism;
• Another trend is the baroque, exemplified by Antonio Carvajal.

With these new trends in poetry, there is a shift towards a poetry that gives entry to privacy and maintains the theme of emotion. Urban and everyday life themes are maintained, becoming a source of autobiographical content. The tone of the poems uses colloquial language, is loaded with a lexicon of modern life, and allows for an ironic distancing from reality. Free verse is still used, as is a return to classical metrical forms.

The Eighties and Nineties:

Poetry, whether committed or social, should address the problems experienced by fellow citizens. It should make them aware of the meaning of life and the circumstances of the time in which they live. In American literature, a long list of writers are attentive to the social and political problems of their people. Poets abandon the pastoral mirage of primitive peoples living in harmony with nature and show us men and women exploited by an impeccable capitalist system.

During the Civil War, many poets positioned themselves for the republic, but their fate differed afterward. Post-war Spain was conditioned by the military victory of a group led by the army, the Catholic Church, and the privileged strata. This victory meant a regression for Spanish... Continue reading "Social and Committed Poetry: Trends and Evolution" »

Cultural Characteristics of the Medieval Period

1. Theocentricism: The Centrality of the Church

The Church was the sole institution holding knowledge during the Middle Ages. It directed nearly all aspects of life, including religion, education, and literature. Monasteries housed the only libraries and books, often kept in the scriptorium.

• Book Production: Books were expensive, typically made of leather. Reading was rare and often restricted.
• Church Authority: The Church's authority was undisputed, largely because it controlled access to books and learning. This privilege began to diminish with the Renaissance, as the number of printed books multiplied.

Literary Features and Authority

Medieval literature began to develop with religious themes, although... Continue reading "Defining Features of Medieval Culture and Thought" »

Spanish Literature in the 1940s

Alarmist Novel

• Representative Novel: The Family of Pascual Duarte
• Narrator: Autobiographical account, 1st person
• Argument: Extreme situations
• Characters: Antiheroes
• Space: Sordid environments
• Ideological Aspects: It is determined by the education received
• Style: Misrepresenting the truth

Existential Novel

• Representative Novel: Nothing, a story of the 1st person, frustrating experiences of Andrea
• Topics: Existential anguish and extreme situations
• Characters: Protagonist individual
• Time: Brief, reduced
• Area: Closed, asphyxiating places

Novels of the 1950s

Precursor Novel

• The Beehive
• Witnessing society
• The cruelty to the weak and lack of ethical values
• Developed language
• Character: Collective
• Narrator: Omniscient observer and subjective
• Time:

NEW:

1. Introduction to Modernism

Arose in Catalonia between 1892 and 1911. Catalonia desired a national and European identity, unlike the Reinaixença. It showed a desire for modernization, renovation efforts, and a cosmopolitan spirit. There were two stages:

- Combative Stage (1892-1898):

Artists criticized society and aimed to impose their vision. They carried out their work in cultural centers in Barcelona (Els Quatre Gats brewery) and Sitges (Cau Ferrat) and with publications such as L'Avenç.

- Established Stage (1898-1911):

The bourgeoisie accepted Modernism. It was the most fruitful period. The Joventut magazine was important. Modernism ended with the death of Joan Maragall. It established a special relationship between artist and society.... Continue reading "Catalan Modernism: Poetry, Prose, and Cultural Renaissance" »

Luis de Góngora

Unlike other authors such as Lope de Vega and Quevedo, Luis de Góngora's writing is almost exclusively poetic. He cultivated poetry both in its traditional forms and in the popular underground cult. In both cases, the tone of his poetry can range from the most serious, beautiful, and noble to the cartoonish, humorous, festive, and burlesque.

Letrillas and Romances

Góngora is an accomplished poet in both types of compositions.

• His letrillas and ballads (Da bienes Fortuna; Lloraba la niña; Hermana Marica, among others) cover a great variety of themes. They maintain the vitality, beauty, grace, and charm typical of this type of verse, but Góngora does not renounce the elaborate language, expressiveness, and artifice of his cultivated