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

The Origins and Evolution of Roman Epic Poetry

Roots in Oral Tradition and Greek Influence

Roman epic poetry has roots in the oral tradition of carmina (songs) that were sung at banquets. From the third century BC, Rome came into contact with Greek culture, which subsequently led to a break from the genre conventions of the traditional Greek epic.

Homer’s finest works, the Iliad and the Odyssey, served as models for the later Greek epic, establishing conventions such as:

• The use of the hexameter meter.
• The intervention of the gods.
• The catalog of ships and troops.
• Comparisons with nature (similes).

Early Roman Epic (The Archaic Period)

Livius Andronicus

The first Roman epic was the Odusia by the Greek slave Livius Andronicus. This work was essentially... Continue reading "The History and Literary Legacy of Roman Epic Poetry" »

Galdós's Exploration of Consciousness and Morality

At this stage, the cult of consciousness is a consistent feature of Galdós's novels. Consciousness serves as a source of knowledge, revealing imperfections and deviations. This awareness radiates righteousness, as embodied in the figures of the sounds, a sign of Benin.

Mercy

• Benina is asked to help his wife, who is concerned with social appearances. Benina has some strengths and hides what she does, helping his wife discreetly. This novel has a moral content, ridiculing many customs (plantemientos of the church), but conveying a Christian message (focusing on morality rather than Christianity). It also provides a historical portrait of Madrid.
• Initially, it was well-received, but today it is

Catalan Literature: A Historical Overview

Medieval Period

Ramon Llull (1235-1315)

Ramon Llull, a nobleman dedicated to troubadour poetry, experienced a life-altering event after marrying and having two children. He saw visions of Jesus, which led him to dedicate his life to religious service. Llull is considered the creator of Catalan literary prose. He explored themes of periphrasis, including duty, probability, imminence, possibility, and duration.

Tirant lo Blanc

This chivalric novel, often attributed to Joanot Martorell, is characterized by its human portrayal of characters, realistic events, and exploration of relationships.

Ausiàs March (1397-1459)

Ausiàs March is a major figure in classical Catalan poetry. He is credited with creating the... Continue reading "Catalan Literature: From Medieval to Modern" »

Spanish Poetry of the 1940s and 1950s

Miguel Hernández (1910-1942)

From Perito en lunas and El rayo que no cesa, the poet began to address his core subjects: life, love, and death. He wrote Viento del pueblo, featuring a popular style with patriotic and martial themes. Cancionero y romancero de ausencias is a collection of simple poems about prison, anxiety over the fate of his wife and son, the pain of his deceased child, and death in war-torn Spain.

Poetry of the 1940s: Rooted vs. Uprooted

Two main groups emerged:

Rooted Poetry (Poesía Arraigada)

Poets from the group calling themselves "Juventud Creadora" gathered around the magazines Garcilaso and Escorial. Its features include:

• Heroic or imperialist subjects alongside love and religious themes.

Pere Quart: Paid Holidays

Metric Series

Paid Holidays is a metric series of up to eight stanzas with a variety of metrics and verses without regular rhyme.

Structure

A structure can be established based on the increasingly pathetic gradation, which presents the poetic "I".

• Part One (verses 1-4): It begins with a blunt pair of verses with the term "amén," meaning "so be it," because of the many disappointments that the poet accepts resignedly.
• Part Two (verses 5-7): It temporalizes the enthusiasms and disappointments of belief in the fatherland and the people who left. He identifies with Job (one of the biblical characters who suffered the most misfortune) in the most miserable stage of rejection and marginalization. So then he says with irony that

Modernism

Modernism began in the late nineteenth century, originating in Latin America. It was created and disseminated by José Martí and Rubén Darío. The publication of Azul (Rubén Darío) in 1888 is considered the starting point of modernism.

Features

Modernist literature is characterized by its aestheticism, meaning it seeks beauty above all else. At that time, authors escaped reality in their works, speaking of the past, luxurious and refined or exotic civilizations. The themes expressed feelings like boredom and melancholy. They also used symbols, such as the swan or the owl, which became symbols of modernist aesthetics.

The Generation of 98

This was a group of authors born in the late nineteenth century who covered topics such as the... Continue reading "Modernism in Literature: Key Authors, Themes, and Evolution" »

The novel, as a genre, demanded considerable economic investment and faced challenges in disseminating its message. The Civil War profoundly disrupted the entire literary landscape for novelists, causing a collapse in the relationship between radical narrative elements. The situation shifted from a pre-war state to a bleak outlook for literary production. Catalan literature of this period can be analyzed through three key pillars:

Key Pillars of Catalan Literature During the Franco Regime

Authors: Classifications and Generations

Novelists can be classified into two main groups:

• Authors who trained in the pre-war period and continued to be prominent, such as Mercè Rodoreda i Gurguí.
• Authors who emerged or were formed after the conflict:
  • Born before

The first signs of the Catalan Literary Renaissance were poetic compositions. These initially appeared in the Principality before 1830. Poems in Catalan only sporadically appeared in Spanish-language periodicals. The most emblematic example is Bonaventura Carles Aribau's work, published in the journal El Vapor in 1833. We must also highlight the compositions of Joaquim Rubio i Ors (Lo Gaiter del Llobregat), along with those of Marià Aguiló i Aguiló (from the Balearic Islands), Tomàs Villarroya, and Vicent Boix (from Valencia). The brothers, Vicent and Teodor Llorente, were instrumental in organizing the Floral Games at the University of Valencia in 1859. With the momentum of Constantí Llombart, the Floral Games of Lo Rat Penat began.... Continue reading "Catalan Literary Renaissance: A Flourishing of Poetry and Prose" »

The Minerva Generation and Galician Literary Renewal

The Minerva Generation is formed by writers born between 1930 and 1940 who began publishing their works in the fifties and carried out a profound renewal of Galician literature.

Generational Characteristics

They all share some generational characteristics:

• The majority have a university education. During their college years, they participated in events like the Minerva Festival (literary competitions organized by the University of Santiago where narrative and poetic works written in Galician were awarded), and wrote for the newspaper La Noche, among other activities.
• They are monolingual Galician writers.
• Aware of the lack of freedom existing in Spain at the time due to the dictatorship, they maintained

Typical of this novel is the bitter reflection of everyday life from an existential approach. The major themes are loneliness, inadequacy, frustration, and death. There are many marginal and displaced characters.

Delibes spoke of sadness and frustration in his first novel, Shadow of the Cypress is Long. Narrators of exile developed their work, varying from traditional realism to modernism. In their works, they mainly addressed issues of social content and recovery of Spanish reality.

The novel of the 50s continued the tradition of realism of the forties, and their characteristics are maintained until the early sixties. Although political, religious, and sexual censorship remained in force, the authors of the 50s raised an ethical commitment to... Continue reading "Existentialism and Social Commentary in Spanish Novels" »