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

Denotation and Connotation

Denotation refers to the objective meaning of a word, the literal definition found in dictionaries. It represents a shared understanding among speakers.

Connotation refers to the subjective meanings, whether positive or negative, added to a word by individuals or social groups, beyond its denotative meaning.

The Essay: Form and Purpose

The essay is a form of short prose where the author presents a personal and subjective vision on various subjects. Its primary purpose is didactic and interpretive.

Structure of an Essay

• Introduction: Presents the theoretical framework or thesis.
• Development: Contains personal opinions, digressions, and supporting arguments.
• Conclusion: Confirms the thesis, though it may not always be explicitly

Ancient Greece: A Civilization of Beauty and Harmony

Location: Greece is situated at the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula.

Territory: The territory includes mainland Greece and the Peloponnese. Although technically a peninsula, the Isthmus of Corinth, which connects the Peloponnese to the mainland, is so narrow that it almost feels like an island. Greece also encompasses Crete, the Aegean Islands, and the coasts of Asia Minor.

Timeline: Greek civilization flourished from approximately 600 BC to 30 AD.

Key Characteristics: The most outstanding qualities of Greek art and architecture are the perfection of forms, balance, harmony, and proportion.

Greek Painting

Unfortunately, no original Greek paintings have survived. However, based on literary... Continue reading "Ancient Greece and Rome: Art, Architecture, and History" »

15th-Century Spanish Poetry

Fifteenth-century poetry, influenced by traditional folk songs, developed into two main forms: poetry of oral transmission and educated poetry.

Oral Poetry: The Romancero

The romancero is a collection of poetry from oral tradition that continues and renews old epic themes. These ballads are narrative poems, often sung, with a specific metric structure. Some recount the exploits of medieval heroes, while others narrate the wars against the Muslim kingdom.

Key Characteristics

• Meter: Simple eight-syllable lines with assonance rhyme in the even-numbered lines.
• Types: Two types of ballads are distinguished:
  • Romancero Viejo (Old Ballads): A compilation of anonymous romances from oral tradition.
  • Romancero Nuevo (New Ballads): Romances

Joan Alcover's La Balanguera: Mallorca's Anthem

Symbolism and Significance

La Balanguera, a renowned poem by Joan Alcover, resonates with pre-modernist influences yet distinctly belongs to the Majorcan school. At its heart is the Balanguera, a famous mythological figure from Mallorca who symbolically weaves and unweaves the threads of human lives. Ancient and all-knowing, she cuts the thread when life ends. This poem is a profound song encompassing the past, present, and future of Mallorca. In recent years, it has become the island's official anthem.

Poetic Structure and Method

The poem is composed of five stanzas, each with six octosyllabic verses, featuring a two-verse octosyllabic refrain. The rhyme scheme is 8A/8B/8A/8B/8C/8C/8C/8C.

Josep Maria

Luis de Góngora

Luis de Góngora is the poet of the senses. He was not interested in delving into thought or emotional impact, or recreating the contents of an argument. Instead, he looked for a different aesthetic pleasure.

Characteristics of Góngora's Poetry

• Pictorial Consciousness: A sensory, descriptive poetry that speaks of the taste for a contemplative attitude and the creation of images.
• Landscape: Nature stands as the centerpiece of his work, describing landscapes, objects, animals, etc.
• Blend of High Culture and Popular: Góngora combined elements of high culture and popular culture.
• Satire and Panegyric: He cultivated two types of contradictory poems: satire, which outputs his most critical views, and praise of noble heroes.

Themes

Góngora... Continue reading "Luis de Góngora: Master of Sensory Poetry" »

Medieval Spanish Literature

• It was primarily an orally transmitted folk literature.
• As Vulgar Latin evolved, the Romance languages arose.
• The first texts in Castilian were the Glosas Silenses and Glosas Emilianenses (10th century), which were notes in the margins of Latin sermon texts from the monasteries of Santo Domingo de Silos and San Millán de la Cogolla.

Medieval Spanish Lyric Poetry

The first Castilian lyric songs were not written down; they were sung, and some have survived through the works of Hebrew or Arabic poets.

The Jarchas

These are short poems of three or four verses, written in Mozarabic at the end of longer compositions in Arabic or Hebrew (known as muwashshahas). They express amorous complaints from a woman's perspective. They... Continue reading "Key Forms of Medieval Spanish Literature and Poetry" »

More recently, it is important to establish the Galician Drama Center as a stable public theatrical company alongside independent companies. At this stage, we can identify three generations:

First Generation: Post-War Era

The first consists of the post-war generation of shows from the Ribadavia Theater and the generation of the Drama Center. Galician authors who lived with playwrights before '36 represent continuity with the renewal of the drama that was being made in previous years to raise military authors, such as Blanco Amor or Cunqueiro Xenaro. Cunqueiro will be another representative of the renewal process of the theater with their Galician drama, The Uncertain Sines Don Hamlet of Denmark. The last of the successors is Xenaro, author of... Continue reading "Galician Theater: Generations, Authors, and the Drama Center" »

The 15th Century: The End of the Middle Ages

The fifteenth century marks the beginning of a change in thinking that breaks with the medieval conception of the world. The theocentric conception of life is replaced by anthropocentrism, which celebrates the individual. Humanity experienced a complex and contradictory period across all social orders, leading to a deeper reflection on the meaning of life.

Key Historical Events of the 15th Century

The nobility fueled multiple social rebellions springing up in different parts of the peninsula. Key historical developments include:

• The marriage between Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, marking the beginning of the convergence of the Hispanic peninsular kingdoms.
• The end of the Reconquista,

Literary Foundations of Modernism

The literary movement known as Modernism (*Modernismo*) took various influences as its reference points.

Parnassianism

Born in France in the nineteenth century, Parnassianism owes its name to the magazine Le Parnasse contemporain. Its teacher and initiator was Théophile Gautier.

Characteristics of Parnassianism

• Style: Cult of formal perfection and preference for a poem submitted to strict meter.
• Themes: Contempt for sentimentality and preference for incorporating classical mythology.

Symbolism

The birth date of this school is generally considered 1886. This movement begins with the influence of Charles Baudelaire.

Characteristics of Symbolism

• Style: While maintaining the aesthetic appearance of the lines, it uses a

Classical Mythology: Words and Their Ancient Roots

Chaos in Mythology

According to classical mythology, the beginning of the world was chaos. There was no order, and the elements of nature were mixed without any discernible way.

Medusa and Her Serpent Hair

Medusa was said to be the most terrible of the Gorgons. She was characterized by having snakes instead of hair, which continuously writhed.

Atlas: Titan and Cartography

Atlas was the brother of Prometheus, punished to bear the heavens and the earth upon his shoulders. The name 'atlas' also refers to a collection of geographic maps in one volume. Legend says that Perseus, the hero who brought the head of Medusa, saw Atlas, who was immensely tired, and turned him into stone, thus creating the Atlas... Continue reading "Classical Mythology: Origins of Words and Phrases" »