Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Latin for Secondary education

Baroque in 17th-Century Valencian Literature

Baroque is the period of Western culture that began in the 17th century. It was a very prolific period in all forms of artistic manifestation, in which there was always an attitude of disappointment.

Key Themes of the Baroque Period

• Transience of life
• The taste for the monstrous
• The passage of time
• Contrasts

Literary Devices in Baroque Literature

• Taste for ornamentation (hyperbole and hyperbaton)
• Confusion between reality and appearance (paradoxes, antitheses, and puns)

Literary Currents of the Baroque

• Conceptismo: Showcases sharpness of wit through the association of ideas and words.
• Culteranismo: Focuses on formal beauty, with a heavy and pompous style.

Prose in 17th-Century Valencian Literature

Authors:

1. Pere

15th Century: Transition to the Renaissance

During this period, two types of works are prominent: the romance and cancionero poetry, reflecting the medieval heritage.

The Ballad

The ballad is a collection of romances (narrative poems):

• They consist of eight-syllable verses, rhyming assonance in pairs.
• Its origin lies in the evolution of the meter of epic poems, having a traditional character:
  • They are born from an epic, legend, historical event, or the result of fantasy.
  • They are recited from memory, orally.
  • They are anonymous poems.
• Besides the epic romance, we find romances on Moorish subjects, the Matter of Britain, lyrical, etc.

Cancionero Poetry

Cancionero poetry is named after its musical character. It was composed to be sung at court, and it is...

The transition in literature involved replacing the sentimental exaltation and imaginative deployment of Romanticism with the observation and reliable representation of the environment.

Characteristics of the Realistic Novel

The realistic narrative is characterized by the following features:

• Interest in everyday reality: A focus on the mundane and tangible.
• Contemporary issues: The treatment of social and political issues pertaining to the time.
• Objectivity: A search for impartial representation and realism.
• Critical presence: The author expresses criticism through the narrator.
• Omniscient narrator: A narrator who knows all thoughts and actions.
• Simple style: A plain and direct prose style.
• Meticulous recreation: Detailed development of characters and

Stages

• 1940 — Beginning of the narrative
• 1960 — Latin American Boom
• 1980 — Consecration of the Narrative

Magic Realism

Magic realism appeared in the 1940s in an atmosphere of complete renovation and is the result of the mixture of cultures, peoples, and languages... which led to cultural syncretism in Latin America.

Features

• Logical alteration of reality.
• Survival of indigenous and Afro-American cosmogonies (belief systems).
• Consideration of myth as a valid category to explain the world.

Along with the concept of magical realism, Alejo Carpentier, in his work 'The Kingdom of This World', presents the marvelous as intrinsic to American reality. In this perspective, magical realism is the mode that embodies fantasy within everyday life. Featured

Romantic Theater and the Force of Destiny

The Romantic Theater is defined by its tragic love themes, blending tragic and comic elements, verse and prose, and the use of polymetry (the use of various metrical forms). The action unfolds across diverse locations and settings, often featuring temporal shifts. Two of the most significant works of this era are:

• Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino (Duke of Rivas)
• Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla

The character of Don Juan is traditionally written in verse and draws deep influence from both Spanish and French literary traditions.

Romantic Poetry: Love, Freedom, and Marginality

Romantic poetry utilizes various meters, though the octosyllable remains the favorite. Key themes include impossible love, existential...

Linguistic Classifications

• Impersonal: Phenomenon and weather.
• Copulative: Be, seem, seem to be.
• Transitive: Direct objects.
• Intransitive: Indirect objects or verbs.
• Pronoun: There, go, etc.
• Unselfish: Desinteressat.

Modernism: The Desire for Modernity

A desire for modernity emerged in the Catalan intellectual world. Artists, writers, and thinkers realized the country was lagging behind Europe, moving away from the influence of Madrid to look toward France, Germany, and England. The aim of modernization was to open Catalan culture to new European currents. Modernism represented one of its best periods in all fields: literary and artistic.

Periods of Modernism

• First Period: The Avance magazine launched a campaign to promote the Catalan language.
• Second

Avant-Garde Poetry

The avant-garde movements that influenced the Generation of '27 were, in essence, Creationism, Ultraism, and Surrealism.

Luis Cernuda

Born in Seville, his work Reality and Desire contains surrealistic poems alongside intimate and personal expressions. His collection Forbidden Pleasures utilizes free verse to explore the boundaries of love, desire, and pleasure, ultimately suggesting that love is an impossibility and only loneliness remains.

Vicente Aleixandre

Born in Seville, he received the National Prize for Literature for Destruction or Love and was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. His work is characterized by:

• Social rejection: Singing about love and nature in Destruction or Love.
• Solidarity: Expressed in The Story

The Generation of '27: Poets, Themes, and Literary Context

Key Authors of the Generation of '27

Pedro Salinas (1892–1951)

• Early works aligned with the pure poetry of Juan Ramón Jiménez, featuring abundant futurist elements.
• His poems reflect the anguish and inquietude caused by war.

Jorge Guillén (1893–1984)

• Maintained faith in life despite the world's difficulties.

Vicente Aleixandre (1898–1984)

• His poetry expressed a desire for fusion with nature, which he considered the only existing reality.

Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)

• Early books cover themes like love, pain, and frustration.
• Poems composed in the U.S. denounced capitalist society, which he saw as subordinate to money and power.
• A great dramatist who sought to renew Spanish theater

Three Masters of Galician Literature

Xosé Neira Vilas

Born in a humble setting, Xosé Neira Vilas had a humble childhood. While in Cuba, he created and directed an institution devoted to researching the intense presence of Galician culture in Cuba. The narrative scope of his works is extremely broad. His first novel was Memories of a Peasant Boy, featuring the protagonist's life and the conflicts he experiences, sometimes loaded with drama. Through it, in a simple and vibrant prose, we get a clear picture of the life of Galician peasants.

Years later, he published Letters to Lelo and Moncho, also featuring a child protagonist and following a similar thematic line. But his literary output covers much more, including other facets found in books...

Ramon Llull: A Book of Beasts

Ramon Llull, born in Majorca in 1232, lived in a society reflecting Christian culture and Islamic Catalan culture expressed in Arabic. He was born in the town in the year 1232, living in a society of two cultures, expressed in Catalan and Christian, and Muslim Arab.

Joanot Martorell and Tirant lo Blanc

Written in Valencia between 1413 and 1415, Tirant lo Blanc, by the Valencian nobility, attempted to create a new mentality with a proposed new mission. Unlike horses, Tirant lo Blanc presents plausible actions, that is, credible, aiming to get closer to real life.

Narcís Oller

Narcís Oller was born in 1846 in Valls. He was part of the new society forming in the mid-19th century, giving rise to Realism in the artistic...