Baroque Literature and Theater in 17th Century Spain

Baroque Literature in 17th Century Spain

LITERATURE T-4: The Baroque: A cultural movement that developed in Spain in the 17th century. The awareness generated by the crisis, pessimism, and disappointment gave rise to existential angst.

It produced one of the most splendid historical moments in literature and the arts. Baroque aesthetic concepts are transformed into momentum builders and great contrasts. Baroque literature aims to surprise and impress, and the ideal of the authors is the keenness of wit.

Baroque Lyric Poetry and Literary Movements

Baroque Lyric Poets (17th Century), Culteranismo, and Conceptismo

• Conceptismo: Aims for a dense and complicated content that surprises the reader with wordplay, achieving condensation and meaning.
• Culteranismo: Bright expression, creating a plastic world of images with a poetic language. It calls attention to its talent and the difficulty of meaning, creating great formal beauty.

Key Authors of the Baroque Period

• Luis de Góngora: The most representative poet of Culteranismo (Góngora), admired for his imagination and perfection.
• Poems: "Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea", "Solitudes"
• Francisco de Quevedo: The poet who best expresses the spirit of the disappointed and pessimistic Baroque man. His poetic composition is developed from a satirical slope.
• Prose works include the picaresque novel: "The Swindler"
• He is the most representative author of Conceptismo (antithesis, paradox, hyperbole, comparisons).

Baroque Theater: Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca

Baroque Theater: Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca (17th Century) Popular theater.

Corrales de Comedias: Open-air courtyards in groups of houses with a stage.

Lope de Vega's New Comedy

The New Comedy by Lope de Vega: "New Art of Making Comedies"

Objective: To please the public. He added innovations:

1. Rupture of the rule of three unities.
2. Division into three acts or comedy.
3. Mixture of genres and characters (character archetypes: king, villain, rich man, nobleman, gallant, lady).
4. Metric variety and lyrical elements (honor, dignity, revenge, traditional values, Catholic morality).

Lope de Vega's Works

Lope de Vega: Creator of the new comedy.

• Historical-legendary Comedies: "The Knight from Olmedo", "Fuenteovejuna", "Peribáñez and the Commander of Ocaña", "The Best Mayor, the King"
• Love and Entanglement Comedies: "The Foolish Lady", "Punishment Without Revenge", "The Dog in the Manger"
• Religious Subjects: "Good Saves"

Calderón de la Barca's Works

Calderón de la Barca: His works include those on jealousy and honor: "The Physician of His Honor", "The Mayor of Zalamea"; cloak and dagger plays like "The Phantom Lady"; and religious and morality plays like "The Great Theater of the World". His best-known work is "Life is a Dream".