Baroque Literature and Thought in the 17th Century

Literature and Thought in the 17th Century

The ideal Renaissance artistic and literary transformation, beginning around the mid-16th century, manifested in a progressive separation from the criterion of classical imitation for the artist. The personal style was accentuated, reflected in Mannerism, an artistic movement that tended towards artificiality. Mannerism is considered a precursor to the Baroque, whose aesthetic concerns were accepted in the arts and literature of the 17th century. The Baroque flourished most in Italy, with significant impact in France, Germany, and Great Britain.

Characteristics of the Baroque

The Baroque is characterized by the artist's subjectivism in interpreting the world and by a reflective, serious, and pessimistic attitude towards significant human themes: death, life, destiny, freedom. This attitude is linked to deep spiritual, social, and political crises. In contrast to the great optimism and idealism of the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation, a profound disenchantment with life emerges. The disillusioned vision transforms the Renaissance carpe diem into the sic transit (thus passes), which reflects a meditation on the fleeting nature of life, illusions, and human unconsciousness. The novelty of the Baroque is its high drama; everything is lived as an image of death; life is only an appearance.

Literary Styles: Classicism and Baroque

Classicism and Baroque styles have always alternated:

• Classicism in literature manifests in direct and natural expression (seeking elegance in apparent spontaneity).
• The Baroque is characterized by a distinct literary language that aims to be a language of literature itself, which can be used in different types of discourse.

The language undergoes further development at all levels. The Baroque style tends towards rhetorical abundance, using resources like alliteration, hyperbaton, cultisms, etc. These resources serve to express a dynamic, elaborate, and heightened vision of the world.

Conceptismo and Culteranismo

Conceptismo, focusing on wit and 'concepts,' and Culteranismo, characterized by neologisms and cultisms, demonstrate the writer's desire to excel in verbal ability and acuity, seeking ways to rise above the vulgarity of everyday speech.

Baroque Poetry

Baroque poetry features exuberant language and sensory themes. The lyric issues, metric forms, and genres continue from the 16th century, although their range expanded to cover forms from popular to the most cultivated. Lyric love poetry remains faithful to the Petrarchan tradition. Mythological references are intensified, showing the Greco-Roman world and serving as a means of evasion from reality, where the poet displays his knowledge of the ancient world, his erudition, and his humanistic formation. The three major poets of this era are:

• Lope de Vega
• Luis de Góngora
• Francisco de Quevedo