Baroque and Renaissance Literature: Themes and Styles

Baroque Literature

The Baroque was a cultural movement that developed in Spain and throughout Europe in the 17th century.

Political and religious crises, the Spanish empire ravaged by hunger and military misery. Diderot begins by contrasting the decadent splendor of literature and arts.

The rise of beauty, this class impulse defended their privileges and their values: absolute monarchy, obsession with purity of blood, social stagnation, and a return to traditional religiosity. This era is reflected in theater.

A disillusioned vision of existence, this pessimistic conception of life was manifested in literature in the constant presence of subjects such as death and the transience of life and its inconsistency, expressed in terms of topics such as tempus fugit, memento mori, quotidie morimur...

Fascinating because of the difficulty, artistically the Baroque period was characterized by ornate forms and the appearance of luxury. The poetic language was very elaborate and full of rhetorical devices.

A taste for contrast, in the theater there is a mix of tragic and comic elements, and in poetry, both Góngora and Quevedo wrote serious poems alongside burlesque and rude ones.

The Renaissance

The Renaissance is the historical period following the Middle Ages. The Renaissance arose in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe in the 16th century.

In the Renaissance, earthly life was exalted. This vitalism is seen, for example, in the topic of carpe diem (enjoyment of youth and beauty).

Knowledge began to be seen as a perfection of man (humanism). Humanism was a movement dedicated to the study of classical culture. Humanists were concerned with the development of individuals in all its aspects: art, culture, science...

The values were rooted mainly in the bourgeoisie and spread through the press.

The Renaissance man sought a direct communication with God. The Protestant Reformation and Spanish mystical poetry are expressions of this.

Garcilaso de la Vega

Garcilaso de la Vega is the author of a small body of poetry whose theme is love. Born in Toledo, he was the perfect example of a Renaissance gentleman; he was a warrior and a poet. He fell in love with Isabel Freire, who is said to have inspired many of his compositions. He died in France during a battle. In his compositions, we find different shades of the love experience: jealousy, regret, embarrassment... To express their feelings, Garcilaso occasionally resorts to classical mythology.

Renaissance Literature

It was influenced by Italian poetry and classical Greco-Roman literature. New forms were introduced from Italy: hendecasyllable, sonnet, and ottava rima. Real simplicity, harmony, and the search for beauty through simple adjectives and metaphors were valued.

Renaissance Literature Topics

The most common theme is love; the woman is idealized, and the feelings of the author are explored. Another issue is nature; the landscapes are idealized and are eternally spring (locus amoenus, a rather pleasant topic). Greek and Roman mythology is greatly enhanced. There is reference to carpe diem, which is an incitement to the enjoyment of youth and life. It deals with the beatus ille, which is a compliment to the simple life and retirement. A new religious literature with more spiritual sensitivity emerges, and finally, it addresses the social reality of the time, especially in the picaresque novel.

Baroque Literature

Cultured metrics (sonnet) and popular metrics (ballads, songs, letrillas) are used. There is a taste for exaggeration and surprise, complexity and artificiality (rhetorical devices: comparisons, pure metaphors, hyperbole, antithesis, and hyperbaton, use of cultisms and mythological allusions). Disillusionment and pessimism are reflected in the themes: love, transience of life, the contrast between appearance and reality, humor and satire... It is poetic and theatrical.

Culteranismo and Conceptismo

Culteranismo is a literary style characterized by more emphasis on form than content; what matters is not what is said but the fancy way of saying it. Features: cultured literary lexicon: pure metaphor, hyperbole, comparisons, mythological allusions. Representative: Luis de Góngora.

Conceptismo is the opposite of culteranismo; it lends importance to the content, using associations of ideas or concepts, many ideas in a nutshell. Features: antithesis, paradox, irony, caricature, hyperbole, pun of double meaning. Topics: pessimism, disillusionment, satire, joke... Representative: Francisco de Quevedo.