Traditional Lyric and Early Forms
- Traditional Lyric: Lyrical compositions transmitted by word of mouth from generation to generation, with origins linked to song.
- Jarcha: The first literary manifestation in the Iberian Peninsula; a Mozarabic song appearing at the end of an Arabic or Hebrew poem.
- Jongleurs: Wandering singers who entertained the public with a repertoire of songs.
- Epic Poems: Extensive narrative poems arranged in series of rhymed verses, celebrating the deeds of great heroes.
- Romance: A poem composed of an indefinite series of eight-syllable verses with assonant rhyme in even lines and loose odd lines.
- Ballads: A term used to describe any collection of romances.
Renaissance and Humanist Literature
- Humanism: A cultural and ideological movement that places human beings at the center of the universe.
- Eclogue: Bucolic poetry composed as a dialogue between pastors.
- Song: A lyric poem expressing passionate feelings.
- Epistle: A poetic version of a letter.
- Elegy: A poem expressing pain or grief regarding dire circumstances.
- Petrarch: A 14th-century Italian writer.
- Cancionero: A set of love poems inspired by the life and death of Laura, Petrarch's beloved.
- Entremés: A humorous one-act theater piece performed during the intermission of a longer work.
Narrative and Stylistic Techniques
- Pastoral Novel: A novel type developed in a bucolic setting featuring pastors as protagonists.
- Byzantine Novel: A novel type characterized by improbable adventures involving the separation of two lovers.
- Perspective: A literary technique providing the reader with different viewpoints to analyze the same reality.
- Ellipsis: The omission of an element in speech that is understood by the mind.
- Allegory: A succession of interrelated metaphors.
- Enjambment: A stylistic device where the end of a sentence does not coincide with the end of a verse.
Philosophical and Cultural Movements
- Seneca: A 1st-century philosopher whose thinking is part of the Stoic tradition.
- Realism: Originally a pejorative term for painters who depicted simple scenes of everyday life on their canvases.
- Mystical Literature: A literary trend describing phenomena experienced by the elect whose soul has entered into contact with God.
- Ascetic Literature: A literary movement aimed at achieving perfection through the practice of virtues and the mastery of passions.
- Costumbrismo: A literary movement arising among Romantics, consisting of the description of typical customs of a country.
- Sanchification: The process by which Don Quixote spreads the pragmatism of Sancho.
- Quijotización: The process by which Sancho Panza is infected by the idealism of his master.
