Key Figures and Literary Styles of the Spanish Golden Age

Garcilaso de la Vega

Considered the prototype of the courtly lover, Garcilaso de la Vega renews poetic concepts and introduces a new sensibility. He recuperated classical forms and introduced new metrical forms.

Themes

• Petrarchan Conception of Love: Impossible love, inspired by his beloved; uses the Petrarchan ideal of feminine beauty to describe it.
• Idealized Nature: Refined and harmonious. A desire to escape from court life and a longing for rest and peace leads to the description of the locus amoenus (pleasant literary topic).
• Mythology: Recreates myths that combine love, despair, and death.

Style

Sober and simple style without artifice, expressing feelings naturally and with literary elegance. Recovers concepts like carpe diem to emphasize the passage of time, and locus amoenus to describe idyllic nature, creating the ideal atmosphere for romantic encounters.

Stylistic Features:

• Use of metaphors with elements of nature
• Epithets
• Hyperbaton
• Alliteration
• Personification
• Paradox

Stages of His Work

• Influence of Hispanic Lyric Poetry: Literary influences from traditional Castilian songbooks. Poems casually amorous, often describing outdoor settings or physical traits.
• Assimilation of Petrarchanism and the New Art: Integration of Italianate forms and themes.
• Maturity/Completion: After the death of his beloved, he composed his most beautiful creations.

Work

His poetic output is not extensive: 3 Eclogues, 2 Elegies, 1 Epistola, 4 Canciones, 38 Sonnets, and 8 songs in Castilian verse.

The Eclogues are considered the most important works:

• Eclogue I: Combines the passion of love and formal perfection.
• Eclogue II: The most extensive, featuring two unhappy love affairs. It includes parts and an allegorical apology for the House of Alba.
• Eclogue III: Written in stanzas, featuring mythological stories and human love.

Fray Luis de León

• Ascetic: He strives to improve people through a lifetime of effort and sacrifice.
• Mystic: Describes the union of the soul with God. This process takes place in three ways:
  • Purgative: The soul is stripped of earthly ties.
  • Illuminative: Provides peace in the presence of God.
  • Unitive: The mystic soul is united with God.

Themes

The desire for solitude and retreat from the bustle of urban life, seeking refuge in nature, the quest for peace, and closeness to God.

Style

Composed odes using the poetic style of the lira.

Stylistic Features:

• Sense of humor and irony.
• Linguistic perfection based on simplicity.
• Use of second person and rhetorical exclamations (to engage the reader).
• Enumerations, questions, enjambments for an accelerated pace commensurate with expressive intensity.
• To express emotions, appeals to the use of symbols associated with nature.
• Use of epithet, personification, and metaphor.

Work

Outstanding works include:

• Ode to Retired Life
• Ode to Francisco Salinas
• Calm Night
• Ode to the Ascension
• Prophecy of the Tagus

Oral Genres

Conference

An exhibition, dissertation, or discourse, often delivered without a written text, presented to an audience.

Structure:

• Greeting
• Introduction
• Development
• Conclusion
• Farewell and Acknowledgement

Textual Features:

• Expository text
• Representative and appealing function

Interview

A formal dialogue in which an interviewer asks a series of questions to a person for the purpose of gathering information and learning about their opinions.

Structure:

• Presentation of the character
• Question-and-answer exchange

Textual Features:

• Appellative function
• Indexical elements

Discussion and Gatherings

Consist of an exchange in which several participants express their views, guided by a moderator. The moderator introduces the topic and participants, regulates turns, and avoids formal disputes. Dialogue is formal and planned.

Structure:

• Presentation
• Exhibition
• Development (participants' views)
• Recapitulation (moderator)

Textual Features:

• Argumentative text with oral and formal exchange

San Juan de la Cruz

Principal literary figure of the second half of the sixteenth century.

Themes

His poems reflect a profound religious inspiration, seeking to communicate his mystical experience.

Style

To express mystical experience, he uses symbolism and allegory, illustrating the mystical union between the soul and God.

Work

His poetic work consists of three major poems, combining traditional forms with mystical themes (in both prose and verse, using poetic language):

• Dark Night of the Soul
• Spiritual Canticle (explains the process of the mystical path)
• Living Flame of Love