Literary Subgenres and Medieval Poetic Traditions

Dramatic Subgenres and Discourse Types

Tragicomedy

Mixing elements of tragedy and comedy. Its characters belong to the nobility and common people, and the action does not result in catastrophe. Its style is varied.

Other Dramatic Subgenres

• Auto Sacramental: A short piece related to the sacrament of the Eucharist. Linked to liturgical feasts, it develops scriptures and lives of saints.
• Loa: A pamphlet, generally humorous, featuring popular characters. It represented the beginning or middle of a long piece, whose argument was not always connected with it. The most famous examples are those of Miguel de Cervantes.
• Farce: Short comic pieces found on the fringes of festivities and religious representations.
• Sainete: Known by this name since the eighteenth century, replacing the interlude (entremés).

Types of Discourse

• Referential: Predominance of action scenes.
• Descriptive: Predominance of descriptive breaks.
• Poetic: Predominance of how it is said over what is said.
• Evaluative: Predominance of subjective judgments.
• Universal: Valid speech prevails forever.

Cultured Lyric Poetry Traditions

Catalan Lyric Poetry

Applies to troubadour poetry, cultivated in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in a homogeneous language, preserved in songbooks. Composed by troubadours and disseminated by minstrels. It develops the concept of courtly love as a service to the lady.

Subgenres of Catalan Lyric

• Weary of loving character (male poetic).
• Sirventes: Expression of anger, controversy, or moralizing discourse.

Galician-Portuguese Lyric Poetry

Composed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in Galician-Portuguese.

Manifestations of Galician-Portuguese Lyric

• Cantigas de Amor: Heirs of Provençal poetry, featuring a male poetic voice, sad and stormy tone, and urban and palatine settings.
• Ridicule Songbook (Cancionero Ridiculado): Mocking songs and curses.
• Religious Songbook: Includes the Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso X the Wise.

Arabic and Hebrew Lyric Poetry in Al-Andalus

Strophic poems composed consecutively in the tenth and eleventh centuries in Al-Andalus. Texts feature loving and urban settings.

Types of Poems

• Muwashshah: Written in classical Arabic or Hebrew, terminated with a jarcha.
• Zejel: Written in Arabic dialect, does not include a jarcha.