Spanish Baroque Literature: Key Authors, Movements and Works

Spanish Baroque Literature and Theater

Baroque: a cultural and ideological movement that developed in Spain since the end of the 16th century until the early 18th century. The 16th century is generally a time of crisis and decline for these reasons:

• Severe economic difficulties caused widespread discontent.
• An increasing gap between social levels — a clear contrast between the luxury of the nobility and the poverty of the common people.

Characteristics of Baroque Literature

The main features of Baroque literature include originality and an intense use of rhetorical devices. Authors frequently make use of metaphors, contrasts, hyperbaton, and other stylistic resources. Sometimes the language and images are deliberately contrived; the style often plays with concepts and forms through exaggeration and contrast, so that things are not presented as they really are but as the author perceives or manipulates them.

Lyric Conceits and Culteranismo in the 17th Century

The lyric of the 17th century shows two main traditions: lírica popular (popular lyric) and lírica culta (cultured lyric). Within cultured lyric one of the most important tendencies is culteranismo.

Culteranismo

Culteranismo: metaphors are often complicated and contrived; poems frequently include elements of classical mythology. In culteranismo the language itself creates a literary conceit that departs from ordinary speech. It is based on ingenious verbal pairings and surprising concepts.

Key authors associated with these tendencies include Francisco de Quevedo, Luis de Góngora, and Baltasar Gracián. Two stages are distinguished in Baroque poetry: the first stage contains many traditional meters and where culteranismo features are less marked; the second stage includes poems written in a style that is more fully culterano.

Francisco de Quevedo

Francisco de Quevedo: the works of satirical and burlesque theme are the best-known facet of Quevedo. Characteristics include distortion and caricature, irony, hyperbole, comic contrast, and a capacity to erase or expose social vices. One of his famous sonnets is the mockery of a man’s nose ("A una nariz").

Quevedo in Prose

In prose, Quevedo: the most important work is the picaresque novel El Buscón.

Lope de Vega and Golden Age Theater

Lope de Vega: cultivated all literary genres, particularly lyric and drama. The theater features of the Golden Age (the so-called "New Comedy") include a mixture of the tragic and the comic in the same work and the breakdown of strict classical rules such as the unity of time, place and action; plays are presented in a variety of acts and metrics.

Typical Characters in Lope's Theater

• A noble lady
• A gentleman
• A villain
• A joker
• The king

Works by Lope de Vega

• Fuenteovejuna
• El caballero de Olmedo
• Peribáñez and the Commander of Ocaña
• The Best Mayor, The King (El mejor alcalde, el rey)

Calderón de la Barca

Calderón de la Barca: the dramatic action and language are more developed and often more philosophical; there is generally less variety of scenes and anecdotal episodes than in Lope's plays. His most important works:

• Life Is a Dream (La vida es sueño)
• The Great Theater of the World (El gran teatro del mundo)
• The Mayor of Zalamea (El alcalde de Zalamea)

Other 17th-Century Playwrights

Other dramatists: the school of Lope de Vega also includes important writers such as Tirso de Molina. Two of Tirso's most famous works are The Trickster of Seville (El burlador de Sevilla) and The Stone Guest (both associated with the Don Juan legend).