Home / Notes / Arts and humanities /

Spanish Golden Age Literature: Lope de Vega and Calderón

Arts and humanities2.81 KB

Teatro Lope de Vega

  • Break with classical tradition: Breaks the unity of time and place. Every action is developed in three acts, combining the tragic and the comic.
  • Variety of subjects: Focuses on honor and love.
  • Language and versification: Uses popular language; comedies are written in verse.
  • Characters: They represent collective ideals of the time (powerful knight, villain, gallant, lady).

Teatro Calderón de la Barca

  • Themes: Complex philosophical works (universal human concerns, life, death) and religious themes (showing the dogmas of the Church).
  • Language: Employs stylistic devices for formal beauty.
  • Structure: Uses subheadings and the technique of the monologue.
  • Characters: Reduced number of characters, defined by their social class.
  • Staging: Adapted for the new court space; the playwright seeks perfection and trims unnecessary elements.

The Middle Ages

  1. God is the center of life and thought.
  2. Humans are evil by nature and judged by God.
  3. Life and the world are a "vale of tears."
  4. Art has a moral and didactic purpose.
  5. Death is the end, with hope only for the salvation of the soul.

Humanism

  1. Man is the measure of all things.
  2. Humans are good by nature.
  3. Life is conceived as a pleasant time for enjoyment.
  4. Classical art seeks beauty.
  5. Death is not the end; the memory of man remains through fame.

Literary Tropes

  • Carpe diem: Live for the moment.
  • Beatus ille: Happy is the one.
  • Locus amoenus: The pleasant place.
  • Golden mean: The golden mediocrity.
  • Descriptio puellae: Description of the beloved.

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

Don Quixote

A gentleman who has lost his mind from reading too many books. He embodies the ideal and fantastic world of chivalry, moved by two ideals: justice and love for his lady. He seeks fantastic solutions for every situation based on the books he has read.

Sancho Panza

A tough farmer who represents daily reality. He only trusts what he sees and cares about the immediate. He acts out of material personal interest, such as profits and the government of an island. He finds support in popular wisdom and proverbs.

Renaissance vs. Baroque

  • Renaissance: Optimistic vision of life; death is not the end of man; intense idealism.
  • Baroque: Pessimistic vision of life; death is the step to happiness; era of realism.

Download

PDF Word HTML