Spanish Golden Age Literature: Renaissance and Baroque Movements

Garcilaso de la Vega: Poetic Contributions

• Literary Style: Transition from traditional Castilian octosyllable compositions to Petrarchan forms.
• Key Forms: Petrarchan sonnets and songs.
• Influence: Specifically influenced by Virgil's bucolic poetry.
• Thematic Content: Shepherds expressing their sufferings, often structured as a dialogue of love.

Poetry of the Baroque Era

• Characteristics: Poetry of contrasts.
• Themes: Combines Renaissance themes (love, myths) and moral elements, often incorporating medieval influences.
• Structure: Other poetic tendencies were organized around distinct schools of poetry.

Renaissance Narrative Forms

Key Moments in Narrative Development

• First Moment (Dominant Genre): The Chivalric Novel.
• Star Example: Amadis of Gaul.
• Proliferation: Approximately 50 titles of chivalric novels appeared before 1550.

Features of the Picaresque Novel

• Narrative Style: Autobiographical story, narrated from childhood.
• Protagonist (The Picaro): Son of dishonorable parents; often a thief who recounts his tricks cynically.
• Aspiration: Attempts to climb the social ladder.
• Realism: Focuses on plausible, non-fantastic events.

Structure of the Picaresque Masterpiece (Lazarillo)

• Publication Date: 1554.
• Genre: Epistolary form presented as an autobiography (the subject informs the reader of his "case").
• External Structure (The Prologue): Informs the reader of the novel's genre and the author's intentions for writing the story.
• Internal Structure:
  • Introduction (First Treatise): Principle and family life.
  • Knot (Treatises 2 onwards): Learning and adventures.
  • Outcome (Final Treatise): The picaro's current life and situation.

Ideological Currents in the Renaissance

• Skepticism: Adopting a critical attitude toward absolute truth.
• Epicureanism: Living life fully, embracing material pleasures, but in a moderate way.
• Stoicism: Achieving inner calm by controlling passions and enduring adversity.
• Neoplatonism: Exalting the beauty of material beings as a path to reach ideal beauty and the Idea. The foundation of beauty is found in art, nature, and woman.

Key Features of Erasmian Thought

• Advocates for a compromise between Protestantism and the Papacy.
• Criticizes the corruption of the clergy.
• Opposed to wars.
• Supporter of eclectic imitation rather than strict Ciceronian imitation.

Poetry in the Golden Age (Siglo de Oro)

The Shift in Poetic Style (Pre and Post-1533)

• Before Garcilaso (Pre-1533): Poetry cultivated traditional forms, including octosyllabic carols, narrative poetry, and old romances.
• After Garcilaso: A new way of poetic expression was adopted:
  • Formal Aspect: Adoption of the hendecasyllable (eleven-syllable line).
  • Thematic Aspect: Adoption of Petrarchism.

Defining Petrarchism

• Poetry becomes an exploration in the search for the poet's authentic voice and self.
• Nature serves as a reflection of the poet's inner state of mind and mood.