Spanish Golden Age: Renaissance Literary Masterpieces

The Renaissance: Golden Age of Spanish Literature

16th (Renaissance) and 17th (Baroque) Centuries

This period is known as the Golden Age because some of the most important authors and works of literature in Castilian Spanish arose during this time.

The Renaissance was a cultural current that revived Greco-Roman classical culture, drawing from the ideas of humanism. It brought about a profound change in the worldview of the time. Originating in Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries, it reached its peak in Europe during the 16th century.

Garcilaso de la Vega: Renaissance Lyric Poetry

Garcilaso de la Vega was a noble warrior and a refined, cultured man who channeled his love for a court lady into poetry.

Garcilaso used hendecasyllables (11-syllable lines) and heptasyllables (7-syllable lines), employing stanzas such as the sonnet, the lira, and the *estancia*.

Themes: Impossible love for a woman, nature, and mythology.

His style follows the characteristics of Petrarchism: introspection into his own feelings through serene and harmonious language.

Anonymous: *Lazarillo de Tormes* and the Picaresque Novel

Realistic Narrative: The Picaresque Novel

The stories of the era were often idealistic, featuring generally flat characters and aiming to entertain the reader.

Lazarillo de Tormes is a realistic narrative that credibly describes and critiques reality. It marks the beginning of the picaresque novel genre.

The novel offers a critique through a sample of the social reality of poverty, hunger, and marginalization experienced by many, in addition to questioning the religious and moral values of the time.

Lazarus is a clear anti-hero with psychological evolution. The story consists of a prologue, which justifies the narrator's purpose, and seven chapters.

• In the first three chapters, the protagonist recounts his childhood serving three different masters.
• In the last four, he settles down to serve several masters. As an adult, he enters the service of the Archpriest of San Salvador, who marries him to his maid to cover up his relations with her.

The narrative is critical and ironic. The language of *Lazarillo* is simple, direct, colloquial, and spontaneous, with popular features.

Lazarillo is considered the first modern novel today because it presents a plausible story with a realistic character who undergoes psychological evolution.

Cervantes: *Don Quixote* - The Modern Novel

Don Quixote de la Mancha was published in two parts: the first part, with 52 chapters, in 1605, and the second, with 74 chapters, in 1615, a year before Cervantes' death.

The novel follows the order of Don Quixote's three *salidas* (journeys) in search of adventure.

The main story narrates the adventures of the famous characters, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.