Spanish Literary Evolution: From Medieval Verse to Baroque Prose

Literary Movements and Key Works

15th Century Poetry

• Cancionero Poetry

  Conceived as a courtly love game within literature, where the poet assumed the role of a servant to his lady, directing verses adorned with ingenuity and conceptual development.

• Allegorical Poetry

  Addressed philosophical themes such as wealth, fame, or death, developed with a high and often artificial style.

• Notable 15th Century Poets

  Most important 15th-century poets include Jorge Manrique and Fernando de Rojas.

• Early Drama: La Celestina

  Fernando de Rojas's dramatic dialogue, often considered a precursor to the novel, featuring complex characters and themes.

Renaissance Poetry

• Stylistic Characteristics

  Based on simplicity and clarity of expression, pursuing the naturalness of spoken language forms. Features incorporated into Spanish literature included hendecasyllable verse stanzas and original compositions, alongside adaptations of Italian poetry.

• Thematic Revival

  Classical themes were recovered, treating love and nature, and revitalizing idealized Greco-Roman myths.

The Picaresque Novel

• Lazarillo de Tormes: A Foundational Work

  This foundational work of the picaresque novel features an autobiographical presentation and develops realistic action in a specific time and place.

Baroque Literature

• Stylistic Trends in Baroque Literature

  • Culteranismo: Formal Beauty and Artificial Language

    Sought formal beauty through the extensive use of learned words and the creation of an artificial, ornate language.

  • Conceptismo: Ingenuity, Irony, and Wordplay

    Relied on ingenuity and wit, frequently employing irony, paradox, and complex wordplay.

• Don Quixote's Enduring Significance

  The importance of Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote in the history of the novel lies in its exploration of the clash between fiction and reality.

• Lope de Vega's Theatrical Innovations

  His theatrical formula included the division of plays into three acts instead of five, a mixture of tragic and comic elements, and a deliberate breaking of the unities of time and place. Metrics were adapted to situations, and expressive decorum was emphasized.

Neoclassical Literature

• Core Principles of Neoclassicism

  Literary creation was governed by reason, which guided the critical spirit of writers towards the world around them. Literature was expected to have a didactic purpose.

• Stylistic Goals: Clarity and Appropriateness

  Authors conformed to classical precepts, and the style pursued clarity and appropriateness.

Key Literary Terms

• Metaphor

  Applied to one reality on behalf of another with which it shares a similarity.

• Metonymy

  Applying to one reality the name of another with which it has a close relationship.

• Lexical Field

  Words organized into groups based on their meaning.

• Semantic Field

  Words belonging to the same grammatical category that share a basic meaning but differ from each other by a specific trait.