Spanish Renaissance Literature: Key Works and Authors

Petrarchism and its Influence

Petrarch's songs had a huge significance and a decisive influence on later lyrics, both for their subjects and their forms, to the point of constituting an entire style or way of making poetry that is called Petrarchism.

Spanish Poetry in the 15th and 16th Centuries

In the 15th century, there was both learned poetry and folk poetry. A good example of the first is court poetry and songs, which mainly used octosyllables. In the 16th century, both types of poetry continued. Learned poetry was influenced by the popular song.

Features of Italian Poetry in Spanish Literature

• Complete and thorough metric renovation in Spanish poetry.
• Major innovation: the hendecasyllable.
• Idealization of the beloved and intense expression of love.
• Development of bucolic and pastoral themes.
• Projection of the "lyrical I" in the verses.

Garcilaso de la Vega: A Defining Figure

Garcilaso de la Vega published his verses for the first time in 1543, through the widow of Juan Boscán. His works include:

• 8 coplas of traditional Castilian poetry
• 40 sonnets in the Italianate style
• 5 canciones
• 3 églogas
• 2 elegías
• 1 epístola

Characteristics of Garcilaso's Work

His work shows the influence of both America and the Renaissance. Poetic language and themes include locus amoenus, female beauty, and carpe diem.

Sonnets

Garcilaso's sonnets have a structure in which the contents are organized in related blocks. He usually aligns the sentences with the lines and the blocks of thought with the verses of the sonnet.

Canción III

Garcilaso wrote Canción III during his exile on an island in the Danube. It is his first foray into the locus amoenus. It aroused in him a sense of nature and foreshadows the sensual world of his Eclogues.

Lyric V

Entitled "Ode to the Flower of Cnidus," Lyric V departs from his previous works in both its meter and its content. The stanza used is the lyre. In it, Garcilaso tries to convince a lady from Naples to accept the love of a poet friend.

Theater in the 16th Century

In the first half of the 16th century, popular theater, inspired by Italian models, was represented in palaces. In the second half of the 16th century, in Seville, Juan de la Cueva became a precursor of the great theater of Lope de Vega thanks to the innovations he introduced in his works.

Lazarillo de Tormes: Plot and Structure

Lazarillo de Tormes consists of a prologue and seven tratados, or chapters, of very unequal length. It is presented in autobiographical form. The narrator writes to a certain "Your Grace," who has previously asked him to "write and tell him the case in great detail." The structural unit begins and ends with a reference to the "case." His father was a fugitive from justice. In his position as town crier, his mother "determines to side with the good."

Miguel de Cervantes: Master of Prose

La Galatea

La Galatea is a pastoral novel, a genre that had gained great prestige and enjoyed the favor of readers since the publication of Diana.

Novelas Ejemplares

Novelas Ejemplares is a collection of 12 short stories in which Cervantes deals with matters such as infidelity, jealousy, love, the acuity of insanity, and the picaresque.

Don Quixote

Part 1 of Don Quixote was published in 1605. At the end, Cervantes hints at the possibility of continuing the adventures of his knight.

Differences Between the Two Parts of Don Quixote

Part 1: Several stories are inserted that disrupt the central action (sentimental, pastoral, Moorish, psychological). The adventures are interwoven with some autonomy. Facts and action predominate. Don Quixote's fame grows.

Part 2 (1615): The few episodes that are outside the main story do not interrupt the main action. There is greater interaction between episodes and events. Dialogue appears more frequently, allowing for a deeper exploration of the psychology and knowledge of the protagonists. Part 1 serves as a novelistic contribution.

Don Quixote and Romances

Cervantes's original intention was to ridicule both the romances and the ideological world they represented.

Don Quixote: The Character

Don Quixote is touched by a strange kind of madness that only affects the theme of knighthood. In all other matters, he preserves his sanity and fair judgment.

Sancho Panza: The Counterpoint

Sancho is a peasant farmer, without much formal education but imbued with wisdom. He is the realistic counterpoint who warns his master of his madness.

Style in Don Quixote

The style of Don Quixote confirms Cervantes's absolute mastery of language and different styles. The author has a great command of storytelling and the use of the resources needed at each moment. He boasts irony and humor.