Man and Nature in Literature

Man and Nature

• Topics of nature are diverse and can be addressed in art and literature
• These themes can relate to human or mother nature
• Examples of topics include life, death, love, harmony, day, night, geography, weather, climate, and landscape
• Nature has gained importance and relevance in literary works throughout history
• Nature can function as a theme, context, or character

Literary Genres

• Poetry recreates nature topics, expressing personal feelings, and presenting classic themes like love, death, life, and nostalgia
• Romanticism is the most developed genre
• Narrative, through novels or stories, recreates situations where nature descriptions are prominent
• Chronicles became a developed literary genre for communication between conquerors and the Spanish crown during the conquest and colony

Literature of the Conquest (16th Century)

• This literature developed in New Spain after 1521
• The conquest was a period of violent changes and significant social, cultural, political, and religious transformations that shocked both indigenous peoples and Europeans

The Chronicle

• The chronicle is a genre that recounts events in a specific place and time, significant to a community
• Chronicles are objective, truthful, clear, accessible, and essential

Types of Chroniclers

• Military chroniclers include Hernán Cortés, whose letters to King Carlos V described landscapes and geography (epistolary genre)
• Descriptions of climates, flora, and fauna of each region were included
• Missionary chroniclers belonged to different religious orders such as Franciscans, Dominicans, and Servites
• Their tasks were to evangelize, Castilianize, alphabetize, teach trades, and civilize native inhabitants
• Some missionaries were Fray Bartolomé de las Casas and Fray Bernardino de Sahagún
• They described the geographic environment of each community they encountered
• They created the Theater of Evangelization

Literature of the 17th Century: The Baroque

• Born in Italy in the late 16th century
• Reached its peak during the 17th century in Spain and the Spanish colonies in America
• Characterized by an excess of adornments
• Baroque comes from "berrueco," or "irregular pearl"

Characteristics in Painting

• "Clara obscuro" technique was used and it presents complex and dramatic Compositions
• Religious motifs were common
• Diego Velázquez and El Greco were European representatives, while Cabrera, Villalpando, and Nicolás Rodríguez were New Spanish figures
• Monumental paintings were popular

Characteristics in Music

• Complex structures were common, and harmonies were elaborate, this involved counterpoint and multiple choirs
• Instruments such as harpsichords, oboes, harps, cellos, and organs were used
• Bach, Vivaldi, Pachelbel, Albinoni, and Gutiérrez de Padilla were notable representatives

Characteristics of Architecture

• There was a "fear of emptiness"
• Arabic influence manifested in pointed and trefoil arches
• Stipe and Solomonic columns were used with gold leafing
• Ornamental elements replaced functional ones

Characteristics of Literature

• Conceptismo and culteranismo emerged
• The language is considered more important than the content
• Abundant rhetorical figures were used, including metaphors, alliteration, personifications, antitheses, and hyperboles
• Sonnets were common
• Luis de Góngora, Quevedo, Lope de Vega, and Calderón de la Barca were Spanish authors, while Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Juan Ruiz de Alarcón were from Mexico (New Spain)

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

• Her real name was Juana de Asbaje
• Known as the Tenth Muse
• She tackled diverse themes, with a style was careful and polished and the themes were love, beauty, death, the fleeting nature of life, nature, religion, and philosophy
• She was a brilliant writer of the Mexican Baroque whose work spanned various genres, including lyric poetry, carols, plays, and essays
• She was considered a precursor of feminism

Fray Mento Redondillas

• Men, foolish as you are, who accuse/ women without reason,/ without seeing you're the cause/ of the very fault you criticize

Rhetorical Figures

• Metaphor transfers the meaning of a term with something in common
• "...Because at the end of my rough road..." (life)
• "The pearls of your mouth..." (teeth)
• "...and in the house two suns that speak without words..." (expressive eyes)
• Hyperbole is an exaggeration of terms with quantity or intensity
• "A thousand fires devour me..."
• "I love you so, so, so much, each day a little more..."
• Personification assigns human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, or plants
• "In the stirred air/ the moon moves its arms..."
• "The wind whispers your name..."

Romanticism

• It emerged in Germany in the late 18th century
• Started by a group of young people called Tormenta e ímpetu (Storm und Drang)
• It extended throughout Europe and America during the 1st half of the 19th century, artist and philosopher

Manifestations

• Beethoven and Chopin were musical figures
• Goya, Delacroix, and Friedrich appeared in painting
• Goethe, Lord Byron, Victor Hugo, José Zorrilla, and Edgar A. Poe were in European literature and North America

Characteristics

• It was a style of life and artists devoted themselves to their art
• Feelings predominated over reason
• Predominance of the "self," as Romanticism focused on itself and its freedom
• Freedom was the most appreciated value, with nature acting as a refuge or interpreter of feelings
• Poetry, stories, novels, short novels, and theater were prominent genres, with poetry being the most developed

Romantic Artists Are

• Inconformist, rebellious, masochistic, and individualistic
• Against institutions like work, government, family, school, and marriage
• Their loves are impossible: married women, engaged women, sick women, from another era, etc
• They have a tendency toward suicide

Representatives in Latin America

• Manuel Acuña, who was Mexican, took Romanticism to the extreme and committed suicide for love
• *Nocturne to Rosario
• Guillermo Prieto, who was Mexican, wrote poetry and journalistic essays and was a political activist
• He was inspired by events in the streets of Mexico, and Utilized the poetic form called romance (a poem that teaches a historical lesson)
• *Musa Callejera Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, who was Mexican, was a transitional author and passed from Romanticism to Realism
• His works always featured a historical setting
• *Clemencia (Romanticism) and El Zarco (Realism)

Realism

• It emerged in France in the second half of the 19th century
• Subsequently spread through Europe and America, becoming 19th and the beginning of the 20th literary movement
• Represents a reaction against melodrama of Romanticism
• Influenced by positivism of Augusto, Scientific method of Claude Bernard, Photographic cameras of Daguerre brothers

Characteristics

• Tends to be objective, with description as the primary resource
• Publication in a leaflet
• Novels, stories, and short novels are the genres, and there is no poetry
• Detailed descriptions
• Characters with similarities to reality used varied language
• Formal, informal, and popular styles are featured
• Sources include newspapers, observation of reality, and testimonies

Representatives

• Manuel Payno, who was a Mexican novelist, provided a precise portrait of 19th-century Mexican society, highlighting bandits and corruption
• His works are published in pamphlets
• *Los Bandidos de Riofrio
• Luis G. Inclán, who was a Mexican novelist, vindicated bandits
• His themes revolve around tobacco smuggling, charros, and their stories
• *Astucia
• Federico Gamboa, who was a mexican novelist, introduced Naturalism, describing the most crude aspects of human behavior
  • *Santa was influenced by the French writer Émile Zola, the creator of Naturalism