Spanish Golden Age: Renaissance and Baroque

• Jorge Manrique lived from 1440 to 1479.

• He was the author of Coplas a la muerte de su padre.

• He was a soldier and writer.

• Manrique hailed from an illustrious Castilian family.

• He was a precursor of Renaissance poetry in Spain.

• Garcilaso de la Vega lived from 1503 to 1536.

• He was the author of Soneto XIII and Soneto XXIII.

• He was a soldier and writer from a noble family.

• He traveled to Italy and encountered Renaissance culture.

• He married and fell in love with a Portuguese lady.

• His writing was influenced by unrequited love.

Spanish Renaissance (Golden Age)

• It emerged under the influence of the Italian Renaissance.
• Focused on humanism, anthropocentrism, and individualism.
• Classical and Italian models were imitated.
• Art with aesthetic intention, not moralizing, with care for form.
• Themes included love, nature, and mythology.

Spanish Baroque (Golden Age)

• It spanned the 16th and 17th centuries.
• It developed in Spain.
• It declined in politics, economy, and society, caused by multiple wars, economic crises, divisions among Christians, and the Inquisition.
• It was a period of profound instability, crisis, unrest, and pessimism.
• It experienced a return to theocentrism, where God is the center of existence.
• Characterized by the Counter-Reformation, which abandons the humanist vision and seeks relief in religion.
• It features frequent use of mockery, themes of escaping reality, a pursuit of the artificial, and the expression of anguish, pessimism, and decadence.
• There is a moralizing sense and complex texts with rhetorical figures, such as metaphors.
• Ornamentation is used to conceal something.
• Lyric poetry was a favorite genre of the period.
• Formal search was full of artifice, focusing on language.
• Renaissance stanzas continued to be used with new forms included.
• Notable authors included Luis de Góngora, Francisco de Quevedo, and Sor Juana de la Cruz.

Comparison Between Renaissance and Baroque

Renaissance

• Emphasis on the present (Carpe Diem).
• Anthropocentrism: exaltation of human beings.
• Exaltation of beauty, harmony, and balance.
• Optimism.
• Return to the classical.
• Coexistence of idealism and realism.

Baroque

• Fear of death and the transience of life.
• Theocentrism: devaluation of life and human beings.
• Grotesque and contrast.
• Pessimism.
• Mockery of the classical and Renaissance authors.
• Idealism.

Topics in Renaissance Poetry

• Carpe Diem: seizing the moment; the passage of time and the arrival of death.
• Locus Amenus: a pleasant and agreeable place, a beautiful or shaded natural setting.
• Beatus ille: happy is the one who appreciates the tranquility of the countryside.
• Aurea Mediocritas: the golden mean, finding satisfaction in simplicity, well-being, and a position free from envy.
• Descriptio Puellae: description of the beloved or a young woman, detailing the beauty of her hair, forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, and neck.

Topics in Baroque Poetry

• Tempus Fugit: the fleeting nature of time.
• Ubi Sunt: reflection on the whereabouts of those who have died and the destiny that awaits after death.
• Memento Mori: remember that death is inevitable.
• El muno al reves: the order of the world is altered.
• Homo homini lupus: alludes to the idea that humans are wolves to each other.
• Militia amoris: compares love and its components to a conflict.
• Fortuna Cambiante: reflects on the mutability of fate, which can be beneficial or the opposite.

Conceptismo

• It focuses on the expression of content.
• Key figures include Francisco de Quevedo and Loez de Vega.
• It employs a precise and concise literary language.
• Uses subtlety, wit, and wordplay.

Culteranismo

• It focuses on formal beauty.
• A key figure is Luis de Góngora.
• It uses beautiful, sensual, and artificial literary language.
• And ornate and exuberant language.
• It idealizes reality.

Rima (Rhyme)

• It is the repetition of a sound at the end of the verses of a poem.
• It is found from the last accented vowel of the verse.
• Consonante: sounds coincide from the last accented syllable.
• Asonante: only the vowels coincide.

Metrica (Metrics)

• The art of measuring the structure of verses, verse classes, and combinations to be formed.
• The grammatical count of syllables may differ from the poetic count.

Ley de Los Acentos Finales (Law of Final Accents)

Agudas (Acute)

• Stress on the last syllable.
• Add +1.
• Example: monopatín, ratón.
• Accented if ending in N, S, or vowel.

Grave (Grave)

• Stress on the penultimate syllable.
• Add +0.
• Example: árbol, silla.
• Accented if not ending in N or S.

Esdrújulas (Proparoxytone)

• Stress on the antepenultimate syllable.
• Subtract -1.
• Example: rápido, pájaro.
• Always accented.

Other Rules

• Es no es corazón es una máquina - Esdrújula.
• Yo sé un himno gigante y extraño - Grave.
• Hoja que del aról seca - Grave.
• Arrebata el vendaval - Aguda.

Licencias Poeticas (Poetic Licenses)

• Poets consider syllable division to fit verses to a determined meter.
• It implies an aesthetic intervention that considers rhyme, metrics, and rhythm. -Fuerte vowels: a, e, o
• Weak vowels: i, u, y

Sinalefa

• When merging the last syllable of a word ending in a vowel with the first syllable of the following word starting with a vowel or "h".
• A syllable is counted as one.
• The "h" and "y" do not prevent sinalefa.

Hiato

• It is when you choose not to apply sinalefa.
• Or, to separate two consecutive vowels in distinct syllables.
• All vowels must be strong.

Sineresis

• Breaking rules to complete required syllables.
• Forms a diphthong that does not exist or with open vowels.
• Joins two syllables that had a hiatus.

Dieresis

• It is when you break rules to complete the required number of syllables.
• Breaks a diphthong to have an extra syllable.

Steps for Counting Syllables

• Mark grammatical syllables joining found sinalefas.
• Apply the law of final accents, adding +1 in acute words and subtracting -1 in esdrújula words.
• Count the metric syllables.
• If an adjustment is needed, apply other poetic licenses such as Sineresis, Dieresis, or Hiato.

Hiperbole

• An exaggeration for expressive purposes to emphasize or minimize a feature.
• Example: "I love you to infinity and beyond."(Expresses never ending love).

Personificacion

• To attribute human properties to an inanimate object or animal.
• Example: "The clock screams the hour."

Anafora

• Consists of the rhythmic repetition of sounds or syllables within a verse or phrase.
• Example: "Here everything is known, here there are no secrets".

Hiperbaton

• The traditional order of the sentence is altered to allow for a more unique expression.
• Example: "If bad, do not remember", to refer to 'if I do not remember badly'.

Onomatopeya

• In the verbal representation of a sound.
• Example: "Miiiaaauuu! That's how the cat greeted me."

Sinestesia

• Attributed a sensation to an object to which it does not correspond.
• Example: "The bitter past I cannot forget".

Oximoron

• In the joint use of two terms or descriptions whose meanings contradict each other.
• Example: "Sometimes less is more."

Elipsis

• Avoid repeating unnecessary words to give greater emphasis to a segment.
• Example: "Want a hug." (The "he" is omitted).

Asyndeton

• Omitting a copulative nexus (y) within an enumeration or a context in which it would commonly be used.
• Example: "I think of you, of your smile, your gaze, of the chocolate-flavored kisses, you ran, you left, we got lost."

Polisindeton

• Contrary to the previous case, it incorporates an excess of copulative nexuses, generating a repetition in the phrase.
• Example: "Oh grand and fertile and magnetic slave", Pablo Neruda. The feminine figure is enhanced.

Metonimia

• Subsituting a word or image for another.
• There is a relationship of dependence or causality, relating the meanings of two terms due to causality, origin, or succession.
• Example: Twenty springs = years.
• Example: He drank a jerez = place where it is made.

Sinecdoque

• Designation of an object or whole with the name of one of its parts, or vice versa, designator that part with the name of the whole.
• Example:"Forty sails arrived" to speak ships. (part for the whole).

Simil

• The explict comparison of one things with another.
• Example: "White as snow."

Metafora

• Establishes a relationship of likeness between two terms.
• Causes a change in meaning which identifies two concepts between each other that have some kind of connection.
• Example: Your words are pearls of wisdom.
• Example: Laughter is the best medicine.
• Example: This place is a paradise.

Modernismo Latinoamericano (Latin American Modernism)

• A movement developed between 1880 and 1917.
• It emerged following the publication of Azul, a book of stories by Rubén Darío, in 1888.
• The movement spread across the continent.
• In 1898, Spain lost its last colonies.
• Modernist identity include issues of sex, space, and homosexual mestizos.

Modernismo Latinoamericano (Latin American Modernism) Characteristics

• Synthesizes Parnassianism and French Symbolism, seeking formal perfection.
• Flowing kisses.
• Mythology or exoticism and sensuality, employing senses such as hearing and smell.
• Long verses and free verse.

Modernismo Latinoamericano (Latin American Modernism) Themes

• Escapism and evasion of reality.
• It innovates poetry with free verse, rich language, and exotic themes
• Its elitism links to cosmopolitanism while searching for national themes.
• Love and the erotic are explored, including impossible love.

Generation of '98

Historical Context

• 1874 marked the restoration of the monarchy in Spain after the First Republic (1872-1873).

• Working-class and peasant sectors suffered greatly from the economic hardships.

• In 1898, Spain lost its last colonies, including Cuba and the Philippines.

• There was a feeling of national decadence.

• This generation proclaimed a need for renewal in various senses.

• They questioned the role of poetry in Spain on the modern stage, advocating for a more national consciousness and distancing themselves from classical realism.

Authors

• Miguel de Unamuno
• Pío Baroja
• Azorín
• Ramón María del Valle-Inclán
• Antonio Machado
• José Ortega y Gasset

Generation of '27

• It takes its name from the homage to Góngora in 1927, the 300th anniversary of his death.
• It comprised a group of Spanish poets influenced by European movements like Surrealism and Symbolism.
• It emerged during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923-1930).
• Continued into the Second Republic (1931-1939), and was affected by the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

Prominent Members

• Dámaso Alonso (1898-1990)
• Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)
• Jorge Guillén (1893-1984)
• Luis Cernuda (1902-1963)
• Pedro Salinas (1902-1999)
• Vicente Aleixandre (1898-1984)

Characteristics

• Traditional metrics and rhymes were rejected.

• They used free verse, basing rhythm on the repetition of lexical, phonetic, and syntactic elements.

• The frequent use of metaphors.

• Nature was viewed from an everyday perspective.

• Love was expressed through eroticism.

• Political themes were not present before the Civil War of 1936 but changed with the war.

• Rubén Darío (1867-1916) from Nicaragua had an interest in politics, traveled to various countries, and wrote in the style of symbolism and Parnassianism and wrote "Azul" in 1888"

• Luis Cernuda (1902-1963) from Seville, Andalusia, studied law, and was exiled from England and Mexico due to being gay.

• Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) from Andalucia was a writer or Peosia, Teatro and lived in Nueva York.

• Notable poems by Jorge Manrique are "Coplas a la muerte de su padre".

• Notable poems by Garcilaso de la Vega include "Soneto XIII" and "Soneto XXIII".

• Notable poems by Luis de Góngora include "Soneto CLXVI" and "A los celos".

• Notable poems by Francisco Quevedo include "A un hombre de gran nariz", "Definicion del amor".

• Notable poems by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz include "Este que vea, engano colorido", "Esta tarde, mi, bien cuando te hablaba".

• Notable poems include the following from :

• Delmira Agustini includes "El cisne", "El intruso", "Boca a boca".

• Rubén Darío includes "El cisne", "Yo persigo una forma que no encuentro".

• Antonio Machado includes "XXIX", "XLIV", "Sonto V", "Si yo fuera un poeta".

• Luis Cernuda includes "No decia Palabras", "Si el hombre pudiera decir lo que ama".

• Federico García Lorca includes "Qué ruido tan triste el que hacen dos cuerpos cuando se aman", "La guitarra".

• Cristina Peri Rossi includes "Romance sonámbulo", "Panorama ciego de Nueva York".

• Juan Gelman includes "No quisiera que lloviera", "Poderes".