BAROQUE

INTRODUCTION

During the seventeenth century many travels continued through America, but the gold from well-filled boats coming had begun to vanish, and the situation of Spain, whose government was in hands of politicians and mediocre administrators, had started to concern.

At this time, people must unite the political and economic crisis (wars, riots); there was also a demographic crisis due to frequent pests and depopulation, consequences of these two mentioned before.

Pessimism and disappointment were reigning among the people, and these feelings were reflected in a new artistic and literary movement that had emerged. This movement was called Baroque, which survived throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century.

CHARACTERISTICS

•  Excessive use of rhetorical figures: metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, comparisons, etc.
•  Style full of contrast: beauty against ugly, love against hate, etc.
•  Novelty is wanted, to the point of falling into exaggeration to provoke admiration in the reader or whoever contemplates works.
•  Fascination with the expiration of life and death.
•  Conceptism: Usage of many ideas with the fewest possible words. (Word games, jokes).
•  Culturanism or Gongorism: The writers put more emphasis on form and aesthetics than content.

BAROQUE LITERATURE: CULTURANISM AND CONCEPTISM

Not all authors adopted the same attitude towards the problems of society at that time, or chose the same form of expression to show their concerns. So, when we talk about the baroque writers, we gather them according to the form of expression chosen by them in two literary styles: Culturanism and Conceptism.

WHAT`S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE TWO STYLES?

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•   The culteranos sought to create beauty enhancing all the resources that beautify the way; therefore, the style is complicated, full of literary figures (metaphors, hyperbole), cultured words, and mythological allusions. All this abundance of literary figures makes the language obscure and difficult to understand.                                                
•    This style was represented by Luis de Gongora.

• The conceptistas, on the contrary, were more concerned about the content. It was a deep and clever style that used the double sense and puns. They thought it was more important to say much using just a few words.                           
• This style was represented by Quevedo and Gracian.

ATTITUDES OF WRITERS

Given the baroque crisis, the writers reacted as follows:

•   Avoiding: They tried to ignore the reality of Spain in the seventeenth century. This was done by writing old glories of the past, or presenting an ideal world in which problems were solved effectively.
•   Satirizing the reality: They made fun of reality.
•   Stoically: They complained about the vanity of the world, the beauty and transience of life, and the transitory fame.
•   Moralizing: They criticized the flaws and put them as consistent models with the political and religious ideology of their time.

THEATER

It carried out the function of collecting and shaping the aspirations of the public, and in that sense had a moral purpose.

Lope de Vega created a new theatrical formula, called Teatro Nacional.

•           Mixed tragic with comic.
•           Used a rupture of the units of place and time.

These ideas were followed by Calderon de la Barca and Tirso de Molina.

LITERARY FORMS

Lyric

•          Love poetry
•          Moral and philosophical poetry
•          Religious poetry
•          Narrative poetry
•          Parodic and burlesque poetry

Narrative

•          Picaresque novel
•          Short novel
•          Costumbrist prose
•          Satirical prose
•          Doctrinal prose

Theater

•          Comedy: Funny pieces
•          Comedy: Tragic dramas
•          Comedy: Tragicomedy
•          Auto sacramental
•          Short genders

MOST REMARKABLE AUTHORS

Luis de Gòngora y Argote (1561-1627): Great poet and dramatist, who in his time was already recognized as such. He was the greatest exponent of the literary movement known as "Culeranism" or "Gongorism".

Works:

•         "Angelica y Medoro"
•          "Fabulas de Piramo y Tisbe"
•          "Fabulas de Polifemo y Galatea"
•          "Soledades"

Theater:

•          "Las Firmezas de Isabela"
•          "La Comedia Venatoria"
•          "El Doctor Carlino"

Lope de Vega (1562-1635): One of the top rated poets and dramatists at that time and one of the greatest exponents of Baroque Theater. He wrote works of all kinds.

Narrative Works:

•          "Los Locos de Valencia"
•          "El Peregrino en su Patria"
•          "Pastores de Belén"
•          "La Dorotea"

Lyrical Works:

•         "Los Romances"
•         "La Vega del Parnaso"
•         "Rimas"
•         "Rimas Sacras"
•         "La Filomena"

Baltasar Graciàn (1601-1658): Great writer who worked didactic prose and philosophy. He worked with the conceptist literature.

Works:

•          "El Hèroe"
•          "El Politico"
•          "El Discreto"
•          "El Criticón" (His masterpiece)

Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645): Noble, politician and one of the most important writers of the Spanish literature. He was an incredible prose writer, and wrote many works of different types.
He was known as the "rival" of Luis de Gongora.

Works & Types:

• Politics: "Política de Dios", "Gobierno de Cristo"
• Ascetic: "Providencia de Dios"
• Philosophical: "La Cuna y La Sepultura", "Desengaño de Las Cosas Ajenas"
• Literary Criticism: "La Aguja de Navegar Cultos con la Receta para hacer Soledades en un Día"
• Festival Works: "Cartas del Caballero de la Tenaza"
• Moral-Satirical Works: "Los Sueños"
• His masterpiece was: "El Buscòn".

Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681): Soldier, writer, poet and dramatist. He mostly wrote dramatic works.

Works & Types:

• Outstanding dramatic pieces:

o   "Amor, Honor y Poder"

o   "La Dama Duende"

o   "La Vida es Sueño"

• Comedy:

o   "El Conde Lucanor"

o   "La Señora y la Criada"

• Theater:

o   "Entremeses de Don Pegote"

o   "Baile de los Zagales"

• Auto Sacramental:

o   "A Dios por Razón de Estado"

o   "Indulto General"

o   "El Socorro General"