Spanish Literature

Article Outline

Introduction; The Early Period (1st Century Through 10th Century); Toward a National Literature (11th Century to 15th Century); The Renaissance in Spain (Early- and Mid-16th Century); Spanish Baroque and the Golden Age (Late 16th Through 17th Centuries); Political and Cultural Realignment (18th and 19th Centuries); Upheaval (Late 19th Century and 20th Century)

The Rise of Prose

One of the first achievements of the Golden Age was the creation of the picaresque novel—a narrative that recounts the life and adventures of pícaros (rascals). The prototype of this form is La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades (The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and his Fortunes and Adversities), which was published in 1554 in seven chapters. Although the author remains unknown, it became one of the most influential works in Spanish literature. La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes details the adventures of a young man named Lazarillo. After his father’s death Lazarillo is forced to make his own way in the world. Lazarillo serves several masters, including a blind beggar, a miserly clergyman, a penniless squire, and a vendor of indulgences (remission of punishment for sins). Each master stands as an example of society’s pitfalls, and each experience offers a severe critique of Spanish life. The organization of the Roman Catholic Church of that time was a specific target of criticism. Unlike the chivalric deeds and courtly love present in the literature of the previous centuries, La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes demonstrates how the human spirit survives in a hostile world by use of wit and trickery.

Disillusion also appeared in pastoral writings. In 1559 Jorge de Montemayor published his Los siete libros de la Diana (The Seven Books of Diana), the first pastoral novel written in Spanish. The characters in it are not happy individuals delighted by life in the countryside. Seeking love and suffering for it, Montemayor’s characters are portrayed as victims of irrational forces, such as emotion, destiny, and fate. Time and change are also enemies because they threaten the stability and constancy of life and love.

Don Quixote

The greatest figure of the Golden Age was Miguel de Cervantes, author of the novel El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha (Part I, 1605; Part II, 1615; The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of la Mancha). Don Quixote is generally considered the first great Western novel. Cervantes narrates the adventures of the main character, an aging man named Don Quixote, who is from a region of central Spain called La Mancha. Quixote is a member of the titled class, a group of noblemen created by the Catholic kings to promote unity and loyalty during the reconquest.

After reading too many novels about chivalry, Don Quixote loses his mind. Filled with ideas about medieval knights-errant, especially his favorite, Amadís of Gaul, he sets forth on a quest through the Spanish countryside with his companion Sancho Panza. In reality Sancho is an uneducated but practical country farmer, but in Don Quixote’s mind Sancho serves as his faithful squire. Don Quixote’s delusions are many. As he attempts to combat the world’s injustices, his imagination transforms windmills into giants, flocks of sheep into enemy armies, and country inns into castles. True to the chivalric model, Don Quixote dedicates his actions of valor to a noble love, whom he calls Dulcinea. But she is really a simple country girl. Individuals whom Don Quixote and Sancho Panza meet along their journey become, in Don Quixote’s mind, defenseless orphans, maidens, and widows whom they must befriend, help, and serve in the name of truth and beauty.

Experiments in Poetry

One of the most inventive poets of the baroque age, Luis de Góngora y Argote, experimented with language. Góngora used unusual word order, word invention, personal symbolism, descriptions of the five senses, and references to Greek and Roman mythology to capture the period’s instability. His style came to be known as gongorism or culturanism, because it captured the essence of the Spanish culture in forms, words, and symbols. Because of its complexity, Góngora’s work appealed to a small audience of educated elite during his lifetime. Two of Góngora's outstanding books are Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea (1627; Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea) and his unfinished masterpiece, Soledades (1627; Solitudes).

Another great baroque poet of the Golden Age was Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas. Quevedo wrote several novels and numerous essays, but his poetry stands out for its examination of ideas and concepts—specifically, the individual’s acceptance of human vice. His poetic works are filled with black humor and caricatures of society through which he expressed his alienation from and disappointment with the lofty ideals of the earlier pastoral poets.

Golden Age Drama

The term Golden Age is also applicable to great works written for the theater during the 17th century. All plays were written in verse, so a playwright had to be skilled in a variety of poetic forms. Of the many successful playwrights of the day, three stand out: Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, and Pedro Calderón de la Barca.

Lope de Vega was the most prolific of the Golden Age playwrights. He was also a well-known poet. Lope wrote hundreds of plays, often taking his themes and forms from popular and traditional literature. In his famous long poem, El arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este tiempo (1609; The New Art of Writing Comedies in this Time), Lope described the characteristics and techniques that he considered most important for the theater of his day. These included a rejection of the three unities of ancient classical theater—time, place, and action—in favor of more artistic freedom for the playwright and greater recognition of the tastes of his audience. Lope celebrated the traditional Spanish themes of religion, monarchy, and honor and almost always succeeded in combining tragedy and comedy in his plays.

Lope’s El caballero de Olmedo (1615?–1626?; The Knight of Olmedo) is set during the reign of King Juan II (1406-1454) and examines the actions of an idealistic, brave, poetic, and handsome hero, Alonso. Alonso’s sword cannot defend him from the bullet of his rival, and he dies. At the end of the play the king dispenses justice to the villains. The play’s power lies not in the complexities of character or action, but in the subtle opposition of love and death, sword and bullet, Renaissance ideals and baroque reality. The lively clashes and happy (or at least just) endings in his plays made Lope exceedingly popular in his day.

Tirso de Molina was known for his religious and historical plays. His most famous work is El burlador de Seville y el convidado de piedra (1630; The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest). In it Tirso gives life to the legendary lover and seducer, Don Juan Tenorio, who seduces the daughter of Seville's military commander and later kills the commander in a duel. In the end Don Juan is condemned to hell for his life of unbounded passion and pride before the laws of humans and God.

Calderón de la Barca’s most popular work, La vida es sueño (1635; Life is a Dream), depicts life as a dream from which we awaken only after death. This work, perhaps more than any other of its time, captures the disillusion of the baroque period and the intellectual and religious ethic of the Catholic Counter Reformation clashing with the ideals of the Renaissance. Later in his life, Calderón devoted himself to writing one-act allegorical plays that emphasized moral aspects of life. In these plays Calderón vividly personified abstract concepts of Roman Catholic theology, thus making them understandable to his audience. His allegorical play El gran teatro del mundo (1649; The Great Theater of the World) represents the world as a stage on which men and women are actors for a brief period of time.

Political and Cultural Realignment (18th and 19th Centuries)

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Before his death in 1700, and having no heirs, Spanish king Charles II decided to leave his throne to a grandnephew, Philip V, of the French royal family of Bourbon. This began a century-long rule of Bourbon kings in Spain. Philip united Spain and France politically, militarily, and culturally, and he also introduced the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment. These ideals arose from faith in the potential of human reason to solve, by means of education and scientific progress, all the problems of humanity and thereby transform society. Just as Renaissance beliefs in the power of individual human talents gave way to the confusion and complexities of the baroque period, a swing back to belief in the inherent goodness of humankind and in the capacity of human reason occurred during the Age of Enlightenment.

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The Rise of Prose

Don Quixote

Experiments in Poetry

Golden Age Drama

Political and Cultural Realignment (18th and 19th Centuries)