BAROQUE LITERATURE: CHARACTERISTICS, AUTHORS AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2024

The literature of the Baroque is the literary manifestation that took place in Europe just after the Renaissance and coinciding with the so - called Spanish Golden Age. It is there, in Spain, where this trend had its greatest splendor and development.

Baroque literature is subject to the general movement that gives it its name (Baroque) and which covers not only letters, but also a broad compendium of artistic manifestations. This literary expression also coincides with the so-called Catholic Counter-Reformation, and in a certain way it serves as a pillar in his discursive apparatus.

Luis de Gógora. Workshop of Diego Velázquez, via Wikimedia Commons

The common themes of the literature of Romanticism used to be life and its constant change, the fleeting nature of the human being, pain and suffering. Man and his existence, his impact on other beings and things, is the epicenter of the works of the most representative authors.

Baroque literature is considered, in part, an overloaded, ostentatious style, abusive in the use of literary devices such as metaphor or antithesis. This movement arises at a time of many social, political, economic and existential tensions.

This chaotic situation led the authors to express themselves, to talk about the sorrow of miseries, the plague, the inequality between classes, and the relief that religiosity means.

It is possible to say that there could not have been a better environment, better conditions for the development of this literary trend. Those themes used by the writers were the breeding ground for hundreds of works, the solid foundations that allowed the clear argumentation of the Baroque movement.

Origin

The first expressions written with literary elements considered clearly baroque were carried out in England, Italy and France.

In England

By the end of the 16th century, a well-marked demonstration of what would later be considered baroque literature was seen in English literature.

John Lyly was the main and first major exponent in Anglo-Saxon lands. His work Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit, in 1578, perfectly adheres to the baroque parameters.

In this work, John Lyly makes an exaggerated use of bombastic terms. An exaggerated aestheticism is appreciated, highly charged, although well elaborated, with a grotesque tendency to the artificial.

Based on that particular work of Lyly, Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit, and his remarkable style, a name is given to what would be a precursor sub-movement of the Baroque and an important part of it: Eufuism.

In France

For their part, in France, in the late sixteenth and early and mid seventeenth centuries, Parisians developed an exaggerated taste for good manners and refinement.

This behavior came as a response to the vulgarities perceived by society in Henry IV and his court. This movement was called "Preciosismo".

In all areas of the social behavior of Parisians, they bet on elegance, fine. With regard to language and letters, France had as its main exponent Claude Favre, who published in 1647 his renowned work: Remarques sur la langue française, useful à ceux qui veulent bien parler et bien écrire.

In this work, the author highlights the necessary good use that must be given to each word in the French language.

In Italy

There, particularly, the trend was very similar to the English one. Giovanni Battista Marini, a Neapolitan writer with an immense literary production, was in charge of laying the foundations for Baroque in the Italian peninsula.

In the style of this Neapolitan, brimming with hyperbole, metaphors and antitheses, it was called "marinism." It was characterized by a subtle handling of excessive and exaggerated literary forms. His poetry, with more than 40 thousand verses, was highly descriptive and focused on astonishing the reader.

It is practically this English-French-Italian trinomial that gives rise to the birth of the Baroque as a movement. It is important to note that the term "Baroque" was designated after the culmination of the period, and was coined in a derogatory way: grotesque works, exaggerated without a deep and real meaning.

Miguel de Cervantes and Saavedra. By Juan de Jauregui y Aguilar (circa 1583 - 1641) (The Bridgeman Art Library, Object 108073), via Wikimedia Commons

characteristics

It arises from the crisis of the Renaissance

As is common throughout the history of man, each trend, each current of thought generates other manifestations. The Renaissance and the Baroque do not escape from that reality, they are more than held by fine threads. The links between the two streams are wide and complex.

After the wear and tear of the Renaissance structure, stylized and overloaded proposals emerged from the crisis, which would later be baptized as Baroque.

There is a need for expansion that is satisfied through the new paths that the emerging trend brings with it.

His name was later coined and is pejorative

The term "Baroque" was coined during Romanticism, when the manifestations whose aesthetics were typical of this movement had diminished. This term, etymologically speaking, comes from the Portuguese word baroque, which means "irregular or deformed pearl".

It is more than evident that those who used that word sought to brand as "grotesque" or "amorphous" the manifestations of this literary trend.

There were plenty of reasons to classify the movement as exaggerated, however the constant use of rhetoric allowed a deepening and refinement of this resource.

It was a literary movement of an ideological nature, rather than a formal one

Although there is evidence of an exaggerated use and management of formal resources in writing, it is impossible to obscure the ideological charge that Baroque literature possesses.

The works of the writers, due to the various crises that were manifested in the context of production, show a marked subjection to religious conceptions of the Catholic order.

There is an attachment to the Counter-Reformation, a support for the devotional machinery that the pontifical meant at that time.

Magnifies the Renaissance, but focused on regret

The themes of the Renaissance are not left aside, on the contrary, they are taken in full decadence and widened, exaggerated. The crisis in which the European peoples were plunged at that time revealed the worst of the human race in the streets.

Plagues, hunger, laziness, begging, were the daily bread. These realities did not escape the pen of the writers. Such was the influence that the vast majority of authors used their pen in pursuit of exposing the worst of the species. The reluctance could be breathed in a large number of works.

Life was considered a total lie, while the truth, with its harshness and sadness, was hidden under the polished surface shine that the elites make the unwary see.

Touch faith and spirituality as bastions of man

As there is marked support for everything concerning the defense of the Catholic Church with respect to the Protestant reform initiated by Luther and Calvin, the presence of aspects of a spiritual nature in literary productions is notorious.

These themes responded, in many cases, more to the security that the church could provide in those moments of crisis than to wanting to provide peace of mind through faith to the readers. The writers, human at last, sought their survival.

It is considered a renewing current

Baroque literature came loaded with great innovations in terms of modes and techniques. This is reflected and spread throughout Europe by the hand of the Counter-Reformation. Particularly in Spain there is a broader growth compared to the rest of European countries.

Spanish writers absorbed the literary manifestations of neighboring countries and adjusted them to their language. Those linguistic adaptations, or Spanishizations, gave way to new stanzas for their culture. The triplet was used to a great extent, in conjunction with the sonnet, the quatrain and the redondilla.

As never before in Spanish culture there has been an unbridled increase in the use of bombastic terminologies. It starts from Renaissance classicism from which a renewal was generated through the enhancement of rhetorical resources.

Break with the stability of rebirth

The Renaissance was characterized by the calm and serenity of its literary proposals, everything tended to balance. When the Baroque erupted, there was a destabilization and a conflict was entered between the aesthetic and the formal.

This characteristic is evident throughout all of Europe, having a different development in each country, adjusted, of course, to each production context.

Resource abuse was part of the norm

This becomes one of the most common characteristics present in the literature of this period, especially by the so-called “culteranos”.

Exaggeration is the order of the day in every literary genre. Unbridled adjectives, as well as the use of antithesis, metaphor and whatever rhetorical device was possible to overload a work, were applied.

Culteranos and conceptistas, two well-marked trends

It is a gross error to think that the literary manifestation of the Baroque was homogeneous, nothing could be further from reality. The writers of this time took different attitudes regarding the context in which they lived.

However, within the literary creations that were given there are common aspects in a great majority that allowed them to be organized into two groups: the culteranos and the conceptistas.

Culterans

Their perception of beauty is linked to the enhancement of the qualities of the object or being to be beautified. These writers made notable use of hyperbole and metaphors in their works.

In the same way they resorted to mythology, intermingling it with other aspects that, in certain cases, make it dark and make it difficult to understand. Luis de Góngora is considered one of the great exponents of this style.

Conceptists

These writers, for their part, focused on content, primarily. His way of covering literature is more ingenious and profound, making the most of the duality in the significance of certain words, therefore the presence of double meanings is perceived in his works.

Conceptists tended to express more complex ideas in a few words. They had the quality that by dealing with superfluous topics, they managed to give him notoriety by tackling them in a splendid way. Francisco de Quevedo or Calderón de la Barca are considered one of the most prominent exponents of this literary style.

Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Lázaro Galdiano Museum, via Wikimedia Commons

Literary genres

Within the literary genres of the Baroque, the following stand out:

Baroque poetry

Due to the already hopeless context, poetry became one of the literary forms most exploited by the writers of that period. The expression of feelings takes special notoriety.

Each author made use of the resources and forms best suited to their interests, the cultured forms of poetry being the most recurrent. These are clearly appreciated within the culteranas and conceptistas works. Eclogues, tenths, sonnets, among many other poetic forms, were abundant.

Popular poetry is also evident at that time, full of themes of love and disappointment, with a less deep and more digestible content. It is addressed to the masses, to the people.

Baroque prose

If there is a place worthy of being considered the forerunner of Baroque prose, it was Spain. The coincidence of the Baroque with the Spanish Golden Age allowed an unprecedented creative boiling point in prose.

Written productions like the novel were of great importance in those years. Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra was one of the greatest exponents.

By then there are two notable novelistic forms: the picaresque, where the protagonist is from the common people and shows the hardships that the poor live; and the courtesan, aimed at showing the luxuries, outrages and eccentricities of the wealthy of the time.

The baroque theater

The theatrical text was one of the genres with the greatest impact during the Baroque, because it reached the population directly and explicitly without distinction of strata.

Representations with religious, mythological, and historical connotations were very common. The authors always sought to grace themselves with the leaders and pontiffs on duty, while entertaining the people, in order to win favors in return.

Well-organized theater companies developed, born out of traveling theaters in the streets. These exposed freer and more popular themes, weighed down from the common topics of the courts and the church. Among its great representatives, Lope de Vega stands out.

Authors and outstanding works

Luis de Góngora y Argote (1562-1627)

Outstanding works:

- The Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea (1612).

- The Solitudes (1613).

- Fable of Pyramus and Thisbe (1618).

Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645)

Outstanding works:

- Speech of all devils or amended hell (1628).

- History of the life of the Buscón called Don Pablos; example of vagamundos and mirror of stingy (1626).

- The Court of Just Revenge (1635).

María de Zayas (1590-1661?)

Outstanding works:

- Romance and exemplary novels (1637).

- Novels and saraos (1647).

- Love disappointments in (1649).

Felix Lope de Vega Carpio (1562-1635)

Outstanding works:

- The beauty of Angelica, with various other rhymes (1602).

- La Dorotea (1632).

- The Gatomaquia (1634).

Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681)

Outstanding works:

- Love, honor and power (1623).

- The mayor of Zalamea (1651).

- To God for reasons of state (1650–1660).

Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra (1547-1616)

Outstanding works:

- La Galatea (1585)

- The ingenious gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605)

- The ingenious knight Don Quixote de la Mancha (1615)

References

1. Baroque Literature. (2014). Baroque Classicism. Spain: Baroque classicism. Recovered from: barcoclasicismo.wordpress.com
2. Acosta Gómez, I. (2018) Reflections on Baroque literature. Cuba: Eumed. Recovered from: eumed.net
3. Baroque literature. (2012). Spain: Encyclopedia. Recovered from: encyclopedia.us.es
4. Harlan, C. (2017). Baroque Literature. (N / a): About Español. Recovered from: aboutespanol.com
5. Baroque Literature. (S. f.). (N / a): Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org