Spanish Literature Movements

Flashcards for vocabulary related to different literary and artistic movements, based on lecture notes.

El Naturalismo

Literary movement that seeks to document reality with clinical precision, prioritizing observation over imagination and detailing real life, even its most brutal aspects. An extreme form of realism based on determinism, primarily found in narrative.

El Neoclasicismo

Movement dominating the 18th century, characterized by limited creation, formalism that imitates the classics, and thematic coldness. Reason prevails over human sentiments, rejecting the literary creation of the Baroque and seeking simplicity of expression.

El Progresismo

Ideology that embraces social and political advancement, believing that the future will bring happiness through sociopolitical solutions.

El Realismo

Aims to capture life as it is, striving for objectivity. Characterized by photographic reproduction, even in colloquial language, opposing idealism and romanticism. Predominant in 19th-century narrative, its extreme form is naturalism.

El Realismo Mágico

Objective reality coexists with fantastic and unusual elements. It presumes a variety of Hispano-American cultural perspectives, including indigenous, Afro-Caribbean, Oriental, and European. A narrative trend from the mid-20th century.

El Renacimiento

Historical period following the Middle Ages and preceding the Baroque. In Spain, it coincides with the first part of the Golden Age. It begins with Spanish unity under the Catholic Monarchs and lasts until the end of the 16th century. Italian metric forms are introduced, literary production increases and spreads throughout Europe, and classical values and themes predominate.

El Romanticismo

The romantic affirms their ego and the political liberalism of the 18th century. Seeks authentic inspiration in their own sensibility and imagination, feeling misunderstood and unique. Returns to the medieval past, characterized by sadness and discouragement, but embraces life with zeal, savoring their pain. Arises as a reaction to neoclassicism, dominating Europe in the first half of the 19th century.

El Siglo de Oro

Also called the Golden Age, coinciding with the Renaissance and the peak of Spanish imperial splendor. A time of brilliant literary production characterized by classicism and a religious, idealistic, and patriotic spirit. Closes with the political decline of Spain at the end of the 17th century.

El Vanguardismo

Aims to break with the past, experimenting with original themes and techniques and creating lyrics with strong visual and auditory values. Always unorthodox, it continuously seeks to surprise. A trend following romanticism, realism, and naturalism, born in the 19th century. Modernism is one of its manifestations.

El Barroco

Also called the Baroque Age or Era (the 17th century); characterized by an overabundance of ornamental elements. Beauty is found in complexity, with convoluted expression, accessory elements, metaphors, and wordplay. In Hispanic literature, its two aspects are conceptismo and culteranismo.

El Clasicismo

Renaissance trend based on the Greco-Latin tradition. Believes that the human being is the measure of all things. Beauty is found in proportion and harmony.

El Conceptismo

Baroque phenomenon that predominates in prose; seeks to renew ideas, not syntax or lexis; attempts to express ideas with minimal words and a biting sense of humor; beauty lies in ingenuity and subtlety of concepts. Characterized by plays on words, antithesis, abnormal metaphors, abrupt transitions, and puns.

El Costumbrismo

Literary trend that reflects the customs of a country or region, predominantly in narrative.

El Culteranismo

Baroque phenomenon that predominates in poetry; seeks to renew syntax and lexis, not ideas; seeks melody of language and originality of the word, preferring Latinisms; beauty lies in intensifying the classical values of the Renaissance; attempts to achieve brilliant and surprising metaphors and analogies.

El Determinismo

Ideology that argues that every event is the result of causality; heredity and environment determine everything; nothing depends on human will; freedom is only an appearance; philosophical basis of naturalism.

El Existencialismo

Philosophy that places the individual at the center of existence; characterized by subjectivism and despair with respect to God, the world, and society; the existent feels alone and without essence; absolute freedom and anguish stand out.

El Gongorismo

Another name given to culteranismo, as Góngora is its greatest exponent.

El Idealismo

Tendency to idealize reality; the opposite pole of realism and naturalism; conceives the world of ideas as true, as opposed to the material world we perceive with our senses; Platonic philosophy embraced by romanticism and modernism.

El Medioevo

Also called the Middle Ages; the millennium between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance; revived and renewed by romanticism and modernism of the 19th century, which want to revalue the language of the Middle Ages, the great national epics, and chivalrous and oriental themes, to break free from classical forms and themes.

El Modernismo

Characterized by brilliant and exquisite lyrics, of great color and sensual quality; based on the idea of art for art's sake; metric innovations, exotic medieval and oriental themes, and originality of the word predominate; a trend of freedom and enthusiasm for beauty; born in Hispanic America at the end of the 19th century and lasts until the first decades of the 20th century; influenced by the renewing trends of French symbolism, impressionism, and Parnassianism.