Through my Spanish essay I would like to express my view that, one of the most interesting things is to research about different kinds of people, culture, etc. The earlier works of the Spaniard (this is how the people of Spain are called as) found the existence of Castilian language earlier.
All the books were not written in this language. When there was Hispania (a name given to Iberian Peninsula by the Romans) the books were in Latin. Until 5th century they continued writing in Latin. Alfonso X who was the ruler and the person who believed to have started the Castilian language has written a book on the code of laws. His works include Fuero Real and Siete Partidas. He also composed a music called cantiqas de Santa Maria.
Another famous work was Cantar de Mio Cid written in 1140 but the identity of the author remains a mystery till now. This epic was written in assonance instead of rhyme. This consists of 3 parts which is known as cantos. The Mester de Julgaria is a form written in minstrels. These were done to educate the people through the poem. In 13th century Mester de Clericia became famous. It is composed of 14 syllabuses with consonantal rhyme. Spanish prose was popular in the middle of that century. El Conde Lucanor is a shorty story written by Don Juan Manuel who is the nephew of Alfhosa X (father of Spanish prose).
A famous lyricist who definitely needs a mention in any Spanish essay was Juan Ruiz. His only work was Libro de buen amor which has certain translated poems called serranillus. Poet Lopez de Mendoza became familiar with his works Dante and Petrarch. The last poet of this age was Jorge Manrique who wrote Coplas a la muerte de su padre which depicts the death of his father.
During the 15th century, pre – Renaissance occurred. Here the principal was to learn from the classical sources, the development in painting and the improvements in science. The features of renaissance include the following.
o Simplicity and the natural form of writing were given importance. Over stretched things were neglected.
o The preferred themes were love, pagan mythology, nature, etc.
o ‘Take advantage of the moment’ was a translation by carpe diem which speaks about the importance of the enjoyment of life before we get old.
o The beauty of life and the danger that came along with life were explained.
o The nature is also described in detail in many of the works.
The 17th century literature is called the Baroque. This is characterized by pessimism, pass time, dissolution and loss of acceptance of renaissance.
In 18th century 3 phrases are differentiated. They are
o Anti-baroquism until middle 17th century
o Neoclassicism upto 18th century
o Pre- romanticism 18th to 19th century
My Spanish essay has to stop here but the Spanish literature continued to romanticism and realism, were the objectives took the literature to the modern times.
