Waubonsee Community College

Spain and the Western tradition, the Castilian mind in literature from El Cid to Calderón, Otis H. Green

eng

Includes bibliographies

no index present

non fiction

Spain and the Western tradition

bibliography

344886

Otis H. Green

Mack H. Singleton memorial collection

the Castilian mind in literature from El Cid to Calderón

The late Renaissance in Spain was a period of progressive military, diplomatic and social defeat, and the spirit of the Spaniards, moving from confidence to doubt, reflected a growing disillusion with grandeur. After an examination of optimism and pessimism in terms of the baroque period, Professor Green discusses 'desengaño' - dillusion - as a related and prevalent factor. In its positive aspect, disillusion was a form of wisdom, that the Stoic Sapiens who was fully aware of what constituted the supreme good and was enticed by nothing else. The factors are apparent in the Spanish attitude toward death. When he writes in seriousness, the Spaniard of the baroque period recognises death the obedient executor of the will of a just and merciful God. Thus, the concept of the Spanish seventeenth century as one of total despair collapses in the presence of the evidence adduced. Far removed from attitudes of despondency, the originality of Spain's literary accomplishments reached full tide in the baroque period, a literary age characterized by the growth of a new sophistication. The use of brilliant metaphor, of allegory, of double and triple meanings of words to form bridges of intellectual association, is the result of a consistent growth that developed inevitably from the Renaissance style. -- Publisher's description

v. 1 : The Medieval Tradition: Sic et Non -- Medieval Laughter: The Book of Good Love -- Courtly Love -- Courtly Love and Platonic Vision -- The Persisting Tradition -- Courtly and Platonic Love in the Baroque -- Truancy and Recantationv. 2 : The Creation and the Creatures -- Three Cosmological Problems -- Three Aspects of Nature -- The Nature and Destiny of Man -- Reason -- Free Will -- Forturne and Fatev. 3 : Symbos of Change -- Plus Ultra: Geographical Expansion -- Cultural Expansion: Castile Transplanted -- Politica Expansion: the Idea of Empire -- Ut Sapientior Fiat: Intellectual Expansion -- Ac Inde Melior: Religious Expansion -- Reply to the Devil's Advocate -- Religious and Ethical Orientation -- Spanish Belles-letres: From Inferiority to Equality -- Philosophy -- Optimism-Pessimism -- Literature and Societyv. 4 : From Universitas Christiana to Balance of Power -- Optimism-Pessimism in the Baroque -- Desengano -- Death -- Religion -- The New Sophistication -- Originality: The New Literary Genres