Neoclassicism Of The Spanish Literature

INTRODUCTION

Neoclassicism was introduced in the overview of the literature in the late seventeenth century and early eighteenth century as artistic correspondence to the semantic dictates and rationalist ideology established by the Enlightenment.

In literature, it seeks to moderate expression
of emotions, and emulate classic standards
and rules (set by current archaeological discoveries of this period).

It is based on the classic style in Europe inherited
cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. Writer
imitate the ancient classical authors such as Virgil,
Horace and Ovid and its boom extended from
the reign of Ferdinand VI until well into the 
nineteenth century.

CHARACTERISTICS

General:

 Verisimilitude, everything that happens has to be possible, as omitted not only the unusual and abnormal, but also the everyday.

Imitation of human nature, but only on the good side of it, because the literature had a moral function.

Internal decorum. The characters should remain unshakable and behave in the same way from beginning to end.

External decorum. To respect the moral laws of the society.

Moral and didactic function. Also to move and please the public.

The art must be a totalitarian synthesis between the beautiful and the useful.

Rules and order were essential for literary creation.

Literary creation supposedly became simple and natural.

The main principles are: imitation, symmetry, coldness and stiffness.

In Poetry: 

Spanish Influence, XVIII Century (mainly Quintana, Meléndez Valdés, Cienfuegos and Cadalso).

Influence of the Masters of the Latin Antiquity, (Virgilio, Horacio, Ovidio and Lucrecio).

Poetry with light content on the subject of love. 

Civil Poetry on progress and science.

Rebirth of the Fables, Epigram and other festive and moralizing compositions.

Rise of Patriotic Poetry, as heroic odes and hymns, on the fact of war of independence.

In Prose:

Emergence of the political, social and economic newspaper, as a means of dissemination of new ideas and revolutionary spirit.

Preference for essays, proclamations, stories and speeches.

Birth of Hispanic American Realistic Novel in México.

MAIN AUTHORS

• José Cadalso: is a fundamental author of the Spanish literature of the eighteenth century. In his career and work converge the salient features of the Enlightenment. Militar with a pacific spirit, he was able to combine the critical sense of the Moroccan Letters to the sensationalism of rococo poetry, the concern about patriotism with the exaltation of pleasure, The most orthodox Neoclassicism in his theater texts like the Mournful Nights announcing Romanticism, the sense of parody and polemics with the desire to share friendship ...all in a sober and exemplary Castilian.

Most Important Work: The Moroccan Letters (Cartas Marruecas):  is a collection of ninety letters from three correspondents: Gazel a Moroccan who travels by Spain and writes about what he sees his master Ben - Beley, still in Africa: Nuño is a Spanish middle-aged, with whom Gazel has befriended.

He is a universal citizen who Cadalso identifies with:  is progressive and loves his country, is Christian, honest and has a disenchanted view of the world and a lack of hope corresponds to his contemporaries. 

With these letters Cadalso intends to make a "critique of the nation", to grasp the essence of the problems that have made their country be, in his own words "the skeleton of a giant."



From Gazel to Ben-Beley: "He logrado quedarme en España después del regreso de nuestro embajador, como lo deseaba muchos días ha, y te lo escribí varias veces durante su mansión en Madrid. Mi ánimo era viajar con utilidad, y este objeto no puede siempre lograrse en la comitiva de los grandes señores, particularmente asiáticos y africanos. Éstos no ven, digámoslo así, sino la superficie de la tierra por donde pasan; su fausto, los ningunos antecedentes por donde indagar las cosas dignas de conocerse, el número de sus criados, la ignorancia de las lenguas, lo sospechosos que deben ser en los países por donde caminan, y otros motivos, les impiden muchos medios que se ofrecen al particular que viaja con menos nota."

"Me hallo vestido como estos cristianos,introducido en muchas de sus casas, poseyendo su idioma, y en amistad muy estrecha con un cristiano llamado Nuño Núñez, que es hombre que ha pasado por muchas vicisitudes de la suerte, carreras y métodos de vida. Se halla ahora separado del mundo y, según su expresión, encarcelado dentro de sí mismo. En su compañía se me pasan con gusto las horas, porque procura instruirme en todo lo que pregunto; y lo hace con tanta sinceridad, que algunas veces me dice: <<De eso no entiendo>>; y otras >>De eso no quiero entender>>. Con estas proporciones hago ánimo de examinar no sólo la corte, sino todas las provincias de la Península. Observaré las costumbres de este pueblo, notando las que le son comunes con las de otros países de Europa, y las que le son peculiares. Procuraré despojarme de muchas preocupaciones que tenemos los moros contra los cristianos, y particularmente contra los españoles. Notaré todo lo que me sorprenda, para tratar de ello con Nuño y después participártelo con el juicio que sobre ello haya formado".

• Leandro Fernández de Moratín: dramatist and poet, the most influential Neoclassic literary figure of the Spanish Enlightenment. He was a secretary of Cabarrús. He kept friendship with Jovellanos and like him, he was a defender of the ideas of the Enlightenment, which it costs him some exile.He was in France, Italy and England, where he was influenced by the latests theatrical movements. His most important threatical works are: La Comedia Nueva o El Café (1792) and El Sí De Las Niñas (1806).

Most Important Work: El Sí De Las Niñas (1806): it's the first work of the Spanish Literature that deals with such important matters like "marriages of convenience, submission of children to their parents' authority,as far as decisions on marital unions concerned.

El Sí de las Niñas elapses in a living room with many doors of a hostal in Alcalá de Henares. The action starts at 7 in the afternoon and ends at 5 in the morning on the next day. 

Acto III- Escena VIII: 

"Ve aquí los frutos de la educación. Esto es lo que se llama criar bien a una niña: enseñarla a que desmienta y oculte las pasiones más inocentes con una pérfida disimulación. Las juzgan honestas luego que las ven instruidas en el arte de callar y mentir. Se obstinan en que el temperamento, la edad ni el genio no han de tener influencia alguna en sus inclinaciones, o en que su voluntad ha de torcerse al capricho de quien las gobierna. Todo se las permite, menos la sinceridad".

Acto I- Escena IX:

"¡Qué bobería! Desengáñese usted, señorita. Con los hombres y las mujeres sucede lo mismo que con los melones de Añover. Hay de todo; la dificultad está en saber escogerlos".

Acto II- Escena V:

"Pues, ¿Cuántas veces vemos matrimonios infelices, uniones monstruosas, verificadas solamente porque un padre tonto se metió a mandar lo que no debiera?... ¿Cuántas veces una desdichada mujer halla anticipada la muerte en el encierro de un claustro, porque su madre o su tío se empeñaron en regalar a Dios lo que Dios no quería?".

• Benito Jerónimo Feijoo: a member of the Benedict order, he taught philosophy and theology, at the University of Oviedo.
  
  His essays publicized and encouraged the spread of the new scientific knowledge and exalted reason. His two principal works, Teatro Crítico Universal (1726-39) and Cartas Eruditas y Curiosas (1742-60), deal with an encyclopaedic variety of subjects: natural science, education, law, medicine, philology, and popular beliefs or superstitions.

Most Important Work: Teatro Crítico Universal (1726-39): An eight-volume work published between 1726 and 1739 which sets out the thinking of monk Benito Jerónimo Feijoo y Montenegro.

The author used a old meaning of the term theatre for the title. Understood as a panorama or general vision of things. As the subtitle states, it offers "Different discourses on all types of issues to correct common errors". The monk writes and reflects on highly diverse topics in the work. It includes issues related to love, science, religion, everyday events, war, great thinkers or magical arts. All with a desire to provide a general view of these aspects to general readers.

• Juan Antonio Meléndez Valdés: poet and politician.The representative poet of the Spanish Neoclassic Period, he is considered by many critics to be the only genuinely readable poet of that period. He is best known for sensual, often eroic, poems written in good taste. Known for his work Besos de mi Amor, which was an eroic poem.

Most Important Work: Besos de mi Amor:

"Cuando mi blanda nise

lasciva me rodea

con sus nevados brazos

y mil veces me besa,

cuando a mi ardiente boca

su dulce labio aprieta,

tan del placer rendida

que casi a hablar no acierta,

y yo por alentarla

corro con mano inquieta

de su nevado vientre

las partes más secretas,

  y ella entre dulces ayes

se mueve más y alterna

ternuras y suspiros

con balbuciente lengua,

ora hijito me llama,

ya que cese me ruega,

ya al besarme me muerde,

y moviéndose anhela,

entonces, ¡ay!, si alguno

contó del mar la arena,

cuente, cuente, las glorias

en que el amor me anega".

CONCLUSION

The Spanish literature of the eighteenth century, broadly speaking, is governed by a set of guidelines that mimic Greco-Roman culture, any signs of unusual behavior elusive and is used as a teaching resource on a large scale.

In this century great scientific discoveries occurred and progressed remarkably in philosophy and moral doctrines, since affirming the ideals of the Enlightenment.

They were largely triggered subsequent social revolutions that behaved the end of the Old Regime.

In the literature this is reflected in the many criticisms and satires of values ​​and customs, in secularism, in questioning the power of the absolute monarchies and the demands of people's participation in politics.

Its essential mission is to spread the truth, to the detriment of feelings in poetry, imagination in novel and theater education is encouraged.