8 outstanding characteristics of BAROQUE LITERATURE [full SUMMARY!]

In Europe, baroque literature took place during the XVII century and it was a reaction to the Renaissance literature of the 16th century that was so successful in the first part of the so-called Spanish Golden Age. The Baroque was an aesthetic trend in which it was committed to ornamentation, the search for aesthetic pleasure and the creation of emotions for the viewer, both positive and negative. In this lesson from a TEACHER we want to delve more into this movement and, therefore, below we are going to discover the outstanding characteristics of baroque literature, as well as the Spanish works and the most common themes that were treated by the artists.

Index

1. What is the Baroque and what are its characteristics?
2. What characteristics does baroque literature have?
3. What are the themes of Baroque literature?
4. Baroque literary works in Spain

But before going fully into listing the characteristics of Baroque literature, it is important that we stop briefly in the movement and let us know what are the elements that make it unique and different from the rest of the currents artistic.

The Baroque it is an artistic and cultural period that took place in Europe since the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It was a current that influenced all the arts such as music, architecture, painting and, of course, literature. The beginning of the Baroque is in Italy and, from here, it spread throughout Europe and, later, throughout America, although to a lesser extent.

We are facing a current that was born as a rejection of the previous one: the Renaissance. During the 16th century, he had opted for a return to the classics and a beautician and precious sensibility that permeated all the arts. But the Baroque bets on a more complex and profound vision of the world, for this reason, the artists showed a more pessimistic and critical perspective of society.

Baroque characteristics

• Principle of horror vacui. It is one of the most striking and defining Baroque characteristics of the movement. In Latin this expression refers to "horror to the void" and, therefore, the baroque artists filled their works to the maximum with highly ornate and loaded forms. The goal of this art is to fill all the spaces and not leave anything empty.
• Pessimism. The baroque character is tinged with disappointment and a general pessimistic feeling. Therefore, all this will be reflected in the works of art and in the texts of the authors of the time.
• Inner passion. Unlike the Renaissance bases that sought balance and classical harmony, with the Baroque one wants to represent the other part of reality, the chaos, the uncontrolled passion, pain, horror, the excess... For all this, artists seek contrast in all their creations and, in painting, this is clearly appreciated with the technique of chiaroscuro.
• Tension. In baroque works, what is sought is to generate tension in the viewer. It is not committed to an art that generates calm or rest, but what is intended is to find a tension that alerts the viewer and makes him / her be constantly active.
• I reject the absolute. During the Baroque there is widespread skepticism about everything. Absolute premises are no longer accepted, but everything is relative, nothing is certain and contradictions are part of the reality of the human being.

But let's focus specifically on the Baroque literature and its characteristics. As we have already commented, it was a current that affected all the arts, therefore, we found baroque painting, Baroque music, baroque architecture... But in this lesson we want to focus on the literary arts and, therefore, here we leave you a review of the most striking characteristics.

Baroque literature is characterized by being a style that bets on Word games, for creating emotions for readers, for offering plots with tangles and more complex language, and so on. In general, it is a kind of ornate style and uses literary resources as metaphor, hyperbaton, periphrasis, etc., which can complicate the understanding of the text for all readers.

During the Baroque, literary genres such as poetry, narrative and theater; the latter, the baroque theater It was highly noted for its impressive set design, for its surprising staging and for its intense and deep plots. Calderón de la Barca He is the greatest exponent of the Baroque in Spain and, with his death, the end of the Spanish Golden Age was reached.

Characteristics of Baroque literature

1. Born as rejection to Renaissance literatureTherefore, it is committed to a break with the preceding aesthetic principles.
2. Abundant literary resources. To give a greater complexity to the writing and a more aesthetic and cultured touch, the Baroque authors bet on the constant use of literary resources that made the understanding of the text more complex.
3. Exaggeration. It is one of the most striking and defining characteristics of baroque literature. And, in the field of literature, we see this with the abuse of literary devices and adjectives. The objective was to reload the text and, for this, they used the existing resources in the literature.
4. View pessimistic of life and, therefore, the texts abound in irony and sarcasm.
5. They bet on a type of overloaded and ornate art. In the literary field, this could be seen, above all, in the theater field where highly dressed and spectacular works were created with respect to staging.
6. Search for emotions on the viewers. The baroque artist wants the public who sees his art to experience it internally. Therefore, it seeks to create an emotional response in him and not stay in the most superfluous pleasure. For all these reasons, the topics discussed can talk about the marginalized of society, show the human evil, the horror of life, etc.
7. Influence of religion in baroque literature due to the spiritual upheaval that Luther made with his protestant reformation. Religious themes were once again one of the most recurrent among artists of this time.
8. Literary innovations. Many Baroque authors welcomed the novelties that their European neighbors were beginning to follow. For this reason, we find Spanishizations of foreign terms, or adaptations of forms such as the third, the sonnet or the redondilla.

Currents of Baroque literature

If we talk about the characteristics of Baroque literature, we must not fail to mention the two main currents that we find in authors in Spain:

• Culteranism. Also known as "gongorismo" in homage to Luis de GongoraThis current was the one that defended that the form was more important than the content of the work. For this reason, these texts usually present very high literary resources and cultisms that show striking and beautiful poems, but complex to understand.
• Conceptism. On the other hand, another of the currents of Baroque literature was that of conceptism in which content and form are at the same level of importance. Quevedo was the main defender of this current and, precisely for this reason, the rivalry between Góngora and Quevedo that is so well known in the history of literature.

To continue knowing the most outstanding characteristics of Baroque literature, it is important that we analyze which were the most common themes among the authors of this current. We must bear in mind that the seventeenth century in Spain was characterized by being a century in which they began to exist crisis in society, the plague pandemic, there was a great inequality between social classes and a excess famine.

This social context greatly marked the literary texts of the Baroque and, unlike the Renaissance works, the tone of the authors was sadder, disappointed and pessimistic. In general terms, the themes of Baroque literature are included in two large areas:

1. Reality issues. Reality is shown as it is, without being idealized and without only showing court life. The authors bet on reflecting everyday situations in people's lives and mundane activities of life. A life marked by crisis, famine and plague.
2. Religious topics. The second great subject touched by the Baroque authors was religion. The Protestant Reformation made art return to focus on religion and, therefore, works that spoke of religious themes were cultivated with a bombastic and ornate vision that used to be defend the clergy and aristocracy.

Image: Espaciolibros.com

We conclude this review of Baroque literature and its characteristics to mention some of the authors and works of the most outstanding baroque literature of Spain. They are authors who followed the stylistic bases that we have mentioned and who contributed their own vision of art and society.

• Gongora. He is one of the first Baroque authors and he is associated with "culteranismo". His most outstanding work is Solitudes.
• Quevedo. Góngora's "enemy" and defender of the "conceptism" literature. His most outstanding work is Life story of the buscón called Don Pablos.
• Tirso de Molina. He is another of the most prominent Baroque authors in Spain. Among his works, it is worth highlighting The Trickster of Seville.
• Calderón de la Barca. He is another of the essential names in the literature of the Baroque and the Spanish Golden Age. He was a renovator of the theater and, among his works, stands out The life is dream.

If you want to read more articles similar to Baroque literature: characteristics, we recommend that you enter our category of History of Literature.

• Veneer, E. (1969). Baroque literature and colonial environment. Thesaurus, 1 (3), 417-425.
• Alborg, J. L. (1966). Spanish literature history vol. 2: epo: baroque period.
• Mas, E. G. (1968). History of Spanish literature: Baroque (17th century) (Vol. 3). The Editorial, UPR.
• Snyder, J. R. (2015). The Baroque Aesthetics (Vol. 195). Antonio Machado Books.