An elegy composed on the death of his father, Jorge Manrique's 'Coplas' has occupied a prominent position in the literature of Spain from its original composition in the 15th century to the present day. The author of this book examines its sources, structure, transmission, critical reception and fame throughout the centuries.
Also providing in-depth discussions of the rich contributions of Muslim and Jewish cultures, and offering useful insights into their interactions with Catholic Spain, this comprehensive work is an invaluable tool for students, scholars, and general readers alike."--BOOK JACKET.
Coplas por la muerte de su padre by Jorge Manrique (c.1440-79) is one of the most celebrated poems in the Spanish language. Written shortly before the poet's death, it is a dignified elegy that speaks not just of a personal loss, that of the poet's father Rodrigo Manrique (d.1476), but of the evanescence of all things sub specie aeternitatis. Its popularity is aided by memorable lines, not least the two opening metaphors: man's life is a river meandering unto the sea of death (st. 3), and this world is the road to the next, the lasting dwelling place (st. 5). The poem replicates these reflections in its wending form. Its forty stanzas each comprise four tercets; each tercet is made up of two longer octosyllabic verses combined with one four-syllable half line known as pie quebrado. These regular broken lines, like beats of a heart, invest the poem with a resonant quality befitting the injunction at the opening of the poem to awaken one's slumbering soul to the passage of time: 'Recuerde el alma dormida, - avive el seso e despierte' (st. 1).
John A. Crow, a leading Hispanist, has culled the best translations available--by such poets as Richard Franshawe, Edward Fitzgerald, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, Robert Southey, and many distinguished modern poets--of poems ranging from the eleventh century to the present to make this the most complete collection of both Spanish and Spanish American poetry in English translation. Represented here is work by such twentieth century poets as Gabriela Mistral, Octavio Paz, Federico García Lorca, César Vallejo, Pablo Neruda, Anotnio Machado, and Juan Ramón Jiménez, many of whom the editor has known personally. The inclusion of many contemporary poets whose verse has never before appeared in English makes this anthology a particularly valuable collection.
A reintroduction to the myth of Amphion, recovering an overlooked sphere of lyric tradition. Amphion is the figure in Greek mythology who played so skillfully on a lyre that stones moved of their own accord to build walls for Thebes. While Amphion still presides over music and architecture, he was once fundamental to the concept of lyric poetry. Amphion figured the human power to inspire action, creating and undoing polities by means of language. In contrast to the individual inspiration we associate with the better-known Orpheus, Amphion represents the relentless, often violent, play of harmony and disorder in human social life. In this wide-ranging study, Leah Middlebrook introduces readers to Amphion-inspired poetics and lyrics and traces the tradition of the Amphionic from the Renaissance through modernist and postmodern poetry and translation from the Hispanic, Anglophone, French, Italian, and ancient Roman worlds. Amphion makes a significant contribution to scholarship on the connection between poetry and politics and the history of the lyric, offering an account well-suited to our times.
Jorge Manrique was the greatest poet of fifteenth-century Castile and one of the three or four greatest in Spanish literature. Frank A. Domínguez offers here an introduction to Manrique's poetry and the first book-length study of him in English in fifty years. After presenting the biographical and historical context of Manrique's poetry, Domínguez examines the poet's love lyrics, describing the large fund of commonplaces and forms that Manrique's verses share with those of other poets of his age. Manrique's highly stylized language and parallel verse structures express the obsession of the lover with the beloved. Moreover, his attention to parallel construe the world's greatest. In treating the Coplas, Domínguez not only offers a sensitive reading of the elegy but also examines questions of text, structure, and style. Like the love lyrics, the Coplas present a high incidence of parallel structures that make for clarity and symmetry. Domínguez also finds that the complex stylistic relationships of the verses provide the Coplas with a unity that is deeper and more fundamental than has generally been perceived. This study, eclectic in its critical approaches, will be the standard English work on Manrique for years to come.
A wide-ranging, accessible reference for students of Spanish or Spanish American literature covering fiction, poetry, drama, anonymous classics, and more. In Dictionary of Spanish Literature, Maxim Newmark presents a concise yet informative overview of significant authors and works in Spanish literature, as well as important topics and terminology. Outstanding Spanish literary critics, the major movements, schools, genres, and scholarly journals are also included. An essential resource for any Spanish literature scholar, this volume provides an expansive overview of the topic, spanning both centuries and continents.
This is the first comprehensive listing of all books published in Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Peru or in Spanish or Portuguese before 1601. Iberian Books offers an analytical short title-catalogue of over 19,000 bibliographically distinct items, with reference to around 100,000 surviving copies in over 1,200 libraries worldwide. By drawing together information from many previously disparate published and online resources, it seeks to provide a single, powerful research resource. Fully-indexed, Iberian Books is an indispensible work of reference for all students and specialists interested in the literature, history and culture of the Iberian Peninsula in the early modern age, as well as historians of the European book world. For the period 1601-1650, see Iberian Books Volumes II & III.
Drawing on history, literature, and art to explore childhood in early modern Spain, the contributors to this collection argue that early modern Spaniards conceptualized childhood as a distinct and discrete stage in life which necessitated special care and concern. The volume contrasts the didactic use of art and literature with historical accounts of actual children, and analyzes children in a wide range of contexts including the royal court, the noble family, and orphanages. The volume explores several interrelated questions that challenge both scholars of Spain and scholars specializing in childhood. How did early modern Spaniards perceive childhood? In what framework (literary, artistic) did they think about their children, and how did they visualize those children’s roles within the family and society? How do gender and literary genres intersect with this concept of childhood? How did ideas about childhood shape parenting, parents, and adult life in early modern Spain? How did theories about children and childhood interact with the actual experiences of children and their parents? The group of international scholars contributing to this book have developed a variety of creative, interdisciplinary approaches to uncover children’s lives, the role of children within the larger family, adult perceptions of childhood, images of children and childhood in art and literature, and the ways in which children and childhood were vulnerable and in need of protection. Studying children uncovers previously hidden aspects of Spanish history and allows the contributors to analyze the ideals and goals of Spanish culture, the inner dynamics of the Habsburg court, and the vulnerabilities and weaknesses that Spanish society fought to overcome.
