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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.
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 treatin...
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.
First published in 1961, A New History of Spanish Literature has been a much-used resource for generations of students. The book has now been completely revised and updated to include extensive discussion of Spanish literature of the past thirty years. Richard E. Chandler and Kessel Schwartz, both longtime students of the literature, write authoritatively about every Spanish literary work of consequence. From the earliest extant writings though the literature of the 1980s, they draw on the latest scholarship. Unlike most literary histories, this one treats each genre fully in its own section, thus making it easy for the reader to follow the development of poetry, the drama, the novel, other ...
This anthology examines Love's Labours Lost from a variety of perspectives and through a wide range of materials. Selections discuss the play in terms of historical context, dating, and sources; character analysis; comic elements and verbal conceits; evidence of authorship; performance analysis; and feminist interpretations. Alongside theater reviews, production photographs, and critical commentary, the volume also includes essays written by practicing theater artists who have worked on the play. An index by name, literary work, and concept rounds out this valuable resource.
As the first comprehensive reference to the vital world of medieval Spain, this unique volume focuses on the Iberian kingdoms from the fall of the Roman Empire to the aftermath of the Reconquista. The nearly 1,000 signed A-Z entries, written by renowned specialists in the field, encompass topics of key relevance to medieval Iberia, including people, events, works, and institutions, as well as interdisciplinary coverage of literature, language, history, arts, folklore, religion, and science. 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. For a full list of entries and contributors, a generous selection of sample entries, and more, visit the Medieval Iberia: An Encyclopedia website.