Spanish Literature

Abstract

The Renaissance came later to Spain than to any other European country, which led to a certain sense of “belatedness” in Spain’s literal and literary historiography. Most histories of Golden Age literature (as the peak period of Spanish Renaissance literature is often called) begin with Fernando de Rojas’s humanistic tragicomedy the Celestina (c. 1499) and extend through at least the early Baroque (a convenient terminus being Calderón de la Barca’s La vida es sueño, c. 1635). This time period proved extraordinarily fertile, however, coinciding with the era of Spanish world dominance. Spain was the birthplace of several important literary movements and genres, including the first modern novel. The glories of so-called “Golden” Age literature, however, may obscure the harsh conditions experienced by women, colonized people, and the victims of the Inquisition.