Unit 4: La literatura romántica, realista y naturalista

Romanticism (Romanticismo)

A 19th-century literary and cultural movement that rejects fixed, “universal” artistic rules and centers emotion, inner experience, imagination, and the individual’s truth over social norms.

Neoclassicism (Neoclasicismo)

An earlier aesthetic that valued reason, balance, and adherence to established artistic rules—ideas Romanticism reacts against.

Subjectivity

A focus on personal, emotional perspective in which the speaker’s inner life shapes the text’s meaning.

Individualism

A Romantic emphasis on the exceptional “I” (often rebellious or marginal) whose desires and conflicts dominate the work.

Yearning for freedom (Ansia de libertad)

Romantic rejection of social, moral, and artistic limits, defending freedom of expression and breaking traditional literary norms.

Imagination and the non-rational

A Romantic openness to what exceeds reason, including mystery, intense emotion, and experiences that cannot be explained logically.

Supernatural

A frequent Romantic element (apparitions, mystery, the uncanny) used to intensify atmosphere and explore what lies beyond rational explanation.

Objective correlative (Correlato objetivo)

A strategy in which concrete images (often from nature) function as an external equivalent for an internal emotion, making feelings visible and tangible.

Idealization

A Romantic tendency to long for an “absolute” (perfect love, beauty, or freedom), often imagining it as attainable.

Disillusionment (Desengaño)

The painful recognition that reality frustrates Romantic ideals, producing loss, resignation, or bitterness.

Lyrical voice (Voz lírica)

The speaking presence in a poem whose tone, emotion, and perspective guide the reader’s interpretation.

Apostrophe (Apóstrofe)

Direct address to a “you” (a person, nature, death, the night, etc.) that heightens emotional intensity.

Anaphora (Anáfora)

Repetition of the same word(s) at the beginning of successive lines or clauses, creating insistence or obsession.

Parallelism (Paralelismo)

Use of repeated or mirrored grammatical structures to reinforce an idea and produce rhythmic, logical emphasis.

Antithesis / Contrast (Antítesis)

A device that stages oppositions (ideal vs. reality, dream vs. waking, life vs. death) to dramatize Romantic conflict.

Natural symbols

Romantic images (storm, sea, wind, night, ruins) that function as emotional meaning—not mere scenery.

Metaphor

A figure of speech that equates one thing with another to suggest deeper meaning indirectly, central to Romantic symbolism.

Elegiac tone

A mournful, reflective tone associated with loss; in Romantic poetry it often signals resignation rather than rage.

Post-Romanticism (Posromanticismo)

A later Romantic tendency (e.g., Bécquer) marked by more intimate, contained emotion rather than theatrical grandiosity.

“Rima LIII” (Bécquer)

A post-Romantic poem about lost love and the irreversibility of the past, built through repetition, parallelism, and nature imagery.

“Volverán” vs. “no volverán”

The structural contrast in “Rima LIII” that opposes nature’s cyclical return to the impossibility of repeating the same love.

Swallows (Golondrinas) in “Rima LIII”

A symbol of return/renewal used to emphasize what does not return: the unique, irrecoverable experience of the past love.

Honeysuckle (Madreselvas) in “Rima LIII”

A nature image tied to cyclical return that supports the poem’s argument: nature repeats, but a particular love does not.

The sublime (Lo sublime)

An emotion combining awe and fear before overwhelming greatness; not “pretty” or calm, but vast and unsettling.

“En una tempestad” (Heredia)

A Romantic poem in which a storm becomes an encounter with the sublime and can suggest political chaos, oppression, and longing for freedom.

Personification of nature

Giving nature human will or action (the storm “acts”), making it a powerful agent that shapes the speaker’s experience.

Alliteration (Aliteración)

Repetition of consonant sounds to imitate or intensify effects (e.g., the roar of wind), reinforcing rhythm and violence in storm imagery.

Allegory (Alegoría)

An extended metaphor in which a scene (like a storm) represents broader conflicts, such as inner turmoil or social/political struggle.

Romantic drama (Drama romántico)

A theatrical form that favors passionate conflict, striking scenes, extreme characters, and freedom of structure over classical restraint.

Breaking the three unities

A Romantic drama practice that rejects strict unity of time, place, and action, allowing shifting settings and dynamic plot movement.

Don Juan Tenorio (Zorrilla)

A Romantic reworking of the Don Juan myth that explores transgression, honor, guilt, and the possibility of moral/spiritual transformation.

Romantic hero

An exceptional, excessive, conflicted figure who defies norms and lives at the limit; “heroic” in intensity rather than morality.

Doña Inés

A character often associated with Romantic idealization and spirituality whose dramatic function centers the theme of Don Juan’s redemption.

Honor code (Honra)

Social reputation and public morality; in Romantic theater it clashes with inner guilt, desire, and the question of salvation.

Redemption (Redención)

The possibility that a morally guilty individual can transform and be saved—central to the moral arc of Don Juan Tenorio.

Stage directions (Acotaciones)

Non-dialogue theatrical notes that shape interpretation by indicating actions, tone, setting, and dramatic effects.

Realism (Realismo)

A 19th-century movement that shifts focus from the exceptional self to everyday life and the social mechanisms that shape individuals.

Verisimilitude (Verosimilitud)

A realistic effect created through plausible events and concrete detail, making the narrative feel credible and socially grounded.

Positivism (Positivismo)

A 19th-century intellectual climate emphasizing observable facts and “scientific” thinking, influencing Realism’s social focus.

Determinism (Determinismo)

The idea that human lives are strongly conditioned by external forces (class, environment, institutions); intensified in Naturalism.

Omniscient third-person narrator

A common Realist narrator who knows broadly (sometimes commenting), allowing analysis of distance, judgment, and access to characters’ minds.

Social criticism

A Realist/Naturalist goal of exposing poverty, inequality, hypocrisy, or lack of opportunity as products of social structures.

Significant detail

A concrete detail that does more than decorate: it reveals class, values, power relations, or a social conflict.

Naturalism (Naturalismo)

An intensified Realism that portrays harsh conditions and emphasizes how environment and heredity can restrict or destroy human choice.

Darwinism (influence)

A 19th-century scientific framework (alongside determinism) that helps shape Naturalism’s focus on forces beyond individual control.

“Las medias rojas” (Pardo Bazán)

A Naturalist short story in which a pair of red stockings becomes a material symbol that exposes poverty, patriarchal control, and violence.

Ildara

The young woman in “Las medias rojas” whose desire for change and autonomy collides with poverty and domestic patriarchy.

Clodio

Ildara’s father in “Las medias rojas,” who interprets her stockings as a threat to control and responds through violence and domination.

“¡Adiós, Cordera!” (Clarín)

A Realist story where the cow “Cordera” becomes an emotional and social symbol of rural life, vulnerability, and loss under modern change.

Train as a symbol of modernity/progress

In “¡Adiós, Cordera!” the train represents modernization and economic logic, raising the question of “progress for whom” and who pays its cost.