AP Spanish Literature · Unit 2
El romanticismo y el realismo del siglo XIX: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
35 flashcard terms for AP Spanish Literature Unit 2, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 18-question quiz — free, no account needed.
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Romanticismo Early-19th-century movement exalting individual feeling, freedom, nature as mirror of emotion, the exotic, and rebellion against neoclassical rules.
José de Espronceda Spanish Romantic poet (1808-1842); "Canción del pirata" celebrates the outlaw's absolute freedom.
Canción del pirata Espronceda's poem whose refrain "Que es mi barco mi tesoro, que es mi dios la libertad..." makes the pirate a symbol of Romantic liberty.
Estribillo Refrain repeated at regular intervals; in "Canción del pirata" it reinforces the pirate's creed of freedom.
Polimetría romántica Romantics mixed verse lengths within one poem to mirror movement and emotion, as Espronceda does with the ship and sea.
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer Post-Romantic Spanish poet (1836-1870); Rimas are brief, intimate lyrics on poetry, love, and disillusion; Leyendas are prose.
Rima LIII "Volverán las oscuras golondrinas": swallows and honeysuckle will return, but the speaker's unique love "¡esas... no volverán!"
Estructura de Rima LIII Two-part contrast in each stanza pair: what returns (nature, general) vs. what will not (the singular past love).
Posromanticismo Late, intimate phase of Romanticism (Bécquer, Rosalía de Castro): simpler language, musicality, subjective inwardness.
Rosalía de Castro Galician poet (1837-1885); En las orillas del Sar poems express melancholy, longing, and the pain of the soul.
Costumbrismo Sketches of local customs and types (cuadros de costumbres), a bridge between Romanticism and Realism.
Mariano José de Larra Romantic journalist-satirist (1809-1837); "Vuelva usted mañana" mocks Spanish bureaucratic laziness through the visitor Sans-délai.
Vuelva usted mañana Larra's artículo de costumbres: a French visitor is told to "come back tomorrow" everywhere; satire of pereza nacional.
Sátira Ridicule of vices or institutions to provoke reform; Larra uses irony and exaggeration to criticize Spain.
Realismo Second-half-19th-century movement portraying contemporary society objectively, with detailed settings and psychological characters.
Naturalismo Zola-inspired extreme of Realism: characters determined by heredity and environment; Pardo Bazán adapted it in Spain.
Emilia Pardo Bazán Galician novelist (1851-1921), introduced Naturalism to Spain; "Las medias rojas" shows a peasant girl's crushed dream of emigration.
Las medias rojas Ildara buys red stockings hoping to emigrate; her father, tío Clodio, beats her and destroys her eye and her chance to leave.
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Determinismo Naturalist idea that environment and heredity fix a character's fate; Ildara cannot escape her rural poverty.
Leopoldo Alas, Clarín Realist novelist and critic (1852-1901); "¡Adiós, Cordera!" is a short story about children, a cow, and progress.
¡Adiós, Cordera! Rosa and Pinín love the cow Cordera; the train and telegraph pole symbolize a modernity that takes the cow and later Pinín to war.
Símbolos en ¡Adiós, Cordera! The telegraph pole and railway represent the outside world; the meadow (prao Somonte) is idyllic rural innocence.
Horacio Quiroga Uruguayan master of the short story (1878-1937); "El hijo" mixes realism and hallucination as a father waits for his son.
El hijo A father, trained to trust his son, hears a shot; he imagines finding the boy alive but the child lies dead caught in a wire fence.
Ironía trágica The reader understands the truth the father cannot accept; Quiroga's ending reveals the hallucination.
José Martí Cuban poet and independence hero (1853-1895); Versos sencillos and "Dos patrias" bridge Romanticism and Modernismo.
Dos patrias Martí: "Dos patrias tengo yo: Cuba y la noche"; the widow Cuba with a carnation, and the speaker's readiness to die.
Nuestra América Martí's 1891 essay urging Latin American unity and self-knowledge rather than imitation of Europe or the United States.
Ricardo Palma Peruvian author of the Tradiciones peruanas; "El alacrán de fray Gómez" blends legend, humor, and colonial Lima.
Tradición Palma's hybrid genre: short historical anecdote mixing chronicle, legend, and colloquial humor.
Nahuel Huapi y la novela histórica Romantic novels looked to the medieval and colonial past for local color, as in the historical vogue after Walter Scott.
Costumbrismo latinoamericano After independence, sketch writing captured national types and customs, feeding both Palma's tradiciones and Realism.
Narrador omnisciente realista Realist fiction typically uses a third-person omniscient narrator who explains characters' motives and social context.
Estilo indirecto libre Technique blending narrator's voice with a character's thoughts, used by Realists like Clarín and Galdós.
Locus amoenus Idealized pleasant place; the meadow of Somonte functions as a locus amoenus disrupted by progress.
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