AP Spanish Literature · Unit 5
El teatro y la poesía: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
37 flashcard terms for AP Spanish Literature Unit 5, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 20-question quiz — free, no account needed.
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La casa de Bernarda Alba Lorca, 1936. Drama de mujeres en los pueblos de España: after her husband's death Bernarda imposes eight years of mourning on her five daughters.
Bernarda Alba Tyrannical matriarch obsessed with appearances and honor; her cane and "¡Silencio!" open and close the play.
Adela Youngest daughter (20) who rebels, wears green, and loves Pepe el Romano; hangs herself when told he is dead.
Angustias Eldest daughter (39), heiress from Bernarda's first marriage; Pepe el Romano courts her for her money.
Martirio Sickly, envious daughter secretly in love with Pepe; her lie about his death triggers Adela's suicide.
La Poncia Bernarda's servant and confidante of thirty years; warns of the tension in the house and voices popular wisdom.
María Josefa Bernarda's mad, locked-up mother who longs to marry by the sea; her speeches carry symbolic truth.
Pepe el Romano Never appears on stage; the desired man whose absence drives all conflict.
Simbolismo de Bernarda Alba White walls (purity/prison), black clothes (mourning), green dress (life, rebellion), water/thirst (desire), the stallion (repressed sexuality).
Honra y apariencias Bernarda's guiding value: what the neighbors see; her final "¡Ella, la hija menor de Bernarda Alba, ha muerto virgen!"
Sergio Vodanović Chilean playwright (1926-2001); El delantal blanco (1964) is a one-act play about class roles.
El delantal blanco On the beach a Señora and her Empleada swap clothes; the maid assumes the mistress's role and the bystanders side with the apron.
Ropa como signo social In El delantal blanco identity is shown to depend on clothing and role, not intrinsic worth.
Osvaldo Dragún (teatro) Argentine playwright of the 'teatro independiente'; Historias para ser contadas use minimal props and narrator-actors.
Teatro del absurdo/épico Twentieth-century theater that breaks realism (absurd) or fourth wall (Brecht) to provoke thought about society.
Acotaciones Stage directions; Lorca's are highly symbolic (colors, sounds, the stallion kicking the wall).
Aparte Aside spoken to the audience unheard by other characters; common in Golden Age comedia.
Soliloquio / monólogo Speech by a character alone on stage revealing inner thoughts (don Juan's boasts, Segismundo's speeches).
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Tragedia rural lorquiana Bodas de sangre, Yerma, and La casa de Bernarda Alba: repression, honor, and death in rural Andalusia.
Soneto 14 hendecasyllables: two quartets (ABBA ABBA) and two tercets with varied rhyme; imported by Garcilaso.
Endecasílabo 11-syllable line, the Italianate arte mayor line of sonnets and silvas.
Octosílabo 8-syllable line, the traditional Castilian arte menor line of romances and redondillas.
Rima consonante Full rhyme: all sounds match from the last stressed vowel (amor / dolor).
Rima asonante Vowel rhyme only from the last stressed vowel (casa / blanca); typical of romances.
Sinalefa Merging of a final vowel and next initial vowel into one syllable when counting ("que_es mi barco").
Ley del acento final Add one syllable if the line ends in an aguda word; subtract one if esdrújula.
Silva Free combination of 7- and 11-syllable lines with consonant rhyme at the poet's discretion.
Lira Five-line stanza 7-11-7-7-11 rhyming aBabB (Garcilaso, Fray Luis).
Cuarteto y terceto Four-line and three-line stanzas of arte mayor that make up the sonnet.
Verso libre Verse without fixed meter or rhyme, used by Neruda and many 20th-century poets.
Encabalgamiento Enjambment: a syntactic unit runs past the end of the line into the next.
Hipérbaton Inversion of normal word order, hallmark of Góngora: "Mientras por competir con tu cabello / oro bruñido al sol relumbra en vano."
Voz poética The speaker of a poem, distinct from the author; identify who speaks and to whom (apóstrofe).
Apóstrofe Direct address to a person or thing ("Hombres necios que acusáis"; "Es con voz de la Biblia... que llego a ti, Cazador").
Nicolás Guillén y el son Guillén adapted the Cuban son's rhythm and refrains to poetry (Motivos de son).
Neruda, Oda a la alcachofa From Odas elementales: the artichoke as a tender-hearted warrior; short lines, humor, everyday objects.
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Ars poetica de Bécquer Rima I and Rima IV define poetry as inexpressible feeling: "Podrá no haber poetas; pero siempre habrá poesía."
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