Luis De Góngora
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Luis de Góngora y Argote (born Luis de Argote y Góngora; ; 11 July 1561 – 24 May 1627) was a Spanish Baroque lyric poet and a Catholic prebendary for the Church of Córdoba. Góngora and his lifelong rival,
Francisco de Quevedo Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas, Order of Santiago, Knight of the Order of Santiago (; 14 September 1580 – 8 September 1645) was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival, ...
, are widely considered the most prominent Spanish poets of all time. His style is characterized by what was called '' culteranismo'', also known as ''Gongorismo''. This style apparently existed in stark contrast to Quevedo's '' conceptismo'', though Quevedo was highly influenced by his older rival from whom he may have isolated "conceptismo" elements.


Biography

Góngora was born to a noble family in Córdoba, where his father, Francisco de Argote, was ''corregidor,'' or judge. In a Spanish era when purity of Christian lineage (
limpieza de sangre (), also known as (, ) or (), literally 'cleanliness of blood' and meaning 'blood purity', was a racially discriminatory term used in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires during the early modern period to refer to those who were considered ...
) was needed to gain access to education or official appointments, he adopted the surname of his mother, Leonor de Góngora.Asociación Cultural Nueva Acrópolis en Gandía. GÓNGORA Y GARIBALDI
His uncle, Don Francisco, a
prebendary A prebendary is a member of the Catholic Church, Catholic or Anglicanism , Anglican clergy, a form of canon (priest) , canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in part ...
of Córdoba Cathedral, renounced his post in favour of his nephew, who took
deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...
's orders in 1586. As a
canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...
associated with this cathedral, Luis de Góngora traveled on diverse commissions to
Navarre Navarre ( ; ; ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre, is a landlocked foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and New Aquitaine in France. ...
, Andalusia and Castile. The cities that he visited included
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
,
Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...
,
Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...
, Jaén, and Toledo. Around 1605, he was ordained priest, and afterwards lived at
Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...
and
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
. While in Madrid, he was a member of the Medrano Academy (Poetic Academy of Madrid) founded by its president Sebastian Francisco de Medrano between 1616–1622. While his circle of admirers grew, patrons were grudging in their admiration. Ultimately, in 1617 through the influence of the Duke of Lerma, he was appointed honorary chaplain to King
Philip III of Spain Philip III (; 14 April 1578 – 31 March 1621) was King of Spain and King of Portugal, Portugal (where he is known as Philip II of Portugal) during the Iberian Union. His reign lasted from 1598 until his death in 1621. He held dominion over the S ...
, but did not enjoy the honour long. He maintained a long feud with
Francisco de Quevedo Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas, Order of Santiago, Knight of the Order of Santiago (; 14 September 1580 – 8 September 1645) was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival, ...
, who wanted to match his influence in talent and wit. Both poets composed many bitter, satirical pieces attacking one another, with Quevedo criticizing Góngora's penchant for flattery, his large nose, and his passion for gambling. Quevedo even accused his enemy of
sodomy Sodomy (), also called buggery in British English, principally refers to either anal sex (but occasionally also oral sex) between people, or any Human sexual activity, sexual activity between a human and another animal (Zoophilia, bestiality). I ...
, which was a capital crime in 17th century Spain. In his "Contra el mismo (Góngora)", Quevedo writes of Góngora: ''No altar, garito sí; poco cristiano, / mucho tahúr, no clérigo, sí arpía.'' (English: There's no altar, but there's a gambling den; not much of a Christian, / but he's very much a cardsharp, not a cleric, definitely a
harpy In Greek and Roman mythology, a harpy (plural harpies, , ; ) is a half-human and half-bird mythical creature, often believed to be a personification of storm winds. They feature in Homeric poems. Descriptions Harpies were generally depict ...
). Góngora's nose, the subject of Quevedo's "A una nariz", begins with the lines: ''Érase un hombre a una nariz pegado, / érase una nariz superlativa, / érase una alquitara medio viva, / érase un peje espada muy barbado'' (English: Once there was a man stuck to a nose, / it was a nose more marvellous than weird, / it was a nearly living web of tubes, / it was a swordfish with an awful beard). This angry feud came to a nasty end for Góngora when Quevedo bought the house Góngora lived in for the sole purpose of ejecting him from it. In 1626 a severe illness, which seriously impaired the poet's memory, forced him to return to Córdoba, where he died the following year. By then he was broke from trying to obtain positions and win lawsuits for all his relatives. He was buried in one of the side chapels in the Mezquita section of the Córdoba cathedral where his funeral monument can be seen. An edition of his poems was published almost immediately after his death by Juan López de Vicuña; the frequently reprinted edition by Hozes did not appear until 1633. The collection consists of numerous sonnets, odes, ballads, songs for guitar, and of some larger poems, such as the '' Soledades'' and the '' Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea'' (''Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea'') (1612), the two landmark works of the highly refined style called "culteranismo" or "Gongorismo".
Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelist ...
, in his ''
Viaje del Parnaso ''Viaje del Parnaso'' ("Journey to Parnassus") is a poetic work by Miguel de Cervantes. It was first published in 1614, two years before the author's death. Overview The chief object of the poem is to survey contemporary Spanish poets, assembl ...
'', catalogued the good and bad poets of his time. He considered Góngora to be one of the good ones. Velázquez painted his portrait. Numerous documents, lawsuits and satires by his rival Quevedo paint a picture of a man jovial, sociable, and talkative, who loved card-playing and bullfights. His bishop accused him of rarely attending
choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...
, and of praying less than fervently when he did go. Góngora's passion for card-playing ultimately contributed to his ruin. Bartolomé Bennassar, ''The Spanish Character: Attitudes and Mentalities from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century'' (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1979), 167. Frequent allusions and metaphors associated with card-playing in Góngora's poetry reveal that cards formed part of his daily life. He was often reproached for activities beneath the dignity of a churchman.


Style

''Culteranismo'' apparently existed in stark contrast with '' conceptismo'', another movement of the Baroque period which is characterized by a witty style, wordplay, simple vocabulary, and conveying multiple meanings in as few words as possible. However, all elements of "conceptismo" were already present in Góngora's late style, which was passionately debated and misunderstood even by his defenders. The best-known representative of Spanish ''conceptismo'', Francisco de Quevedo, had an ongoing feud with Luis de Góngora in which each criticized the other's writing and personal life. The word culteranismo blends ''culto'' ("cultivated") and ''luteranismo'' ("
Lutheranism Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
") and was coined by its opponents to present it as a
heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...
of "true" poetry. The movement aimed to use as many words as possible to convey little meaning or to conceal meaning. "Góngora's poetry is inclusive rather than exclusive", one scholar has written, "willing to create and incorporate the new, literally in the form of
neologisms In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...
." Góngora had a penchant for highly Latinate and Greek neologisms, which his opponents mocked. Quevedo lampooned his rival by writing a
sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...
, "Aguja de navegar cultos," which listed words from Góngora's
lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...
: "He would like to be a culto poet in just one day, / must the following jargon learn: / ''Fulgores, arrogar, joven, presiente / candor, construye, métrica, armonía...''" Quevedo actually mocked Góngora's style in several sonnets, including "Sulquivagante, pretensor de Estolo."CVC. Las sátiras de Quevedo. El soneto de Quevedo: «Sulquivagante, pretensor de Estolo»: ensayo de interpretación
/ref> This anti-Gongorist sonnet mocks the supposed unintelligibility of culteranismo and its widespread use of flowery neologisms, including ''sulquivagante'' (he who plies the seas; to travel without a clear destination); ''speluncas'' ("caves"); ''surculos'' (sprouts, scions). He was also the first to write poems imitating the speech of blacks. Góngora also had a penchant for apparent breaks in syntactical flow, as he overturned the limitations of syntax, making the
hyperbaton Hyperbaton , in its original meaning, is a figure of speech in which a phrase is made discontinuous by the insertion of other words.Andrew M. Devine, Laurence D. Stephens, ''Latin Word Order: Structured Meaning and Information'' (Oxford: Oxford Un ...
the most prominent feature of his poetry.Roberto González Echevarría, ''Celestina's Brood: Continuities of the Baroque in Spanish and Latin American Literature'' (Duke University Press,1993), 197. He has been called a man of "unquestioned genius and almost limitless culture, an initiator who enriched his language with the vast power, beauty, and scope of a mighty pen." As far away as
Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
, he received the praise of Juan de Espinosa Medrano (ca. 1629–1688), who wrote a piece defending Góngora's poetry from criticism called ''Apologético en favor de Don Luis de Góngora, Príncipe de los poetas lyricos de España: contra Manuel de Faria y Sousa, Cavallero portugués'' (1662). As Dámaso Alonso has pointed out, Góngora's contribution to the Spanish language should not be underestimated, as he picked up what were in his time obscure or little-used words and used them in his poetry again and again, thereby reviving or popularizing them. Many of these words are quite common today, such as ''adolescente'', ''asunto'', ''brillante'', ''construir'', ''eclipse'', ''emular'', ''erigir'', ''fragmento'', ''frustrar'', ''joven'', ''meta'', and ''porción''.


Works

Góngora's poems are usually grouped into two blocks, corresponding more or less to two successive poetic stages. His '' Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea'' (''Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea'') and his '' Soledades'' (1613) are his best-known compositions and the most studied. The ''Fábula'' is written in royal octaves (''octavas reales'') and his ''Soledades'' is written in a variety of metres and strophes, but principally in
stanzas In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...
and ''silvas'' interspersed with choruses. Góngora's '' Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea'' (1612) narrates a mythological episode described in
Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...
's ''
Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...
'': the love of Polyphemus, one of the
Cyclopes In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, the Cyclopes ( ; , ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes"; singular Cyclops ; , ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures. Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguished. In Hesiod's ''The ...
, for the
nymph A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...
Galatea, who rejects him. In the poem's end, Acis, enamored with Galatea, is turned into a river. Góngora's ''Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe'' (''Fable of Pyramus and Thisbe'') (1618) is a complex poem that mocks gossiping and avaricious women. Góngora also wrote sonnets concerning various subjects of an amatory, satirical, moral, philosophical, religious, controversial, laudatory, and funereal nature. As well as the usual topics (''
carpe diem () is a Latin aphorism, usually translated "seize the day", taken from book 1 of the Roman poet Horace's work '' Odes'' (23 BC). Translation is the second-person singular present active imperative of '' carpō'' "pick or pluck" used by Ho ...
'' etc.) the sonnets include autobiographical elements, describing, for example, the increasing decrepitude and advancing age of the author. In addition, Góngora composed one of his most ambitions works, ''El Panegírico al Duque de Lerma'' (1617), a poem in 79 royal octaves. Cervantes, after reading "El Panegírico", said: "the orkI most esteem from those I've read of his." He also wrote plays, which include ''La destrucción de Troya'', ''Las firmezas de Isabela'', and the unfinished ''Doctor Carlino''. Although Góngora did not publish his works (he had attempted to do so in 1623), manuscript copies were circulated and compiled in cancioneros (songbooks), and anthologies published with or without his permission. In 1627, Juan Lopez Vicuña published ''Verse Works of the Spanish
Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
'', which is also considered very trustworthy and important in establishing the Góngora's corpus of work. Vicuña's work was appropriated by the
Spanish Inquisition The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition () was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile and lasted until 1834. It began toward the end of ...
and was later surpassed by an edition by Gonzalo de Hozes in 1633.


Góngora and the Generation of '27

The
Generation of '27 The Generation of '27 () was an influential group of poets that arose in Spain, Spanish literary circles between 1923 and 1927, essentially out of a shared desire to experience and work with avant-garde forms of art and poetry. Their first form ...
took its name from the year 1927 in which the tricentennial of Góngora's death, ignored by official academic circles, was celebrated with recitals, avant-garde happenings, and an ambitious plan to publish a new critical edition of his work, as well as books and articles on aspects of his work that had not been fully researched. The Generation of '27 was the first to attempt to self-consciously revive baroque literature. Dámaso Alonso wrote that Góngora's complex language conveyed meaning in that it created a world of pure beauty. Alonso explored his work exhaustively and called Góngora a "mystic of words." Alonso dispelled the notion that Góngora had two separate styles – "simple" and "difficult" poems – that were also divided chronologically between his early and later years. He argued that Góngora's more complex poems built on stylistic devices that had been created in Góngora's early career as a poet. He also argued that the apparent simplicity of some of Góngora's early poems is often deceptive. Rafael Alberti added his own ''Soledad tercera'' (''Paráfrasis incompleta''). In 1961, Alberti declared, "I am a visual poet, like all of the poets from
Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...
, from Góngora to García Lorca." García Lorca presented a lecture called "La imagen poética en don Luís de Góngora" at the Ateneo in
Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...
in 1927. In this lecture, García Lorca paid Jean Epstein the compliment of comparing the film director with Góngora as an authority on images.


References in fiction and philosophy

The philosopher
Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...
proposed in his ''
Ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...
'' (1677) that a man can die before his body stops moving. As an example he mentioned "a Spanish poet who suffered an illness; though he recovered, he was left so oblivious to his past life that he did not believe the tales and tragedies he had written were his own". The historian Carl Gebhardt wrote that "this was probably Góngora, whose works
Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...
possessed, and who lost his memory a year before his death".Spinoza (1677/1985), p. 569, footnote 22 The narrator of the Captain Alatriste series, a friend of
Francisco de Quevedo Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas, Order of Santiago, Knight of the Order of Santiago (; 14 September 1580 – 8 September 1645) was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival, ...
within the stories, illustrates Góngora's feuding with Quevedo, both by quoting poetry from each as well as describing Quevedo's attitude toward Góngora through the course of the story. Excerpts of poetry from one against the other are included within the story itself and poetry from each is included at the back of some of the books. In
Giannina Braschi Giannina Braschi (born February 5, 1953) is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist, dramatist, and scholar. Her notable works include '' Empire of Dreams'' (1988), '' Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998), '' United States of Banana'' (2011), and '' Putinoika'' (2024). ...
's bilingual novel '' Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998) contemporary Latin American poets have a heated debate about Góngora's and Quevedo's role in defining the Spanish empire through their works. The musical group Dead Can Dance used an English translation of Góngora's ''Da bienes Fortuna'' as the lyrics for the song "Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book" on their 1990 album Aion. In the second of the five parts of Roberto Bolaño's novel ''2666'' (published posthumously in 2004), "The Part about Amalfitano", one of the characters (the poet, whose name is never explicitly stated) quotes a verse from Góngora: ''Ande yo caliente y ríase la gente''. John Crowley's novel "The Solitudes" (a.k.a."Aegypt", 1987) repeatedly refers to and quotes from Góngora's poem "Soledades." A portrait of Luis de Góngora appears as an Easter egg in the 2018 video game Detroit: Become Human. This inclusion likely serves as a symbolic reference to the game's exploration of themes such as identity, the human condition, and the blurred lines between appearance and reality—concepts that Góngora's poetry often delved into.


References


Sources

* * Hennigfeld, Ursula (2008). ''Der ruinierte Körper. Petrarkistische Sonette in transkultureller Perspektive.'' Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. * Spinoza, Baruch (1677/1985). ''
Ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...
''. In ''The Collected Works of Spinoza'', volume 1. Edited and translated by Edwin Curley. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.


External links


English translations of some of Góngora's poems
* ttp://www.los-poetas.com/h/gongo1.htm#SONETOS Poems by Góngora
Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561–1627)
(texts of his poems, in Spanish)

(texts of his poems, in Spanish) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gongora, Luis De 1561 births 1627 deaths Writers from Córdoba, Spain Spanish poets Counter-Reformation University of Salamanca alumni Spanish male poets Spanish Baroque writers Spanish writers