The Spanish Epic

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Rebecca De Souza (Freie Universität Berlin)

Ed. by Andrew M. Beresford, University of Durham
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.2.01: Spanish Literature and Culture from the Beginning to the Golden Age.
Vol. editors: Andrew M. Beresford (University of Durham), Stuart Green (University of Leeds), Juan Pablo Rodriguez (Yale University), Duncan Wheeler (University of Leeds)

Domains

Literature Topic

Dates

Date of occurrence c.1200- c.1400

Places

Spain (Location)

Genres and Modes

Epic
Poetry (any)

Resources

Recommended Reading

The Medieval Castilian Epic

The medieval Castilian epic, or cantar de gesta [song of an individual’s deeds], is a genre of heroic epic poetry composed from the early thirteenth century through to the late fourteenth. Epics are believed to have existed much earlier, although we lack the manuscripts to prove so. Much of the genre is now lost, and we are only left with one extensive but incomplete poem, the Cantar de mio Cid [Song of the Cid] along with a later epic, the Mocedades de Rodrigo [Youthful Deeds of Rodrigo], and a short fragment of the Cantar de Roncesvalles [Song of Roncesvalles].

The paucity of manuscript evidence f…

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7229 words

Citation: De Souza, Rebecca. "The Spanish Epic". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 February 2019 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19557, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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