Romance-Language Literatures
Romance-language literatures comprise the writing of French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and other languages descended from Latin, from Dante and Cervantes to the modern novel.
Definition
The literary traditions written in the Romance languages of Europe, studied across their shared Latin origins and distinct national developments.
Scope
This topic covers the literatures of the Romance languages of Europe—chiefly French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Romanian. It spans the medieval emergence of vernacular literature, the Italian and French Renaissance, the Spanish Golden Age, French classicism and the Enlightenment, Romanticism, realism, and modernism. It treats these traditions both individually and as a closely linked group sharing a Latin inheritance.
Core questions
- How did vernacular Romance literatures emerge from medieval Latin culture?
- What characterized the Italian Renaissance and the Spanish Golden Age?
- How did the French tradition shape European classicism and the novel?
- What unites the Romance literatures despite their national differences?
Key concepts
- the vernacular
- the Renaissance
- the Spanish Golden Age
- French classicism
- the modern novel
Key theories
- The mixture of styles
- Auerbach showed how Romance literatures, from Dante onward, broke classical rules separating high and low styles, enabling the realistic representation of everyday life.
History
Romance vernacular literature emerged in the medieval period with troubadour poetry and Dante's Divine Comedy. The Italian and French Renaissance, the Spanish Golden Age of Cervantes and Lope de Vega, and French classicism shaped European letters, followed by the great age of the Romance novel from the nineteenth century through Proust and beyond.
Debates
- Is Don Quixote the first modern novel?
- Critics debate whether Cervantes's work inaugurates the modern novel or whether that honor belongs to later or other traditions.
Key figures
- Dante Alighieri
- Miguel de Cervantes
- Michel de Montaigne
- Marcel Proust
- Erich Auerbach
Related topics
Seminal works
- dante1320
- cervantes1605
- proust1913
Frequently asked questions
- Which languages count as Romance languages?
- The major literary Romance languages of Europe include French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Romanian, all descended from Latin.
- Is Latin American literature part of this topic?
- Spanish- and Portuguese-language writing from the Americas shares these languages but is treated separately as Latin American literatures in this atlas.