Romance (literature)
A romance (from Spanish el romance = "that which is written in the Romance language") is a lyrical - epic verse telling that comes from Spanish literature .
development
Romance emerged in Spain in the 14th century and was originally a popular song that told legends or historical events and was mostly written in inconsistent 16-syllable verse. Other theories assume origins as early as the 10th to 12th centuries. The style and structure of the romance resemble a folk ballad .
As a rule, Spanish romances are divided into four material groups :
- Romances about historical events
- Romances according to Carolingian / Breton legends
- Romances about battles between Moors and Christians
- Moorish romances (after defeating the Moors)
From the 16th century onwards, art dances were also composed. a. by Lope de Vega . They are thematically broader than the original form. Around 1550, the vulgar romance emerged as a further form, which has similarities to bänkelsang . In modern Spanish literature, the genre of romance has been revisited by Federico García Lorca .
Reception in Germany
In Germany, Spanish romances were received from the 18th century. Johann Gottfried Herder played a key role in this and included some of them in his folk song collections. In his own romances, Herder used predominantly Trochaic verses, which were subsequently perceived as typical of the genre in German-speaking countries, but which did not appear in the original Spanish form.
In the romantic era , romance became popular as folk poetry in German-speaking countries because of its presumed "originality". However, the reference to the Spanish origins was lost over time, which led to the fact that the term romance was difficult to define from the 19th century onwards, as it was hardly possible to clearly differentiate it from the ballad, for example . Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, for example, used these terms synonymously. Important German poets of the time who wrote explicit romances were Joseph von Eichendorff , Clemens Brentano and Ludwig Uhland . At that time, a romance was basically understood to be a shorter verse poem composed in stanzas that has a narrative character; it is not subject to any further formal restrictions. In some cases it was delimited from the ballad in terms of content, for example by a more carefree mood and less fateful choice of topics; such a demarcation was undertaken by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel . For the specific stanza form associated with romance, see romances strophe .
From the middle of the 19th century, romance lost its importance in the German-speaking world and was used for parody purposes. Heinrich Heine's Atta Troll are examples . A Midsummer Night's Dream and Carl Leberecht Immermann's tulip coat . Heine's collection of poems Romanzero is only considered to be true to romance style in some parts.
The German and Spanish concept of romance should not be confused with the English term romance , which is a general term for Middle English verse novels and - even more often - for modern romance literature (trivial literature).
literature
- Rudolf Baehr : Spanish verse theory on a historical basis. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1962, pp. 141–156.
- Otto Knörrich: Lexicon of lyrical forms (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 479). 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-520-47902-8 , pp. 192-194.
- Ludwig Pfandl : Spanish Romances , Niemeyer: Halle / Saale (1933).
- Gero von Wilpert : Subject dictionary of literature. 8th edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-520-84601-3 , p. 708 f.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Volker Meid (Ed.): Literaturlexikon , Bertelsmann: München (1993), Vol. 14, pp. 321f.
- ^ Günther and Irmgard Schweikle (eds.): Metzler Literatur Lexikon , Metzler: Stuttgart (1990), p. 401.
- ↑ Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft , de Gruyter: Berlin / New York (2003), Vol. III, p. 331 ff.
- ↑ a b c sentence after Ivo Braak: Poetics in keywords , 6th edition, 1980, 4.1.1.2.2.1 Romance , pp. 153 and 154