Jose Cadalso was one of the most representative writers of the neoclassical period of Spanish literature. He completed academic studies and traveled through various European countries, which gave him an acute perception of the clash between the rancid and backward Spanish society of his time compared to the places he visited and whose impressions the author reflected in his work Cartas marruecas. He was a man well versed on the issues of the world he lived in,  he was also well known in Madrid's cultural salons. He liked to be portraited as and an exquisite 18th-century intellectual who knew how to cultivate the friendship of the most refined spirits of his time. He was an intelligent and cultured man, endowed with a fine critical sense, having in common with other intellectuals of his time the appreciation of reason above primitive thinking of superstition. 

Despite his use of rational thinking to interpret the world around him, his acute sensitivity made him prone to pessimism and melancholy, these elements perhaps being precursors of romantic sentiment. He knows and admires the European culture of the time, but his literary roots also lie in the best Spanish tradition of the 16th century. He is a man in transition between epochs, as much for his psychology as for his literary attitude. The opposing philosophies of the neoclassical and the romantic, the traditional with the intuitive,  coexist in his literary work, making him one of the most complete and varied writers of his time. He cultivated both poetry and prose and promoter of the Salamanca School of literary studies. 

Don Sancho García, Conde de Castilla

Los Eruditos a la Violeta

Ocios de mi juventud

Cartas marruecas

Noches lúgubres

Cartas marruecas is a set of ninety fictitious letters that tell the story of Gazel, a young Moroccan who, having traveled all over Europe, arrives in Spain in the entourage of an ambassador from Morocco, and who takes the opportunity to learn about the customs and culture of the country, comparing it to other European countries.

Historical Fiction

Travel literature

During the 16th century, the medieval vision of the world enters into crisis. The Renaissance was defined by a substantial and absolute division between Nature and Spirituality. The world of the senses and the world of the spirit was intimately fused in the man of the Middle Ages, to the point that there was one and the same thing. The Renaissance, with its radical individualism, signified a revolutionary change of position that separated the human being from the omniscient spirituality of the Middle Ages. The Renaissance proclaimed that the Middle Age was only a dark period between Antiquity and its time. In this sense, the Renaissance is not a mere cultural period, but a new conception of life that manifests itself in aspects such as politics and science, as well as literature. There is a conscious search for a language full of natural elegance, with a predominance of the novel in different types, chivalry, pastoral, Moorish, and the picaresque among the most popular ones.

During the Renaissance, an enormous effort was made to clearly delimit the world of the individual, separated from the spiritual realm. The independence of the human being was proclaimed on the basis that God and man are two incommunicable entities.  Following Calvin's thought, the creature could not influence the behavior nor the inscrutable decisions of the Creator, the first one predestined from birth.  It was the task of the Spanish theologians at the Council of Trent who fought such a doctrine, proclaiming an intimate connection between God and man. The consequences of Trento were incalculable for the world of culture in Spain, the country exempt from heresy by the council but its cultural future was also determined by it. As the sixteenth century progressed towards its end, the natural and the supernatural world tended to draw closer together for the Spaniards, with the scientific pursuit, and the mere intent of rational thinking viewed with deep suspicion.

Notwithstanding, there is also in Spain an advance in science and discoveries are made, accompanied by a development of urban life and incipient capitalism. The reign of the Catholic Monarchs and later during the  Empire there was a development of humanism, man becoming the center of the universe, with the courtier as the ideal Renaissance man, and a renewed interest in the study of the authors of Antiquity.  The discovery of the printing press in Europe triggered movements of reform, propitiating in Spain a response with the development of particular religious literature known as mysticism. 

Neoclassicism

Teatro Crítico I, by Benito J. Feijoo

Diccionario de Autoridades of Real Academia 

Orígenes de la lengua española, by Gregorio Mayans

Poética, by Ignacio de Luzán

Vida, by Diego de Torres Villarroel

Fray Gerundio de Campazas, by José Francisco de Isla

La petimetra, by Nicolás Fernández de Moratín

El delincuente honrado, by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos

Fábulas morales, Félix M. Samaniego

Fábulas literarias, by Tomás de Iriarte

Poesías, by Juan Meléndez Valdés

Cartas marruecas, by José de Cadalso

La comedia nueva, by Leandro Fernández Moratín

Informe sobre la ley agraria, by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos

Exequias de la lengua castellana, by Juan Pablo Former

Los caprichos, by Francisco de Goya

Publicaion of Diario de los literatos de españa (7 volumes)

Publication of El pensador, by José Clavijo.

Publication of El censor, by Luís García del Cañuelo

Foundation of the Real Academia de la Lengua

First edition of the Diccionario de Autoridades

Publication of the Tratado de ortografía

Foundation of the Real Academia de la Historia

Foundation of the Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona

Foundation of the Academia Real de Bellas Artes de San Fernando

Publication of Viaje de España, by Antonio Ponz

Phoibition of representation in theater of "autos sacrementales" (religious plays).

Foundation of Sociedad Vascongada de Amigos del País.

Auto de Curiel: For fear of the rulers to the influence of foreign ideas, the judicial order prohibits the import of books written in Spanish and published abroad.

Edition of the first French encyclopedia. Diderot's work, although widely criticized, can be considered the first modern encyclopedia.

Samuel Johnson publishes the Dictionary of the English language, with uses, customs and definitions of the words that make up the English language. Includes terms that appear in Shakespeare and other great authors of British literature.

Publication of Candide, by Voltaire. Candide is living a sheltered but indoctirinated life.

Harmonia Mundi, by Kepler

Night thoughts, by Edward Young

Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding

Diccionary of the English Language, by Samuel Johnson

Candide, by Voltaire

On Education, by Rousseau

The 5th Symphony, by Ludwig van Beethoven. 

Critique of Pure Reason, by Enmanuel Kant

Don Giovanni, by W. A. Mozart

Lyrical Ballads, by W. Wordsworth and S. Coleridge

Concordat of Rome: The Spanish Monarchy demands to extend to all its domains the Royal Patronage granted by the Pope in the time of the Catholic Monarchs, which granted the monarchs the right to appoint bishops and provide ecclesiastical benefits to certain territories.

Spanish Bites

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Cartas marruecas (1789)

By José Cadalso

Time Period: Neoclassicism

Genre: Historical Fiction, Travel literature

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