Spanish Literature

This Collection of Study Guides features titles that reflect the rich tradition of Spanish Literature. Ranging from ancient tragedies to contemporary novels, these texts illustrate the talent and diversity of Spanish writers throughout literary history.

Publication year 1998Genre Poem, FictionThemes Society: Nation, Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Life/Time: Childhood & Youth, Society: ImmigrationTags Immigration / Refugee

Publication year 2004Genre Autobiography / Memoir, NonfictionThemes Life/Time: Childhood & Youth, Relationships: FamilyTags Crime / Legal

A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder and Its Aftermath (2004) is a true-crime story and memoir by Jeanine Cummins. The book recounts the violent rape and murder of two young women, Julie and Robin Kerry, the author’s cousins, and focuses on the aftermath for their families. Tom Cummins, their cousin who is present during the crimes, is thrown off a bridge into the Mississippi River with the two women but survives. Innocent, he... Read A Rip in Heaven Summary


Publication year 1552Genre Book, NonfictionTags History: European

Dominican Friar Bartolomé de Las Casas’s A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies is a primary source on the genocide of indigenous peoples during Spanish colonization of the Americas. This account of Las Casas, who spent much of his life in the New World, specifically spans the years 1509-1542, with some reference to the years between 1542 and 1552, when the book was published. The text mostly details events that occurred in present-day... Read A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies Summary


Publication year 1932Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Hate & Anger, Emotions/Behavior: Revenge, Relationships: MarriageTags Play: Tragedy, Play: Drama, Latin American Literature, Drama / Tragedy, Trauma / Abuse / Violence

Blood Wedding, a Spanish rural tragedy, was written by Federico Garcia Lorca in 1932 while he was director of the travelling theater company Teatro Universitario La Barraca. The play was first performed at Teatro Beatriz in Madrid in 1933 under the title Bodas de Sangre. It ran briefly in America on Broadway in 1935, where it was retitled Bitter Oleander. It was not well received; the passions and folkloric culture in the play were too... Read Blood Wedding Summary


Publication year 1960Genre Short Story, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Literature, Emotions/Behavior: Loneliness, Values/Ideas: FameTags Magical Realism, Auto/Biographical Fiction, Latin American Literature

Publication year 1499Genre Play, FictionTags Classic Fiction

The first iteration of the novel La Celestina, published anonymously as Comedia de Calisto y Melibea (Comedy of Calisto and Melibea), first appeared in Spain in 1499. In 1500, a law student named Fernando de Rojas revealed himself as the author in a new edition of the text (under the title Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea, or Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea), explaining in a prologue that he had discovered the first act already written... Read Celestina Summary


Publication year 1542Genre Book, NonfictionThemes Society: Colonialism, Society: War, Society: Nation, Identity: Race, Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality, Values/Ideas: Safety & Danger, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies, Values/Ideas: Power & GreedTags History: World, Latin American Literature, Christian literature, Creative Nonfiction, Colonialism / Postcolonialism, Trauma / Abuse / Violence, Race / Racism, Renaissance

The Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was originally written in 1542, with a reprint in 1555. The chronicle follows Cabeza de Vaca’s memories of his survival after the expedition (led by Pánfilo de Narváez) failed and broke apart, and his subsequent peregrinations through the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. His chronicle stands as an important primary document of the age of the conquistadores. Of particular importance are Cabeza... Read Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition Summary


Publication year 1583Genre Poem, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality, Emotions/Behavior: LonelinessTags Free verse, Allegory / Fable / Parable

Publication year 1844Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Hate & AngerTags Classic Fiction

José Zorrilla y Moral (1817-1893), was a poet, dramatist, and major figure of the nationalist wing of the Spanish Romantic movement. He was born in Valladolid, Spain and educated at the Real Seminario de Nobles, a Jesuit school, and later at the universities of Toledo and Valladolid. Though Zorrilla’s father hoped his son would become a lawyer, Zorrilla left his studies and went to Madrid to pursue a career as a poet. In 1837, he... Read Don Juan Tenorio Summary


Publication year 1605Genre Novel, FictionThemes Life/Time: Aging, Relationships: FriendshipTags Classic Fiction, Mental Illness, Class, Philosophy, Politics / Government, Renaissance, Religion / Spirituality, Satire

Don Quixote is a novel in two parts by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes published between 1605 and 1615. The novel portrays the life of a middle-aged Spanish man who decides to become a knight, just like the characters in the works of fiction he loves. Considered to be a foundational work of Western literature and one of the first modern novels, Don Quixote is one of the most translated books of all time. It... Read Don Quixote Summary


Publication year 1618Genre Play, FictionTags Classic Fiction

Fuenteovejuna (or Fuente Ovejuna) by Lope de Vega, first published in 1619, takes place and is based on true events that occurred in Spain in 1476. The play opens in Amalgro, where Commander Don Fernán Gómez de Guzmán is meeting with Grand Master Don Rodrigo Téllez Girón to push him to back King Alfonso, rather than Ferdinand and Isabella, in the battle for Spain and take Ciudad Real. Guzmánpledges his soldiers and tells Girón that... Read Fuenteovejuna Summary


Publication year 1177Genre Novel, FictionThemes Natural World: Appearance & Reality, Self Discovery, Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality

Publication year 1969Genre Poem, FictionTags Lyric Poem, Latin American Literature

“In Praise of Darkness” is a poem, and book, by Jorge Luis Borges. It was originally published in Spanish in 1969, late in Borges’s career—his first book of poetry, Fervor de Buenos Aires, was published in 1923. “In Praise of Darkness,” a free verse poem about Aging and Blindness, The Presence of the Past, and the speaker’s Relationship to Literature, also lists some of Borges’s literary influences, including 19th-century American Transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson... Read In Praise of Darkness Summary


Publication year 1945Genre Play, Fiction

The House of Bernarda Alba: a drama about women in the villages of Spain, or La casa de Bernarda Alba, is a play by Spanish poet, dramatist, and director, Federico García Lorca, that explores themes of sexual repression, inheritance, and violence among three generations of women  in rural Spain. The play was Lorca’s last, completed in 1936 only months before his murder at the hands of right-wing nationalist forces at the outbreak of the Spanish... Read La Casa De Bernarda Alba Summary


Publication year 1636Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: RevengeTags Classic Fiction

La vida es sueño, or, Life’s a Dream, by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, is one of Spain’s most well-known plays. First published and first produced in 1636, during the heyday of Spain’s golden age of literature, Life is a Dream is a play in verse that intertwines a complex family drama with a tale of honor and vengeance. The play begins with a dramatic moment, as Rossaura and her servant, Bugle, happen upon a roughly-built... Read Life Is a Dream Summary


Publication year 1878Genre Novel, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: BeautyTags Classic Fiction

Teodoro Golfín, a renowned eye surgeon, has just arrived at the fictional town of Villamojada in Northern Spain in search of the mines of Socrates. At the request of the wealthy Francisco Penáguilas, Teodoro has come to attempt to cure his son, Pablo, of his blindness. On his way to the mines, Teodoro gets lost. He is aided by the arrival of Pablo, who offers to lead Teodoro to the mines where the doctor can... Read Marianela Summary


Publication year 49Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Revenge, Identity: Femininity, Relationships: Family, Values/Ideas: Loyalty & BetrayalTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Ancient Rome

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Carmen Laforet
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Publication year 1945Genre Novel, Fiction

Carmen Laforet’s first novel, Nada, tells the coming-of-age story of Andrea, an orphan who moves from a convent in provincial Spain to the city of Barcelona. Published to widespread acclaim in 1945 when Laforet was just 23, the novel won the Premio Nadal literary prize. Known for its artful portrayal of the poverty, class stratification, and domestic struggles many families faced after the Spanish Civil War, Nada paints a realistic portrait of life under Francisco... Read Nada Summary


Publication year 1930Genre Poem, FictionTags Lyric Poem, LGBTQ

Publication year 60Genre Play, FictionThemes Relationships: Family, Society: Politics & Government, Values/Ideas: FateTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology

Publication year 49Genre Essay / Speech, NonfictionThemes Life/Time: The Past, Life/Time: The Future, Life/Time: Mortality & Death, Natural World: Nurture v. NatureTags Classical Period, Philosophy, Ancient Rome

Publication year 2013Genre Novel, FictionThemes Identity: Race, Identity: Language, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Relationships: Teams, Society: ImmigrationTags Sports, Immigration / Refugee, Coming of Age / Bildungsroman, Realistic Fiction

Publication year 54Genre Play, FictionTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Classical Period, Ancient Rome, Drama / Tragedy, Play: Drama

Phaedra is one of the 10 surviving Roman tragedies attributed to Lucius Annaeus Seneca. It was probably composed in the first half of the first century CE, during the time when the Julio-Claudian Dynasty was in power in Rome. Considered one of Seneca’s most influential plays, Phaedra tells the story of Phaedra’s disastrous and unrequited passion for her stepson Hippolytus, loosely drawing on Euripides’s much earlier Greek tragedy, Hippolytus. The play explores themes such as... Read Phaedra Summary


Publication year 1939Genre Short Story, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Literature, Values/Ideas: Trust & Doubt, Identity: LanguageTags Humor, Post Modernism

Publication year 1930Genre Novel, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Values/Ideas: Truth & LiesTags Religion / Spirituality, Philosophy

Publication year 1945Genre Short Story, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Literature, Natural World: Space & The Universe, Natural World: Appearance & Reality, Life/Time: Mortality & DeathTags Fantasy, Magical Realism, Latin American Literature

Publication year 2022Genre Novel, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Literature, Self Discovery, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Emotions/Behavior: courage, Identity: Mental HealthTags Romance, Humor, New Adult

Publication year 2008Genre Novel, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: GuiltTags Mystery / Crime Fiction

The Angel's Game is a 2008 supernatural mystery novel by the Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Set in Barcelona in the 1920s and 1930s, the book chronicles a young crime novelist's efforts to unravel an occult conspiracy amid the political turmoil of pre-Francoist Spain. It is the second entry in Zafón's Cemetery of Forgotten Books series and a prequel to 2001's Shadow of the Wind, but The Angel's Game is designed to be read as... Read The Angel's Game Summary


Publication year 2002Genre Poem, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Values/Ideas: MusicTags Lyric Poem

Publication year 1941Genre Short Story, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Literature, Emotions/Behavior: Hope, Values/Ideas: Order & Chaos, Values/Ideas: Religion & SpiritualityTags Philosophy, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Allegory / Fable / Parable, Latin American Literature

“The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges is a short story that explores the search for meaning in life, the concept of the infinite, the power of knowledge, and the difference between the human and the divine. Borges is generally categorized as a Postmodern, metafictional, and experimental writer who played with the concept of narrative structure to critique the construction of reality. This work is firmly situated within the speculative fiction genre, weaving together... Read The Library of Babel Summary


Publication year 2021Genre Novel, FictionThemes Relationships: Family, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Relationships: Marriage, Values/Ideas: Trust & DoubtTags Romance, Gender / Feminism, Love / Sexuality

Publication year 1981Genre Novel, FictionThemes Society: War, Society: Politics & Government, Emotions/Behavior: courage, Society: Class, Society: NationTags Historical Fiction, Latin American Literature

Publication year 2016Genre Novel, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies

In the juvenile fiction novel Wrecked, Maria Padian portrays a timely narrative about sexual assault on college campuses. Her careful treatment of this subject earned the text several awards, including the Fall 2016 Kids’ Indie Next Pick, the Maine Lupine Honor Award, and the Maine Literary Award. Originally published in hardcover in 2017 by Algonquin Young Readers, Wrecked also received positive recognition from Booklist, Book Riot, Kirkus Reviews, and the School Library Journal, among others.Plot... Read Wrecked Summary