Who was Luis de Gongora?

Answer 1

Luis de Gongora (1561-1627) was a Spanish poet from Cordoba, Spain. He was famous for his 'soledades', which rely heavily upon the techniques 'culteranismo' and 'conceptismo'. Gongora's primera soledad describes the adventure of his protagonist, a peregrino (signifying not 'pilgrim' but 'traveller', deriving from the latin) who is fleeing court due to circumstances involving unrequited love (Gongora never explicitly states this, it is left for the reader to infer). Unfortunately the peregrino is shipwrecked during his journey (Gongora compares him to the figure of Arion in classical mythology), though he makes it to shore and comes upon a friendly community of goatherds. Throughout the primera soledad Gongora makes numerous comparisons between the rural idyll of the goatherds life and the negativity of hte court, from which the peregrino is of course escaping. He does this by using frequent subtle references to figures of classical mythology (Jupiter, Leda, Castor and Pollux, Venus etc...)