Luis de Góngora y Argote, a Golden Age poet and playwright, was born in Córdoba, Spain in 1561.
He is considered to be the greatest exponent of the florid, ornate literary style that came to be known as “Culteranismo” and which many artists would later try to imitate.
His works were objects of extensive, critical study even in his own day. Góngora wrote his best-known works,El Polifemo and Las Soledades, between 1612 and 1614. He later obtained an appointment as honorary chaplain to Philip III of Spain.
He suffered a stroke in 1626 and died in May of the following year in Córdoba. Góngora never received the same recognition and popularity during his lifetime that he did posthumously.
His style, which came to be known as “Gongorism,” became popular again 300 years after his death when it was hailed by such writers as Federico García Lorca and Jorge Guillén.
trong>Links:
http://www.los-poetas.com/h/gongo.htm
http://www.poesia-castellana.com/gongora.html
