The moral debate means a genre of allegorical poems popular in Spain during the medieval period. Usually, an allegorical debate poetry refers to a dialogue o discussion between two o more personifications like Alma vs. Cuerpo, Amor espiritual vs. Amor ...
The moral debate means a genre of allegorical poems popular in Spain during the medieval period. Usually, an allegorical debate poetry refers to a dialogue o discussion between two o more personifications like Alma vs. Cuerpo, Amor espiritual vs. Amor sensual, Don Carnal vs. Doña Cuaresma, Three social class groups (Caballero, Labrador, Monge catolico), etc. In spite of the considerable particularity of each work (denominated by many different title terms, Debate, Disputa, Razon, Proceso, Decir, Batalla, etc.), the moral debate has to be classified as one of the most intellectual literary genres, in which many Spanish writers attempted to express their own moral and political philosophy. The debate poem written in the Old Spanish appeared in the 12th centuries, and continued to be used by the Spanish medieval intellectual until the 16th century. At that time, the literary form used to be composed to give a moral or religious lesson. To make a deep analysis reasonable for this research, 24 poemas have been selected: Disputa entre un cristiano y un judío (anonimo, 1220), Razón de amor (anonimo, 13C), Elena y María (anonimo, 13C), Debate entre don Carnal y doña Cuaresma (Juan Ruiz, 1330), Disputa del cuerpo e del ánima (anonimo, 1382), Proçesso entre la Soberbia y la Mesura (Ruy Páez de Ribera, 1408), Proçeso que ovieron en uno la Dolençia e la Vejez e el Destierro e la Pobreza (Ruy Páez de Ribera, 1408), El vergel de pensamiento (Alfonso Enríquez, 15C), Batalla de amores (Gómez Manrique, 15C), Reqüesta de los tres colores (Pedro González de Uceda, 15C), etc. My research was focused on the detailed examination of each work itself based on the manuscript evidence and secondary literature on the texts collected during the research trips abroad. And then, my analysis was made also in every respect of the text, in particular in its philosophical and social aspects.