Bengasi and low baroque poetics: prosaic, epistolary and jocoserious characters

Abstract

We propose an approach to some of the components of the «bajo barroco» poetic through the work of José Joaquín Benegasi and Lujan (1707-1770). The analysis focuses on the professional dimension of the author, in his fondness for epistolary form and «jocoserio» tone, as linked to a «prosaismo», usually with negative writeup. The findings show the reasons for this trait, its consistency with chosen poetic forms and based and the base on the ideological changes that mark the time, to propose a historical-critical rereading in a positive key. We discuss the consideration of the low baroque as a period of degeneration or transition, although noting the reworking of previous material and aspects related to an emerging «ilustración».