The Indefiniteness as a Generic Mark of the Verse Epistle? Origins, Problems and Praxis

Abstract

The proximity or confusion between satires and epistles in Horace has its reflection in the Spanish poetry of the Golden Age, but not its exact reproduction. This complex origin of the epistle joins other problems, such as the pseudobiographical projection or the careful organization of the epistles in two books. The epistolary genre, in prose and verse, is also characterized by extreme variability, so that beyond the presence of an addressee it does not seem always possible to find shared characteristics. The appearance of epistolary, moreover, does not serve to ascribe a poem to such a variable genre. Nevertheless, the poets of the 16^th and 17^th centuries as well as the current critics identify a stable epistolary group in the Golden Age.