Luis de Góngora completed the first version of his Soledad primera in the spring of 1613. Immediately his poem became the centre of a vigorous literary polemic. The writings of his detractors and of his supporters marked the beginning of a period of intense literary criticism in Spanish letters. The corpus of these writings has yet to be properly listed, edited and analysed in its totality. Approaching the problem of the obscurity of Góngora's writings by way of the reception of the Soledades in the seventeenth century, the author has been able to determine why his contemporaries found difficulty with the poems, and to study the significance of literary obscurity, its sources, causes and consequences and the new emphasis lent to it by Góngora. On the basis of this new interpretation the critic reconsiders and reviews various long-held assumptions in Gongorine criticism. The work includes a preface by Robert Jammes, of the Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail. JOAQUIN ROSES LOZANO lectures in Spanish at the University of Córdoba.