: Peggy Whitten Watson
: Intra-historia in Miguel de Unamuno's Novels: A Continual Presence
: Digitalia
: 9781882528004
: 1
: CHF 53.50
:
: Kunst, Literatur
: Spanish
: 150
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: PDF

This study of the modern Spanish writer and philosopher Unamuno focuses on his concept of intra-historia, which is central to understanding the evolution of essayist into novelist. Among the works studied are En torno al casticismo, Paz en la guerra, Niebla, and San Manuel Bueno. These show the metaphorical and ideological aspects of intrahistoria.
CHAPTER ONE THE THEORETICAL BASE: EN TORNO AL CASTICISMO (p. 9)

There is perhaps no group of Unamuno writings that perplex the reader more than the one novel and the many essays written between 1884 and 1900. During these years of intense personal growth, the young Unamuno forced himself to come to terms with religious and social dilemmas that reflected those faced by society at large.

Having lost the simple religious faith of his childhood during his university years, he frantically attempted, in 1897, to regain that faith. Meanwhile, he had been greatly influenced by positivistic and evolutionary thought and by the prevailing late nineteenth-century belief that all truth, physical or metaphysical, might be revealed through scientific investigation.

The philosophical upheavals involved in these changes are reflected in the paradoxes and contradictions that underscore both his pre- and post-1900 literary works.

He courted and then rejected socialism, dramatically joining the Socialist Party in 1894, but losing interest in organized political movements by the turn of the century. Unamuno read voraciously, and unsuccessfully sought teaching appointments in various fields, including Basque, Latín, psychology (which included logic and ethics), and metaphysics.

In 1891 he secured a post at the University of Salamanca as Professor of Greek, this same year he married and by 1902 was the father of seven children.

Unamuno`s incredible array of interests is reflected in his writings. Within less than two decades he presented either directly or indirectly all the themes that would be the bulwark of his future writings. Prominent among these themes is intra-historia.

The most important postulation of intra-hisíoria is found in En tomo al casticismo, a collection of five essays published in the review La España Moderna during the months of February to June, 1895.

These essays comprise a chaotic, yet sensitivo search for those psychological factors that influence the waywardness of Spanish history and that might, if properly understood and reevaluated, have a positive influence on Spain`s future.

Rejecting traditional interpretations of Spanish history, Unamuno sought truth in an intra-history, a looking deeper than surface realities or events to the eternal core of valúes that had created them.

Each essay of En tomo al casticismo is devoted to a particular theme. The first,"La tradición eterna," is an attempt to define basic terms and establish a system of analysis. Through an increasingly complex array of metaphors, Unamuno is able to present his most striking description of intra-historia.

In the second essay,"La casta histórica, Castilla," he affirms that Castile is the nucleus, both physical and spiritual, around which Spain has been built, and that those qualities typical of the Castilian personality become, in turn, typical of Spain.

In this essay, as in the two to follow, Unamuno espouses a strong acceptance of the deterministic influence of environment and heredity on the development of personality. Essays III and IV,"El espíritu castellano" and"De mística y humanismo," are an application of the theories of the first two essays to Spanish literature and thought.
TABLE OF CONTENTS6
INTRODUCTION8
CHAPTER 1. THE THEORETICAL BASE: EN TORNO AL CASTICISMO16
CHAPTER 2. THE FICTIONAL PORTRAYAL: PAZ EN LA GUERRA38
CHAPTER 3. INTRA-HISTORIA AS BACKDROP: NIEBLA66
CHAPTER 4. A FICTIONAL REINTEGRARON: SAN MANUEL BUENO, MARTIR97
CONCLUSION130