Miguel de Unamuno

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Miguel de Unamuno
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New Currents of Thought

• Psychoanalysis (Freud)
• Marxism, gains importance
• Existentialism (man is born in order to die)
• Soren Kierkegaard leap of faith

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1898

• Explosion of the Maine in Santiago de Cuba
• War with the United States begins April 23
• Destruction of the Spanish Fleet in the Pacific
  and the Caribeean
• Treaty of Paris December 10

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Effects

• Spain loses its last colonies
• Independent Cuba and the Phillipines
• Protectorates of the U.S. Puerto Rico y Guam
• Crisis in Spain end of empire
• Spanish intellectuals try to understand the
  essence of Spain.

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Miguel de Unamuno 1864-1936
Intellectual Essayist Novelist Dramatist Poet
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Chronology

• 1864 Born in Bilbao.
• 1873 Siege and bombardment of Bilbao by the
  Carlists. Interrupts Unamunos education.
• 1880 Attends U of Madrid
• 1883-84 Receives doctorate
• 1891 Marries Concepción Lizarraga. In June passes
  tests to become Professor of Greek at the U of
  Salamanca.
• Spends his life in Salamanca, except for periods
  of exile and deportation due to his political
  views.
• 1896-1897 he experiences a personal religious
  crisis that causes a distrust of progress and
  science.

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Chronology

• 1914 Becomes rector of the University, a post he
  loses because of criticism of Alfonso XIII.
• 1924 Deported to Fuerteventura (Canarias) for his
  opposition to the dictatorship of Primo de
  Rivera, Is exiled in Paris and then in Hendaya,
  until 1930. Loses his professorship.
• 1930 Returns to Spain, given the professorship of
  History of the Spanish Language.
• 1931 Named rector of the University but is fired
  due to his sympathy for the rebellion of General
  Francisco Franco.
• 1936 Reinstated as rector but loses the post due
  to his disapproval of the nationalists. Dies in
  Salamanca, 31st of December under house arrest.

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Sample of Works

• Essays
• Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho (1905) suggests that
  Cervantes' hero represents the spirituality of
  the Spanish people.
• Del sentimiento trágico de la vida en los hombres
  y en los pueblos (1913).
• Novels
• Paz en la guerra (1897) explores the relationship
  of self and world through the familiarity with
  death. It is based on his experiences as a child
  during the Carlist siege of Bilbao.
• Niebla (1914) called this work a nivola to
  dintiguish it from the novel
• Abel Sánchez (1917) uses Cain and Abel story
• San Manuel Bueno, Mártir (1933)
• Poems El Cristo de Velázquez (1920)

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Cristo de Velazquez