Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (September 29, 1864–December 31, 1936) was an essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher from Spain. Events 522 BC - Darius I of Persia kills the Magian usurper Gaumâta securing his hold as king of the Persian Empire. Year 1864 ( MDCCCLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Events 406 – Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia. Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. An essay is usually a short piece of writing It is often written from an author's personal point of view. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences) is the branch of the Performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.

Biography

Miguel de Unamuno was born in the medieval centre of Bilbao, Basque Country, the son of Félix de Unamuno and Salomé Jugo. Las Siete Calles or El Casco Viejo in Spanish or Zazpikaleak or Alde Zarra in Basque are different names for the medieval neighbourhood Bilbao, (also Bilbo) in the North of Spain, is the largest city in the Basque Country and the capital of the province of Biscay (Basque As a young man, he was interested in the Basque language, and competed for a teaching position in the Instituto de Bilbao, against Sabino Arana. Basque ( native name: euskara) is the Language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain Sabino Arana Goiri, self-styled as Arana ta Goiri'taŕ Sabin ( January 26, 1865 &ndash November 25, 1903) was a Basque The contest was finally won by the Basque scholar Resurrección María de Azcue.

Unamuno worked in all major genres: the essay, the novel, poetry and theatre, and, as a modernist, contributed greatly to dissolving the boundaries between genres. Modernism describes an array of Cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century There is some debate as to whether Unamuno was in fact a member of the Generation of '98 (an ex post facto literary group of Spanish intellectuals and philosophers that was the creation of José Martínez Ruiz — a group that includes Antonio Machado, Azorín, Pío Baroja, Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Ramiro de Maeztu and Ángel Ganivet, among others). The Generation of '98 (also called Generation of 1898 or in Spanish, Generación del 98 or Generación de 1898 was a group of Novelists An intellectual (from the adjective meaning "involving thought and reason" is a person who tries to use his or her Intelligence and analytical thinking, Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language José Augusto Trinidad Martínez Ruíz ( June 8, 1873 - March 2, 1967) was a Spanish Poet Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz, known as Antonio Machado ( July 26, 1875 &ndash February 22, José Augusto Trinidad Martínez Ruíz ( June 8, 1873 - March 2, 1967) was a Spanish Poet Pío Baroja y Nessi ( December 28, 1872 – October 30, 1956) was a Spanish Basque writer one of the key novelists of the Generation of Ramón María del Valle-Inclán y de la Peña ( Vilanova de Arousa, Galicia, Spain, 28 October 1866 — Santiago de Ramiro de Maeztu y Whitney ( May 4, 1875 - October 29, 1936) was a Spanish political theorist journalist literary critic and member Ángel Ganivet García ( 13 December 1865 in Granada, Spain – 1898 in Riga) Spanish Writer and Diplomat

In addition to his writing, Unamuno played an important role in the intellectual life of Spain. He served as rector of the University of Salamanca for two periods: from 1900 to 1924 and 1930 to 1936, during a time of great social and political upheaval. The University of Salamanca (Universidad de Salamanca located in the town of Salamanca, west of Madrid, is the oldest university in Spain (the older Unamuno was removed from his post by the government in 1924, to the protest of other Spanish intellectuals. He lived in exile until 1930, first banned to Fuerteventura (Canary Islands), from where he escaped to France. Fuerteventura, a Spanish Island, is one of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. The Canary Islands ( English pronunciation kəˈnæriː ˈaɪləndz Spanish: Islas Canarias, ˈizlas kaˈnarjas are a Spanish This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Unamuno returned after the fall of General Primo de Rivera's dictatorship and took up his rectorship again. Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja 2 Marqués de Estella ( Jerez de la Frontera, January 8, 1870 - Paris, It is said in Salamanca that the day he returned to the University, Unamuno began his lecture by saying "As we were saying yesterday, . . . ", as Fray Luis de León had done in the same place four centuries before, as though he had not been absent at all. This article is on the Spanish poet For information on the governor of New Spain see Luis Ponce de León (governor of New Spain. After the fall of Rivera's dictatorship, Spain embarked on its second Republic, a short-lived attempt by the people of Spain to take democratic control of their own country. The Second Spanish Republic was the system of government in Spain between April 14 1931, when King Alfonso XIII left the country He was a candidate for the small intellectual party Al Servicio de la República.

The burgeoning Republic was eventually squashed when a military coup headed by General Francisco Franco caused the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde (born December 4, 1892 in Ferrol, died November 20, 1975 in Madrid The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted Coup d'état committed by parts of the army against the government of Having begun his literary career as an internationalist, Unamuno gradually became a convinced Spanish nationalist, feeling that Spain's essential qualities would be destroyed if influenced too much by outside forces. Thus for a brief period he actually welcomed Franco's revolt as necessary to rescue Spain from radical influence. However, the harsh tactics employed by the Francoists in the struggle against their republican opponents caused him to oppose both the Republic and Franco.

As a result of his opposition to Franco, Unamuno was effectively removed for a second time from his University post. Also, in 1936 Unamuno had a brief public quarrel with the Nationalist general Millán Astray at the University in which he denounced both Astray and elements of the Francoist movement. José Millán-Astray y Terreros ( July 5, 1879 – January 1, 1954) was the founder and first commander of the Spanish Foreign Legion He called the battle cry of the rightist Falange movement—"Long live death!"—repellent and suggested Astray wanted to see Spain crippled. This article is about the Spanish political party For the Lebanese Phalange see the Kataeb Party. One historian notes that his address was a "remarkable act of moral courage" and that he risked being lynched on the spot. Shortly afterwards, he was placed under house arrest, where he remained, broken-hearted, until his death ten weeks later. ^[1]

Fiction

Unamuno wrote the following books, in chronological order:

• Paz en la guerra (Peace in War) (1895) — a novel that 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 in the Third Carlist War. The Third Carlist War (Tercera Guerra Carlista ( 1872 - 1876) was the last Carlist War in Spain.
• Amor y pedagogía (Love and Pedagogy) (1902) — a novel uniting comedy and tragedy in an absurd parody of positivist sociology. Positivism is the Philosophy that the only authentic knowledge is knowledge that is based on actual sense experience Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge"
• El espejo de la muerte (The Mirror of Death) (1913) — a collection of stories.
• Niebla (Mist) (1914) — one of Unamuno's key works, which he called a nivola to distinguish it from the supposedly fixed form of the novel ("novela" in Spanish). Mist (Niebla is a Novel written by Miguel de Unamuno and published in 1914 The Nivola is a literary genre created by Miguel de Unamuno. It is characterised by the lack of any great psychological development of the characters the lack of a realistic
• Abel Sánchez (1917) — a novel that uses the story of Cain and Abel to explore envy.
• Tulio Montalbán (1920) — a short novel on the threat of a man's public image undoing his true personality, a problem familiar to the famous Unamuno.
• Tres novelas ejemplares y un prólogo (Three Exemplary Novels and a Prologue) (1920) — a much-studied work with a famous prologue. The title deliberately recalls the famous novelas ejemplares of Miguel de Cervantes.
• La tía Tula (Aunt Tula) (1921) — his final large-scale novel, a work about maternity, a theme that he had already examined in Amor y pedagogía and Dos madres.
• Teresa (1924) — a narrative work that contains romantic poetry, achieving an ideal through the re-creation of the beloved.
• Cómo se hace una novela (How to Make a Novel) (1927) — the autopsy of an Unamuno novel.
• Don Sandalio, jugador de ajedrez (Don Sandalio, Chess Player) (1930).
• "San Manuel Bueno, mártir" (Saint Manuel the Good, Martyr) (1930) — a brief novella that synthesizes virtually all of Unamuno's thought. San Manuel Bueno Mártir (1930 is a Novella by Miguel de Unamuno ( 1864 - 1936) The novella centres on a heroic priest who has lost his faith in immortality, yet says nothing of his doubts to his parishioners, not wanting to disturb their faith, which he recognizes is a necessary support for their lives.

Philosophy

Homage to Unamuno in Bilbao.

Unamuno's philosophy was not systematic, but rather a negation of all systems and an affirmation of faith "in itself. " He developed intellectually under the influence of rationalism and positivism, but during his youth he wrote articles that clearly show his sympathy for socialism and his great concern for the situation in which he found Spain at the time. In Epistemology and in its broadest sense rationalism is "any view appealing to Reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286 Positivism is the Philosophy that the only authentic knowledge is knowledge that is based on actual sense experience The title of Unamuno's most famous work, Del Sentimiento Trágico de la Vida (The Tragic Sense of Life) An important concept for Unamuno was intrahistoria. He thought that history could best be understood by looking at the small histories of anonymous people, rather than by focusing on major events such as wars and political pacts.

Unamuno's Del Sentimiento Trágico de la Vida as well as two other works — La Agonía del Cristianismo (The Agony of Christianity) and his novella "San Manuel Bueno, mártir" — were included on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum of the Catholic Church until the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s and are still considered works that orthodox Roman Catholics are encouraged not to read. The Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("List of Prohibited Books" was a list of publications prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church. The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II, was the twentieth century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church.

Unamuno summarized his personal creed thus: "My religion is to seek for truth in life and for life in truth, even knowing that I shall not find them while I live. "

Poetry

For Unamuno, art was a way of expressing spiritual problems. His themes were the same in his poetry as in his other fiction: spiritual anguish, the pain provoked by the silence of God, time and death.

Unamuno was always attracted to traditional meters and, though his early poems did not rhyme, he subsequently turned to rhyme in his later works.

Among his outstanding works of poetry are:

• Poesías (Poems), (1907) — his first collection of poetry, in which he outlined the themes that would dominate his poetics: religious conflict, Spain, and domestic life
• Rosario de sonetos líricos (Rosary of Lyric Sonnets) (1911)
• El Cristo de Velázquez (The Christ of Velázquez) (1920) — a religious work, divided into four parts, where Unamuno analyzes the figure of Christ from different perspectives: as a symbol of sacrifice and redemption, as a reflection on his Biblical names (Christ the myth, Christ the man on the cross, Christ, God, Christ the Eucharist), as poetic meaning, as painted by Diego Velázquez, etc. Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez ( June 6, 1599 &ndash August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter who was the leading
• Andanzas y visiones españolas (1922) — something of a travel book, in which Unamuno expresses profound emotion and experiments with landscape both evocative and realistic (a theme typical of his generation of writers)
• Rimas de dentro (Rhymes from Within) (1923)
• Rimas de un poeta desconocido (Rhymes from an Unknown Poet) (1924)
• De Fuerteventura a París (From Fuerteventura to Paris) (1925)
• Romancero del destierro (Ballads of Exile) (1928)
• Cancionero (Songbook) (1953, published posthumously)

Drama

Unamuno's dramatic production presents a philosophical progression.

Questions such as individual spirituality, faith as a "vital lie", and the problem of a double personality were at the center of La esfinge (1898), and La verdad (Truth), (1899).

In 1934, he wrote El hermano Juan o El mundo es teatro (Brother Juan or The World is a Theatre).

Unamuno's theatre is schematic; he did away with artifice and focused only on the conflicts and passions that affect the characters. This austerity was influenced by classical Greek theatre. The theatre of ancient Greece, or ancient Greek drama, is a theatrical Culture that flourished in ancient Greece between c What mattered to him was the presentation of the drama going on inside of the characters, because he understood the novel as a way of gaining knowledge about life.

By symbolizing passion and creating a theatre austere both in word and presentation, Unamuno's theatre opened the way for the renaissance of Spanish theatre undertaken by Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Azorín, and Federico García Lorca. Ramón María del Valle-Inclán y de la Peña ( Vilanova de Arousa, Galicia, Spain, 28 October 1866 — Santiago de José Augusto Trinidad Martínez Ruíz ( June 8, 1873 - March 2, 1967) was a Spanish Poet Federico García Lorca' ( 5 June 1898 &ndash 19 August 1936) was a Spanish Poet and dramatist also remembered as

References

See also

• Thinking about the immortality of the crab

External links

• Works by Miguel de Unamuno at Project Gutenberg
• Concordances of Unamuno's Poetry
• Unamuno's Letters to Candamo