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Stanley J. Nowak,
Jr.
Pennsylvania State
University Critics have analyzed Lazarillo de Tormes2 from varying perspectives, often focusing on the question of whether the work has artistic unity. No critic, however, has identified the first tractado as a carefully constructed combination of seven specifically weighted episodes that prefigures the overall structure of Lazarillo. Artistic unity in Lazarillo is a source of ongoing disagreement among literary critics who generally hold one of four positions determined by whether they feel the work is complete or not and whether they judge it to have or to lack artistic unity3. Even among those who agree that there is unity, there is disagreement concerning its source or nature. This study presents clear evidence to substantiate the case for artistic unity by revealing the underlying structural prophecy of Tractado Primero. By extension, although not the focus of this study, it also suggests that there is a sound basis for the analysis of the seven tractados of the Lazarillo as exempla of the seven capital sins4. Many have noted that the Teiresian Blindman's prophecies are realized in the seventh tractado, without also noting that there is a concurrent realization of a structural prophecy. In this study, each episode in Tractado Primero will be ascribed a positive (+) or negative (-) valence determined by how it affects Lazarillo. If he tricks the Blindman with impunity, the episode will be granted a (+) valence, if caught and punished, a (-) one. After this, the literary necessity for the organizational patterns and valences (order and outcome) of the episodes will be discussed. Tractado Primero is composed of two segments -the ante-journey portion, which includes Lazarillo's biography prior to his leaving home in the service of the Blindman, and the beginning of the journey proper, during which he serves his seven primary masters. Both segments are included in the same tractado for the same reason that Dante does not begin his journey proper until Canto II of Inferno to insure that the pilgrimage in each of the three canticles of the Commedia is described in 33 cantos. The author of the Lazarillo could have made the ante-journey segment the first tractado without incurring any thematic disharmony; however, this would have yielded a work with eight tractados. It would have structurally distanced the beginning of the journey, which is the stated intent of the narrative, from the numerical beginning of the work itself. And, it would have violated the internal structural harmony of having the Blindman's prophecy concerning Lazarillo's life coexist with the structural prophecy regarding the work itself. The author reiterates the importance of this
perspective by having Lazarillo state, on three specific occasions in
Tractado Primero, that he will relate only
certain tales based on his many experiences with the Blindman. In addressing
Vuestra Merced, Lazarillo says that he has had to trick the Blindman in order
to stay alive.
«Para esto, le hacía burlas
endiabladas, de las cuales contaré algunas; aunque no todas a mi
salvo» (27). This selectivity, both in relation to number
and quality, suggests the appropriateness of evaluating episodes by valence.
Introducing the episode of the grapes, Lazarillo says,
«contaré un caso de
machos» (35) and in the sixth episode, that of the
sausage,
«dejo de contar muchas cosas,
así graciosas como de notar, que con este mi primer amo me
acaescieron» (37). The author has Lazarillo suggest
specifically in this
tractado
The first episode -the structural counter part of Tractado Primero- represents the beginning of Lazarillo's journey. It is fitting that he leave Salamanca, the home of the famous medieval university associated with formal learning, to embark on his pilgrimage with the Blindman. Lazarillo mentions Salamanca four times in Tractado Primero: first, in the opening lines of the tractado, he describes his parents as being «naturales de Tejares, aldea de Salamanca» (12); second, after he starts to serve his «nuevo y viejo amo», he says, «estuvimos en Salamanca algunos días» (22); third, in the opening lines of the first episode, he says, «Salimos de Salamanca y llegando a la puente»... (22); and fourth, just prior to the «uvas» episode, he says, «Cuando salimos de Salamanca, su motivo fue venir a tierra de Toledo» (35). Like the three allusions to the selective process, these four references to the same place name are unique to the first tractado and contrast the formal academic learning symbolized by the University of Salamanca to Lazarillo's learning from experience. His crossing the bridge is symbolic of the rite of passage into adulthood. It is especially appropriate here because Lazarillo not only leaves his mother and his childhood, but also crosses over the very river he acknowledges as having given him life. «Mi nascimiento fue dentro del río Tormes, por la cual causa tomé el sobrenombre... De manera que con verdad me puedo decir nascido en el río» (12-14). This water imagery will extend to the seventh episode in this tractado and will control the imagery of Lazarillo's success in Tractado Séptimo. Of those who have been born to noble estates, he says, «cuánto más hicieron los que, siéndoles contraria, con fuerza y maña remando salieron a buen puerto» (11). The mention of «la puente» draws on all of these associations. The reference to «la entrada» suggests a beginning, a passage to a new life. The first episode appropriately takes place before crossing, at the «entrada». If it were to take place on the other side of the bridge, the prophetic element of the episode would be lost. At the entrance there is «un animal de piedra, que casi tiene forma de toro» (22). This qualification of the form of the bull is a clear example of the author's artistic selectivity5. Although Lazarillo's perception of the form of the animal is at first tentative, as suggested by his use of the qualifier «casi» and the use of the noun «animal» twice, the Blind man is clear about it being a bull. Even in this subtle differentiation, the author reinforces the developmental nature of Lazarillo's perception, both of the «bull» itself, and of the many other experiences Lazarillo will suffer at the hands of his angry master. Although blind, he sees the statue as a bull; this establishes him as a seer in the very first episode. The last critical element in this episode is the «gran calabazada» That Lazarillo's first lesson is an injury to his head is an appropriate symbol for the «learning» he must do and for the lack of reason which characterizes his master's angry behavior. Lazarillo will demonstrate that he has learned his lesson well in the seventh episode, and will continue to allude to the education he has received from the Blindman throughout the seven tractados. At the end of the first episode, Lazarillo says, demonstrating that his learning has already begun: «Verdad dice éste, que me cumple avivar el ojo y avisar, pues solo soy, y pensar cómo me sepa valer» (23). This experience, the pain from which Lazarillo says lasted «más de tres días» marks the transition from the ante-journey segment of Tractado Primero to the journey proper. He says, «Parescióme que en aquel instante desperté de la simpleza en que como niño, dormido estaba» (23). This episode is ascribed a negative valence (-). The second episode, involving Lazarillo's attack on the «fardel», recalls his father's crime. In the ante-journey segment of the first tractado, Lazarillo relates how when he was eight years old, «achacaron a mi padre ciertas sangrías mal hechas en los costales de los que allí a moler venían» (14). This is echoed in his own theft, «por un poco de costura, que muchas veces del un lado del fardel decosía y tornaba a coser, sangraba el avariento fardel...» (28). The primary difference between Lazarillo and his father, in this context, is that Lazarillo steals with impunity: this yields a positive valence (+) for this episode. In the
third episode, Lazarillo halves his master's income by substituting smaller
coins
The fourth episode, the «jarrazo», because of its central position, is longer and is divided into three parts. It is a primary example of the Blindman's anger, and it introduces the «wine resurrection» theme in the tractado. The first part contains three positive descriptions of Lazarillo stealing wine from the Blindman with impunity. (1) In referring to the Blindman's jug of wine, Lazarillo says, «yo muy de presto le asía y daba un par de besos callados y tornábale a su lugar» (30-31). (2) When the first method is no longer effective, he devises a new one: «yo con una paja largo de centeno que para aquel menester tenía hecha, la cual, metiéndola en la boca del jarro, chupando el vino lo dejaba a buenas noches» (31). (3) The third method also works for a time; Lazarillo opens a small «agujero» in the bottom of the jug which he seals with wax. He then crawls between the Blindman's legs, feigning discomfort from the cold, removes the wax from the hole and drains the wine. These three seemingly uncomplicated descriptions echo the developmental nature of the tractado by being presented in an order of increasing complexity. After simply snatching the jug and stealing a couple of swallows, he must become more subtle and utilize a straw which he fashions for the purpose. When that fails, he is driven by his longing for the wine to devise the more complex and ingenious solution of using the wax. The artistic necessity of three brief positive sub-episodes after a positive third episode, «blancas», and a positive second episode, «fardel», is clear, given the negative out come of the central part of the fourth episode. The middle portion of the fourth episode, intensified by the unexpectedness of the event, is the low point in the tractado for Lazarillo. He is savoring the delicious draught with eyes half-closed with pleasure, facing heaven, only to have the bitter-sweet jug broken on his face and to feel as if the heavens and everything in them have dropped on him. He loses consciousness; fragments of the jug cut his face, and many of his teeth are lost. This is the turning point for Lazarillo in his relationship with the «mal ciego». He muses, «Desde aquella hora quise mal al mal ciego, y aunque me quería y regalaba y me curaba, bien vi que se había holgado del cruel castigo» (33). As the Blindman washes Lazarillo with wine he says, «-¿Qué to parece, Lázaro? Lo que te enfermó te sana y da salud» (33). This line introduces the «wine resurrection» theme, which will be further developed in episode six of this tractado and continue through out the work, to Lazarillo's «buen puerto» in Tractado Séptimo. This clearly merits a negative valence (-). The third part of the fourth episode deals with anger begetting anger, as Lazarillo leads his master along the worst paths he can find. Although punished for it, he expresses his sentiments as follows: «que, aunque yo no iba por lo más enjuto, holgábame a mí de quebrar un ojo por quebrar dos al que ninguno tenía» (34-35). Frustration and anger are evident as Lazarillo himself suffers in order to infect pain on his master. This ambivalent situation is neither clearly positive nor negative; it is perhaps best described as neutral, leaning to the positive, because of the degree of choice exercised by Lazarillo. This third part balances the first, with the three positive sub-episodes, and it offers a transition into the fifth episode, which illustrates the «grandísimo entendimiento... [y] ...ingenio deste astuto ciego» (35). In episode five, the Blindman takes two grapes at a time rather than one as agreed, and Lazarillo takes three at a time until the grapes are gone. This is a unique episode in that Lazarillo succeeds, and he does so with the knowledge of his master. And, unlike the result of the third part of episode four, where his intent is detected and he is punished, in this episode he emerges unscathed. It is appropriate that this relief from the suffering infected by the Blindman should appear in this position in the tractado. It is critical for Lazarillo to succeed, not only to relieve the reader from the negative impact of the fourth episode, but also to prepare him for the sixth. The fifth is a positive (+) episode. The sixth episode deals with the
«negra mal maxcada
longaniza». Lazarillo is sent to buy wine for his master;
before going, he lifts the sausage from the Blindman's frying pan and replaces
it with a discarded turnip. Upon Lazarillo's return with the wine, the Blindman
discovers the exchange and immediately
In retrospect, Lazarillo laments not having bitten off the Blindman's nose. This fantasied retaliation is another example of anger begetting anger. By its very violence, even in fantasy, it prepares the reader for the revenge Lazarillo will extract from the Blindman in episode seven. The «wine resurrection» theme is further developed in this episode as the landlady and those present wash Lazarillo's face and throat with the wine he had brought for the Blindman to drink. The Blindman remarks:
Shortly thereafter he pronounces his prophecy: «Yo te digo, -dijo-que, si un hombre en el mundo ha de ser bienaventurado con vino, que serás tú» (102). The «wine resurrection» theme is thereby linked to the prophecy which will be realized in Tractado Séptimo. It is introduced in a series of episodes which constitute a structural prophecy in themselves and which also depict the most bloody physical violence in all the work. The journey Lazarillo makes is accentuated by the contrast between his condition and relationship to wine in the low point of episode four, «jarrazo», and his situation in the seventh tractado where he fords his «buen puerto». The prophecy also triggers an association with Lazarillo's father, by the use of the term bienaventurado. In the ante-journey segment of this tractado, Lazarino describes what happened to his father: «padesció persecución por justicia. Espero en Dios que está en la gloria, pues el Evangelio los llama bienaventurados. ...Y con su señor, como leal criado, fenesció su vida» (emphasis added; 14-15). This in turn introduces his father as a «leal criado» which, when juxtaposed to the role of Lazarillo as loyal servant to V. M. in Tractado Séptimo, deepens the significance of the prophecy. It not only suggests that Lazarillo will be lucky with wine, it implies that he will be associated with those who suffer «persecución por justicia», which he does as a town crier. The prophecy suggests that the death of his father as a «leal criado» is shrouded in mystery, one which Lazarillo's mother has chosen not to clarify. This in turn parallels the reality of Lazarillo's marriage and the length to which he goes to avoid any reference to it from friends. The term bienaventurados, like the use of «la puente» in the first episode, is associatively rich. It touches on Lazarillo's family background, reinforces the «wine resurrection» theme in the present episode, and anticipates the fulfillment of the prophecy in Tractado Séptimo and its corresponding echo of familial recapitulation. This is further enhanced by Lazarillo's acknowledgment of the prophecy coming true: «Mas el prognóstico del ciego no salió mentiroso, y después acá muchas veces me acuerdo de aquel hombre, que sin duda debía tener espíritu de profecía, ...considerando lo que aquel día me dijo salirme tan verdadero como adelante Vuestra Merced oirá» (43). The prophecy and Lazarillo's acknowledgement are appropriately
placed just before episode seven where he demonstrates the extent of his
learning. If the first episode at the entrance
In both the first and the seventh episodes, it is stone which will be the agent of pain. And in both, Lazarillo will equivocate in his description. If in the first episode he used the term animal twice in addition to the qualifier casi to describe the stone bull, in the last he refers to «un pilar o poste de piedra» (44). The first episode combines «stone» and «bull» in the form of the statue; the seventh episode combines «stone pillar» with five references to the association with the irrational «toro». They appear after Lazarillo has manipulated his master into position in front of the pillar.
The first reference controls the four remaining ones. Lazarillo stands behind the «poste, como quien espera tope de toro». He is in the role of bullfighter, and the Blindman represents the bull. This role is very suggestive on a number of levels. Lazarillo will use language and wit to serve as his bullfighter's cape in order to control the Blindman, who finally inflicts harm on himself. This episode represents the culmination of Lazarillo's learning from the Blindman. Recall, for example, the third part of the fourth episode, where Lazarillo had to inflict pain on himself in order to harm his master. Here, perhaps most importantly, Lazarillo's «venganza» is realized with impunity. This places the comment of the Blindman to Lazarillo after the first episode by the bridge in ironic perspective. «Necio, aprende, que el mozo del ciego un punto ha de saber más que el diablo» (23). Further development of the bullfighter role is found in Lazarillo's crying out, «Sus!» as if he were baiting a bull. The reference to «cabrón» as another symbol of irrationality complements the «toro» imagery. Also, «corrida» is found in the same line as the description of the Blindman as he rears up, and with all his might, charges forward into the post. Lastly, there is the reference to «!Ole! !Ole!» which follows the imagery begun with Lazarillo as a bullfighter and echoes the cheers heard at a «corrida». It is particularly appropriate after the reference to the «longaniza» because it recalls the Blindman's violent irrational anger toward Lazarillo in episode six. «¡Ole! ¡Ole!» is apt as a parting exclamation from a student who has taken his vengeance on his teacher with impunity, using only words to achieve his end. That the self-infected pain is to his «cabeza», utilizes the richness of association referred to in the discussion of episode one. If at first Lazarillo suffers a «gran calabazada» (4) at his master's hand, he retaliates by having the Blindman smash his head, which «sonó tan recio como si diera con una gram calabaza...» (45). The «calabazada/ cabeza» references constitute another element which serves to underscore the inversion of episode one in episode seven. The
episodes with the Blindman begin at the entrance to the bridge and with the
prophecy of Lazarillo's painful initiation as part of the rite of passage. The
new life is both with the Blindman and in the world. It also provides a
structural transition from the ante-journey family history segment of
Tractado Primero to the seven episodes with
his first master. At the end of
Tractado Primero, he leaves the Blindman
«en poder de mucha gente que to
había ido a socorrer» (46). This recalls the end of
the
«longaniza»
episode, where Lazarillo relates that people had rushed in to save him.
Lazarillo then runs through the gate of the village on his way to find his next
master and his ultimate destiny, prophesied by the
The seven episodes of Tractado Primero have been assigned positive or negative valences, and their positioning discussed as they relate to Lazarillo's development while with his first master. It is important to recall, prior to embarking on an analysis of the interrelationships between episodes, that it is only in this specific tractado that the author stresses -three times- that the tales given V. M. are the result of the author's conscious choice. The seven episodes and their respective valences can be summarized as follows:
What is striking about this summary of episodes and valences is that the organizational pattern is symmetrical around the keystone fourth episode.
The first pair of episodes are (-), (+) and the last pair are the same, (-), (+). The keystone episode, the low point of the tractado, after which Lazarillo decides to leave his master, is positioned between two positive episodes, 3(+), «blancas» and 5(+), «uvas». In addition to the previously discussed inversion of outcome from 1(-), «puente/toro» to 7(+), «poste/toro», the necessity of insulating 4(-), «jarrazo» with 3(+), «blancas» and 5(+), «uvas» there are other thematic elements which reinforce the structural development of the tractado. Of particular interest are those which appear in symmetrical juxtaposition around the pivotal fourth episode. For example, 2(+), «fardel» and 6(-), «longaniza» are equidistant from the keystone fourth episode and share the reference to «longaniza». In 2(+), «fardel», Lazarillo bleeds the Blindman's sack, recalling his father's crime, and takes not only bread but also «torreznos y longaniza» (29). The morsel of sausage, which he enjoys with impunity in episode two, will become «la negra mal maxcada longaniza» (40) of episode six. Episodes one, four, and seven offer a similar connection. The importance of the use of stone and head have been discussed in relation to the inversion of 1, (-) in 7, (+). Episode 4, (-) echoes the imagery, but does not replicate the terminology. The «piedra» and «cabeza» of tractados one and seven become the «pedazos» of the «jarro», and the «cara» of 4(-), «jarrazo». The symmetry is enhanced by this placement, as is the appropriateness of Lazarillo deciding to leave his master in this episode. Episode 3(+), «blancas» and 5(+), «uvas», like the first and seventh, share parallel elements which further strengthen the symmetry of the tractado. Although the parallels they share may not be critical in terms of Lazarillo's character development, they complement the internal unity and symmetry. As noted, they both serve the function of insulating the negative fourth episode, and they both depict Lazarillo using his «mouth» to take advantage of the Blindman. In the one, he hides the «blancas» in his mouth, and in the other, he eats the grapes. Despite having positive valences, they could not be interchanged with out diminishing the integrity of the work's structure. The 5(+), «uvas» episode is longer and more detailed than 3(+), «blancas» which can be accounted for by the function it serves in separating the two most negative experiences Lazarillo undergoes in the tractado. In addition, 5(+), «uvas» emphasizes the Blindman's «grandísimo entendimiento... [y]...ingenio» (35). This longer episode serves to highlight the Blindman's cleverness and contribute to the relief from his cruelty. It also introduces the dramatic role reversal that will take place as Lazarillo does to his master what was done to him in episode one. As previously noted, no single episode in Tractado Primero can be moved without endangering the structure of the whole. Each serves a specific function which represents a critical step in Lazarillo's development. As Lazarillo leaves the scene of 7(+), «poste/toro», he experiences another rite of passage. Drenched from the rain, which recalls his birth from the river, he departs through the gate of the village-the counterpart to the bridge in the first episode. Tractado Primero is a structural prophecy of the overall form
of
Lazarillo. Only the Teiresian seer, as
master of the first
tractado, could serve this function.
And, based on the analysis of the first
tractado, it is developmental as opposed to
episodic. Moving or deleting an episode in
Tractado Primero would destroy its
structural symmetry. It would also negate the
This study has focused on the artistic unity and the underlying structure of Tractado Primero. Together with its implications for the unity of the work as a whole, it serves as the basis of understanding the overall structure of Lazarillo. It provides a first step in developing a systematic approach to the work that will help answer questions concerning the structure of Lazarillo and whether it was completed by its author before publication. Tractado Primero and its seven episodes are a microcosm of the Lazarillo and its seven tractados as exempla of the seven capital sins. From the seven syllables in Lazarillo de Tormes, to the seven episodes in Tractado Primero, to the seven tractados and the seven capital sins, there is a structural progression which reveals a very particular organizational pattern. Viewed from this perspective, the work clearly has artistic unity.
Works Cited
Atkinson, William. «The Picaresque Novel». BHS 4 (1927): 19-27. Ayala, Francisco. Experiencia e invención: ensayos sobre el escritor y su mundo. Madrid: Taurus, 1960. Barja, César. Libros y autores clásicos. 1922; rpt. New York: Strechert, 1941. Berkowitz, H. Chonon and Samuel A. Wofsy, eds. Introduction. La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades. Richmond, VA: Johnson, 1927. Blackburn, Alexander. The Myth of the Pícaro: Continuity and Transformation of the Picaresque Novel 1554-1954. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979. Carilla, Emilio. Estudios de literatura española. Universidad del Litoral-Argentina: Rosario, 1958. Collard, Andree. «The Unity of Lazarillo de Tormes». MLN 83 (1968): 262-67. Fiore, Robert L. Lazarillo de Tormes. Boston: Twayne, 1984. Hesse, Everett and Harry F. Williams, eds. Preface. La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1948. Lázaro Carreter, Fernando. «Construcción y sentido del Lazarillo de Tormes». Ábaco: estudios sobre literatura española, 1. Ed. Antonio Rodríguez-Moñino. Madrid: Castalia, 1969. 45-134. Mancing, Howard. «The Deceptiveness of Lazarillo de Tormes»: PMLA 90 (1975): 426-32. Miller, Stuart. The Picaresque Novel. Cleveland: The Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1967. Rico, Francisco, ed. Lazarillo de Tormes. Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, 1987. Tarr, F. Courtney. «Literary and Artistic Unity in the Lazarillo de Tormes»: PMLA 42 (1927): 404-21. Willis, Ultich. «Lazarillo and the Pardoner: The Artistic Necessity of the Fifth tractado» HR 27 (1959): 267-79.
Margaret A.
Ballantyne
York College,
CUNY A primera vista podría parecer extraño que en un período tan agitado como el último tercio del siglo XIX, surgieran tres grandes revistas intelectuales de alta calidad y de espíritu liberal6. Sin embargo, cuando se considera la extraordinaria ebullición intelectual que antecedió -y luego caracterizó- la revolución gloriosa de 1868, en la cual brotaron tantas esperanzas de una nueva y fecunda partida7, el fenómeno deja de antojársenos tan sorprendente. Ya en el curso del siglo la prensa española había ido creciendo en importancia, primero como portavoz de opinión y luego como órgano de información. Estas tres revistas, (La Revista de España, La Revista Europea y La Revista Contemporánea), dirigidas a los intelectuales y a las nuevas clases medias de cierta ilustración, junto con los periódicos más prestigiosos, (El Imparcial, La Nación y El Debate), ofrecieron al público matritense una nutrida orientación sobre filosofía, ciencias sociales, historia y cultura. La Revista de España (1868-1895), producto tanto del esfuerzo del fundador José Luis Albareda como del espíritu y clima intelectual del año que dio luz a la Revolución, captó los sucesos históricos claves de la época así como detalló el pensamiento político e intelectual de muchas de las figuras más importantes del desarrollo de España. Es obvio que las otras revistas principales participaban en el desarrollo intelectual del país, pero con métodos distintos: cada una apoyaba un movimiento definido. En el primer número de la distinguida Revista Europea (1874-79), editada por Ricardo Medina y Armando Palacio Valdés, Castelar contribuyó con uno de los estudios más importantes de la época sobre la filosofía de Hegel, «La filosofía del progreso». En 1875 esta revista abrazó el pensamiento neo-kantiano. La otra revista de la época, la Revista Contemporánea, (1875 1902), fue dirigida por Perojo entre 1875 y 1896 y luego por Francisco de Asís Pacheco. Esta revista abarcaba una variedad de artículos, pero adoptó una postura fija en cuanto a la filosofía cuando empezó a abogar por el positivismo en su serie de artículos por Manuel de la Revilla (Zavala, 298). El hecho es, sin embargo, que La Revista de España se destacó en varios aspectos de sus congéneres: su prioridad -es la única fundada antes de estallarse la revolución- su longevidad, y como veremos, el tono y la independencia política que impartió su fundador y director José Luis Albareda. Nuestro interés por el momento se ciñe a un período limitado8 que cae enteramente dentro del llamado sexenio revolucionario cuando todavía no existían las otras dos publicaciones. Así, la Revista queda como el único testigo de esta categoría de los sucesos históricos tan claves como la abdicación de Amadeo y la fundación de la Primera República, entre otros, y sus artículos reflejan las, reacciones progresistas a los mismos. Es de esperar que este índice, al ofrecer datos sobre la publicación de unos ciento treinta y cinco artículos de tema histórico, político o intelectual, facilite el trabajo de los estudiosos de la época. Desde el primer número que salió en marzo de
1868 hasta febrero de 1872 el director además de ser propietario -de
La Revista de España fue Albareda.
Luego, desde noviembre de 1873 hasta enero de 1890 Fernando León y
Castillo cooperó con Albareda en esta empresa. Durante los
veintidós meses entre febrero de 1872 y noviembre de 1873 (tomos
XXIV-XXXV, números 95-137) Benito Pérez Galdós
desempeñó el cargo de director de la
Sin duda, el corazón de La Revista de España fue José Luis Albareda, un periodista y político que ejerció mucha influencia en la vida de su país. Galdós, empleado, colega y amigo de Albareda nos da una viva descripción del fundador de esta revista en Amadeo I. Un breve resumen de su carrera subraya la energía y actividad de Albareda. Antes de fundar la Revista de España, estableció El Debate. Este periódico militaba contra la políticas radicales de Ruiz Zorrilla, mientras apoyaba a Sagasta y a Serrano9. En la esfera política, también hacía muchos papeles. En 1865 era diputado; con el éxito de la Septembrina sirvió de Concejal del Ayuntamiento de Madrid. Después, representó Alcoy en las Cortes Constituyentes. Se opuso a la candidatura de Montpensier y su Revista de España fue la primera en apoyar la de Amadeo de Saboya10. Prosperó bajo Amadeo, sirviendo de gobernador civil de Madrid desde 1871 hasta la Restauración y es probable que sus obligaciones en este puesto impidieran la realización de su trabajo en la Revista durante el período que le concedió a Galdós este cargo. Con la Restauración Albareda continuó sus actividades políticas: bajo Sagasta fue nombrado Ministro de Fomento (1881), Ministro de la Gobernación (1887), y más tarde Gobernador del Banco Hipotecario. Indudablemente su servicio más importante para el futuro de España fue la restauración de los catedráticos krausistas y el establecimiento de la libertad académica que procedió de esta decisión11. Bien conocido, amigo de todos, hombre que había tenido muchas afiliaciones políticas, Albareda era un director astuto y hábil que guió la Revista de España por las aguas turbulentas de la censura. Albareda en esa época trabajaba bajo unas de las leyes más restrictivas. La Ley Cánovas de 1864 había proveído una medida de libertad de prensa, pero con la tragedia de San Gil la situación se endureció (Cruz Seoane, 243). Albareda fundó El Debate en el mismo año que la promulgación del Decreto del 7 de marzo de 1867, quizás la ley de censura más restrictiva del siglo (Tobajas, 446). La libertad de prensa establecida por la coalición de septiembre no iba a durar mucho tiempo y en momentos de nuevas restricciones y limitaciones de la prensa la Revista de España evitó problemas oficiales12. A la vez que sus contactos ayudaron a la administración de la revista, estas diversas afiliaciones fueron, hasta cierto punto, responsables del el espíritu ecléctico de la Revista de España. Fernando León y Castillo, canario y buen amigo de Galdós, fue otra fuerza importante en la historia de la Revista de España, pero su mayor influencia no cabe dentro de los límites de este trabajo. Fue León y Castillo el que dirigió la Revista con Albareda cuando Galdós la dejó. Aun antes de su servicio como director de la revista, contribuyó con varios artículos, incluyendo dos «Revistas políticas interiores» en 1872 y otra en 1873. En este momento, como era de costumbre entre muchos de los periodistas del siglo, León y Castillo militaba en la esfera política también, sirviendo de gobernador civil de Granada en 1869, diputado por Canarias en 1871 y más tarde, embajador en Francia tres veces: 1887, 1892, 1897. Al trabajar en la junta directiva de la Revista de España, León y Castillo llevaba consigo muchos años de experiencia periodística con algunos de los periódicos más notables de la época, incluso el Eco del País, y El Imparcial, el prestigioso periódico que fundó Eduardo Gasset y Artime en 1867. Benito Pérez Galdós es el tercer hombre de influencia en la
historia de la
Revista de España durante sus
años formativos: aun antes del período de su dirección, se
habían publicado varios artículos suyos en la revista, incluso
sus «Observaciones sobre la novela» en 1870 y en 1871
La sombra y
El audaz, y
No nos deben sorprender el alto nivel de calidad y la tolerancia en las esferas políticas y filosóficas que marcan la historia de la Revista de España bajo este triunvirato. Era natural que colaboraran con tanto éxito en este proyecto. La capacidad de Albareda en aceptar nuevas políticas, la dedicación a la precisión de León y Castillo y la búsqueda de un programa de conciliación que marca el pensamiento de Galdós, (Goldman) todos tienen su reflejo en la Revista de España. Es la preocupación colectiva por España de esta junta directiva lo que guiaba su revista, abriéndola a una política ecléctica y una representación amplia y abierta de cada faceta de la vida cultural e intelectual de su país. La Revista de España publicó su primer número el 15 de marzo de 1868, unos pocos meses antes de la Gloriosa13. Es decir que apareció en plena época de represión, unas semanas antes de la muerte de Narvaez (el 23 de abril), y la sucesión reaccionaria de González Bravo. En tal ambiente, ¿cuál fue la intención de Albareda al fundar la Revista? En la «Introducción» del primer número de la Revista de España, el fundador declara:
Dedicándose a los principios del progreso cultural y científico, así como a la libertad intelectual, los directores de la Revista de España lograron su gran éxito al influir y reflejar el ambiente intelectual y literario durante los veintisiete años de publicación de su Revista. Hoy en día, la Revista de España nos brinda un tesoro de géneros literarios e ideas intelectuales. Aquí se encuentran los mejores autores y pensadores del siglo: Cánovas del Castillo, Valera, Pereda, Pardo Bazán, Giner, Salmerón, González Serrano, Campoamor y, por supuesto, Pérez Galdós. También nos ha preservado las obras de escritores de segunda categoría, las cuales forman un contexto importante para apreciar la evolución artística del siglo. En el campo intelectual la Revista, debido a la fuerte influencia de la tolerancia krausista, se abría a todas las corrientes de la época: se encuentran defensas del neocatolicismo, además de estudios sobre el darwinismo y el positivismo. Lo que distingue la Revista de España de los otros órganos de alta calidad es precisamente este esfuerzo, en agitado período revolucionario, de mantenerse libre, dentro del seno de las fuerzas progresistas, del partidismo político. El afán de reconciliación no era novedad en la escena política del país: en varios grados La Unión Liberal, la monarquía constitucional de Amadeo, y la Restauración -con su turno pacífico- son tentativas hacia la conciliación. Entre los políticos este deseo tenía motivos puramente materialistas, de disfrutar de los beneficios del poder. Entre ciertos intelectuales, sin embargo, se produjo un anhelo de llegar a un consenso que pudiera asegurar la libertad y el orden, separándose del partidismo intransigente. A este afán corresponden la fundación de La Revista de España y la dirección de la misma bajo Galdós. A Galdós le
tocó dirigir la revista durante algunos de los meses más agitados
del sexenio. Los problemas internos del país (las manifestaciones contra
el sistema de las
quintas, por ejemplo) así
como la guerra en Cuba poco a poco deshacían la coalición de
1868. La falta de unidad de los partidarios de Ruiz Zorrilla de una parte, y
los de Serrano y de Sagasta
Después de una entusiasmada reacción inicial a la Revolución de 1868, la Revista empieza a expresar un creciente sentido de desilusión en sus artículos políticos. Al hojear sus páginas entre 1872 y 73 ya se nota que esta desilusión se había convertido en pesimismo en muchas de las contribuciones, incluyendo las «Revistas políticas interiores» escritas por Valera en marzo de 1873 y las de Galdós en junio de 1872. En estos artículos y otros, la Revista de España bajo Galdós defiende la solución militar como única manera de mantener orden. El ejército, cuestión capital de la época, aparece en las páginas de la Revista como tema de la «Noticia literaria: Ejército permanente y armamento nacional de Felipe Tournelle» escrito por Luis Vidart. La Revista de España, fiel espejo de su mundo, refleja los hechos, la ideas y preocupaciones de la época. La cuestión económica de la deuda nacional es el motivo de «El empréstito francés y el crédito de las naciones» por José Galdeo en 1872 y los problemas económicos recibieron más atención en 1873 con la publicación de «Observaciones sobre los servicios y los gastos públicos y su relación con la deuda» por Polo de Bernabé. Galdós también publicó dos «Cartas» que trataron de la abdicación de Amadeo I, las de Eugenio Montero Ríos y José Olózaga. Aunque no representan una polémica, estas cartas, junto con las «Revistas políticas interiores» que examinan la abdicación, nos presentan vivos testimonios sobre este suceso tan clave en el desarrollo de la Esparta moderna. Otro tema contemporáneo era la política exterior, y durante toda su historia la revista dedicaba muchas páginas a los estudios de otros países y sus sistemas políticos. Aún dedicaba una de las secciones regulares a los acontecimientos en el extranjero. Así es que a pesar de la dedicación de los directores a la libertad política, salieron dos series de estudios en el período galdosiano que sugieren el tipo de compromiso que en la introducción ya citada Albareda había rechazado. Estas, que tratan de Inglaterra y de Cuba, tienen considerables implicaciones políticas. En particular, los artículos sobre Cuba arriesgan la integridad de la Revista como veremos. Sin duda, la anglofilia de Galdós y su afán de encontrar una solución moderada a los imponentes problemas internos que se enfrentaron en España son los motivos de publicar cuatro artículos por el Vizconde de Pontón en 1872. Aquí se explican detalladamente el sistema constitucional-monárquico de Inglaterra, incluso las reformas electorales, y las tentativas de tolerancia religiosa. Publicados entre mayo y agosto de 1872, durante la crisis parlamentaria del reinado de Amadeo I, y los ministerios de Sagasta, Serrano y Ruiz Zorrilla (Carr, 322-24), es posible que Galdós ofreciera un modelo para resolver las dificultades en establecer un gobierno estable en España. En este sentido, la revista, de acuerdo con su índole progresista, intenta guiar su mundo -brindando al país un desenlace tolerante a sus debates políticos- sin atarse con ninguna facción política. En cambio, la Revista se metió más directamente en la política en diciembre de 1872 cuando León y Castillo apoyó los programas del Gobierno en Cuba en su «Revista política interior». En 1872 y 1873 la revista publicó nueve artículos por Miguel Rodríguez-Ferrer sobre temas Cubanos. A primera vista, estos artículos, que trataron de la geografía e historia de la isla, con otro artículo de Justo Zaragoza sobre la insurrección allí, cumplen con su «tarea» de difundir información general que interese a los lectores de la revista. Es más probable, desafortunadamente, que muestren los «compromisos de bandería» que la Revista prometió oponerse. Según Galdós, Àlbareda aceptó dinero de intereses cubanos para los gastos de sus revistas14. Si se considera esta serie una respuesta a las presiones de los esclavistas cuyo dinero, en parte, subvencionó la Revista, el periodo galdosiano se distingue con uno de los pocos ejemplos de ruptura con los propósitos expuestos en el primer número. El acomodo parece ser, aun en las esferas más intelectuales, el único método de sobrevivir. En la
superficie, el contenido de la
Revista bajo Galdós parece ser
típico de la revista en su eclecticismo. Cada número (la revista
salió dos veces al mes, generalmente los días 13
No nos sorprende que casi 32% de las selecciones sean literarias15 y que representen todos los géneros. Otro 26% de las selecciones hechas por Galdós son estudios históricos sobre España, el Oriente, y varios países europeos. Esto claramente refleja su interés e la historia durante el período de la primera serie de los Episodios nacionales. Temas filosóficos, religiosos y científicos forman un 17% del contenido y demuestran ese eclecticismo característico de la revista con artículos que tratan de las teorías de Darwin, el papel de la Iglesia y el racionalismo armónico. Dieciséis por ciento de los artículos están dedicados a varios aspectos políticos, sociales o económicos de la vida contemporánea, como los ya mencionados. Sin embargo, el contenido muestra muy claramente los intereses y los criterios del director. Al estudiar esta temática dentro del contexto de la revista se nota que esta distribución distingue la época galdosiana de los períodos bajo los otros directores. Generalmente, predominaban la literatura, la política y la filosofía en las páginas de la Revista, pero la historia y la literatura llegaron a recibir aun más atención bajo Galdós: anteriormente se dedicó 17% de la revista a la historia y un 14% a la filosofía y religión. En el período que sigue a Galdós, la historia se redujo al 11% del contenido y la filosofía volvió al nivel anterior. En cuanto a la literatura, en el período antes de que Galdós desempeñara la dirección, casi 30% de las selecciones eran literarias. El gran cambio vino después de nuestros veintidós meses, cuando la literatura ocupó solamente 23% del contenido. La ciencia muestra un ligero aumento de importancia bajo Galdós, quien dedicó el 6% de la revista a este tema en comparación con el 4% anteriormente. Es posible que se deba esto a la experiencia que Galdós tuvo más temprano en su carrera, trabajando para revistas de índole científico (Hoar, 32 y ss.). A pesar de su fuerte interés en el progreso del siglo la Revista no se interesó mucho en la ciencia hasta el cambio de propietario en 1890. Bajo A. Leiva y J. Sánchez Guerra hay un gran aumento en el número de artículos científicos y matemáticas y una reducción en la cantidad de artículos literarios. Lo que sí bajó en cantidad fue la categoría - de artículos políticos y económicos: éstos formaban 22% de la revista anteriormente y 25% posteriormente a la dirección de Galdós. Las «Revistas políticas interiores», varias de ellas escritas por Galdós16, nos ofrecen una mirada detallada de este período tan turbulento para Espacia pero la reducción de los artículos políticos-económicos a un mero 16% del contenido de la revista es difícil de entender. Frente a la ausencia de datos concretos sobre este detalle, es razonable concluir que, con la excepción de la serie sobre Cuba, el director intentara mantener el tono de conciliación y libertad de pensamiento con una cantidad limitada de artículos que escogió aunque redujera el enfoque político de la Revista de España. Otra consideración importante habría sido que el ambiente de libertad cambiara también. El Decreto del 20 de septiembre de 1873 estableció «normas para impedir que los periódicos publicaran excitaciones a la rebelión o sedición contra el gobierno constituido» (Tobajas, 468). Una dedicación a la tolerancia y a la conciliación evitaría problemas oficiales. Examinando las selecciones literarias, notamos otros cambios de
distribución.
El laurel de los laureados (XXVII, 1872) es
la primera obra teatral que aparece en la
Revista de España. De escaso valor
literario, este paso nos indica algo sobre el estado del teatro en la
época cuando los actores importaban más para el público
que los dramaturgos. Más importante para la historia de la revista es
que Galdós, muy temprano en su tenencia (tomo XXVI, 1872) inició
la sección llamada «Crítica estadística
teatral». Esta llegó a ser una sección regular, ofreciendo
al público minuciosos comentarios y juicios sobre piezas, teatros,
actores, y presentaciones. Galdós convirtió su gran
interés en el teatro en una de sus contribuciones
La prosa publicada en la revista también nos indica algo de los juicios y criterios de Galdós y los intereses también del público: hay cuentos de su gran amigo Pereda, una novela histórica, Berta por la Condesa de *, que trata de las décadas anteriores, y uno de los pocos cuentos experimentales publicados por la Revista17. Notablemente, la prosa escogida muestra una tendencia ha cia el realismo y menos hacia las exageraciones que Galdós había criticado antes, aunque él no pudiera eliminar éstas totalmente. La gran mayoría de los cuentos y las novelas tratan de la época contemporánea, y muchos también tienen lugar en Madrid. En otras épocas de la revista la literatura tendía mucho más hacia lo sentimental y lo melodramático. La literatura publicada entonces consta de cinco novelas por entregas, dieciséis cuentos, y ocho poemas: otro contraste con el contenido publicado por otros directores. Antes aparecieron ocho novelas, seis cuentos y once poemas mientras que después, salieron cinco novelas, doce cuentos y quince poemas. La mezcla de estilos que se encuentra en la revista refleja la necesidad de cualquier periódico o revista de atraer al público. La inclusión de literatura de un tipo popular o sentimental, poemas exaltando héroes o figuras importantes y la técnica de publicar novelas por entregas deben haber garantizado al propietario cierto número de lectores para cada número18. La Revista en este sentido, compromete sus criterios literarios de la misma manera que los otros órganos de la prensa: a consideraciones financieras. Sin embargo la Revista siempre muestra una tendencia didáctica hacia el público con sus muchos artículos de crítica literaria y sus «Noticias literarias» donde los críticos más importantes del día exponen sus teorías. Muchas de las «Noticias literarias» tratan de las obras de los escritores más importantes de la época -Alarcón, Pereda, Núñez de Arce, Campoamor, et al. Sin embargo, todavía no había llegado el momento de las grandes novelas españolas y esta falta es obvia en la revista que dentro de poco publicaría Doña Perfecta y Pepita Jiménez. La situación que Galdós criticó en 1870 en la misma revista todavía no había mejorado. Galdós también contribuyó con unas obras a la revista durante esta época: Antes de Trafalgar, y «Un tribunal literario». En éste seguía criticando los excesos literarios de sus contemporáneos y es posible que su inspiración procediera de sus labores en el puesto de director de la revista. Hay que notar que Galdós anunció dos de sus Episodios nacionales en los «Boletines Bibliográficos»19. Como se ha notado, los cuarenta y dos números de la Revista de España publicados entre febrero de 1872 y noviembre de 1873 son notables por varias razones. Bajo la dirección del joven novelista y periodista la Revista mantenía su tono único -el de la conciliación y la dedicación al progreso- mientras que admitía nuevos elementos y enfoques. Como director, Galdós dejó su marca en la introducción de artículos sobre el teatro, el establecimiento de una sección anual sobre el teatro y en la distribución temática de los artículos que escogió. Muchos artículos reflejan sus intereses, un hecho sumamente evidente en la gran cantidad de ensayos históricos publicados por el autor de los Episodios nacionales. En este período la Revista no sirve solamente de un paso del «aprendizaje» de Galdós. La revista hace el papel de captadora de las reacciones, las explicaciones y discusiones de los acontecimientos políticos de este período turbulento, y refleja los avances intelectuales de la época. Es de esperar que este índice facilite las investigaciones sobre esos años. A continuación se ofrece un índice completo de los números de la Revista de España durante el período en el que Benito Pérez Galdós desempeñaba el cargo de director. El índice está organizado en orden alfabético por autor, con título, número del tomo, fecha y páginas. La primera parte del índice abarca todos los artículos, las revistas políticas y las «Noticias literarias». En los casos donde el título no indica claramente el tema del artículo hay anotaciones. También, para facilitar el uso del índice, los artículos políticos, intelectuales y literarios llevan símbolos que indican la categoría general a la que pertenecen. +Acevedo y Rivero, Romualdo. «Breve estudio de la filosofía de la historia». XXXI (28 abril de 1873) 532-45. XXXII (13 de mayo) 25-3021. _____. «Leves ideas sobre asuntos graves». XXVIII (13 de marzo de 1873) 50-6722. * Albareda, José Luis. «Revista política interior». XXVIII (13 de octubre de 1872) 410-20. XXIX (13 de noviembre) 119-30; (13 de diciembre) 403-15. XXX (13 de enero de 1873) 115-28. XXXI (28 de abril) 402-14.
Alfonso, Luis. «Ensayos críticos: la pintura de género en España». XXXII (28 de junio de 1873) 484-95. _____. «La pintura contemporánea». XXIX (28 de noviembre de 1872) 169-86. # _____ . Noticias literarias: «Cuerdos y locos, comedia en tres actos, por D. R. de Campoamor». XXXI (13 de marzo de 1873) 138-43. # Alcalá Galiano, José. «A Cervantes en el aniversario de su muerte, poesía». XXV (28 de abril de 1872) 577-79. # _____. «La cruz roja, poesía». XXVI (28 de junio de 1872) 58923. * Alonso y Equilaz, J. «El poder judicial en España, según la ley orgánica del mismo». XXIX (13 de noviembre de 1872) 358-81. Álvarez, Alfredo. «La glotonería en Roma». XXVIII (28 de octubre de 1872) 489-520. Alzugaray y Yanguas, Ricardo. «La nobleza». XXXII (13 de junio de 1873) 345-5624. Amador de los Ríos, José. «Estudios arqueológicos y monumentales: Portugal». XXIX (28 de diciembre de 1872) 462-81. XXXI (28 de marzo de 1873) 145-69. XXXII (28 de mayo) 145-65. XXXIII (13 de julio) 5-30. # _____. «La poesía política del siglo XV, la privanza y el suplicio del Condestable D. Álvaro de la Luna». XXIV (13 de febrero de 1872) 337-64. Araujo Sánchez, Ceferino. «El Museo de Madrid, la Academia de San Fernando y el nuevo catálogo del Sr. D. Pedro de Madrazo». XXXI (28 de abril de 1873) 472-91. # Asensio, José María. «Los continuadores de El ingenioso Hidalgo: la obra de una Avellaneda desconocida». XXXIII (28 de agosto de 1873) 451-69. # _____. «¿Puede traducirse El Quijote?» XXXIV (28 de octubre de 1873) 529-37. Barrero, Pedro María. «Amor y celos». XXXI (13 de marzo de 1873) 114-1925. _____. «Una orquesta, [poema]». XXXII (13 de julio de 1873) 62-65. +Belmonte, Fernando. «Filosofía española: estudio sobre el estoicismo en España». XXXI (13 de abril de 1873) 313-40. * Borrego, Andrés. «Ensayo sobre los partidos políticos en España». XXVI (28 de junio de 1872) 481-507. XXVII (julio) 47-58; 179-89; (28 de agosto) 452-61. XXVIII (28 de septiembre) 214-20. # Bretón de los Herreros, Manuel. «Soneto». XXV (13 de abril de 1872) 434. # Bustillo, Eduardo. «El laurel de los laureados: Paso dramático escrito para honrar la memoria de D, Julián Romea». XXVII (28 de julio de 1872) 202-24. # Caballero, Fermín. «La óptica del cortejo no es obra de D. José Cadalso». XXX (13 de enero de 1873) 5-14. +Calderón, Alfredo. «Una idea: Estudios de filosofía natural, total organización de la materia, folleto por los Sres. D. Enrique Serrano y D. Salvador Calderón». XXIX (28 de noviembre de 1872) 187-98». +Caminero, Francisco. «El filósofo rancio». XXX (28 de febrero de 1873) 475-50026. # Cánovas del Castillo, Antonio. «A Inés, (poesía)». XXVII (28 de julio de 1872) 281-85. _____. «Felipe IV y los regicidas ingleses». XXIV (13 febrero de 1872) 321-36. _____. «Los antiguos y modernos vascongados, su origen y sosiego secular, y su situación e inquietudes actuales, a propósito del libro del señor D. Miguel Rodríguez Ferrer titulado Los vascongados, su país, su lengua y el príncipe L. L. Bonaparte, con notas, ilustraciones y comprobantes». XXXIV (28 de octubre de 1873) 433-81. * Carbonell, Joaquín, «Revista política interior». XXX (28 de enero de 1873) 267-76. XXXIII (13 de agosto) 394-403. XXXIV (13 y 28 de septiembre 119-29; 253-61; (13 de octubre) 407-14. Cardaño, Primitivo Andrés. «La renta del tres por ciento». XXXIV (28 de septiembre de 1873) 191-206. Cárdenas, Francisco de. «Del estado de la propiedad territorial en España durante la Edad Media». XXVII (13 de agosto de 1872) 306-21. XXVIII (28 de septiembre) 145-47; (28 de octubre) 450-74. XXIX (28 de noviembre) 289-309; (28 de diciembre) 433-61. XXX (enero de 1873) 15-33; 172-90; (13 de febrero) 413-63. XXXI (13 de marzo) 68-87; (13 de abril) 289-312. XXXII (mayo) 64-87; 166 83. # Coello, Carlos. «El café (fantasía moral)». XXVIII (28 de octubre de 1872) 534-47. # Condesa de ***. «Berta». XXX (28 de enero de 1873) 236-47; (febrero) 361-84; 532-46. XXXI (marzo/abril) 102-14; 236-60; 387-401; 500-13. XXXII (28 de mayo) 237-57; (junio) 385-99; 510-20. XXXIII (julio/agosto) 97-109; 256-60; 369-83; 537-48. XXXIV (septiembre) 98-118; 226-48. # Cortázar, Eduardo de. «Crítica estadística teatral: Temporada de 1871-72». XXVI (28 de junio de 1872) 624-3527. # _____. «Crítica estadística-teatral: Temporada de 1872-73:' XXXII (28 de junio de 1873) 557-72». XXXIII (julio) 129-42; 275-83. # _____. Noticias literarias, «Prosa: Cosas que fueron, colección de artículos literarios por D. Pedro A. de Alarcón. Verso: Los pequeños poemas por Ramón de Campoamor». XXV (13 de marzo de 1872) 149-58. # _____. Noticias
literarias, «Costas y Montañas, libro de un
caminante, por don Juan García.
Cuadros contemporáneos por
# _____. Noticias literarias, «El monasterio de Piedra por D. Leandro Fornet. El Mediterráneo por D. Augusto Jérez Perchet» XXVII (13 de agosto de 1872) 423-29. # _____. Noticias literarias. «Excursiones y recuerdos por D. Adolfo de Aguirre». XXVII (13 de julio de 1872) 139-43. # _____. Noticias literarias, «La hacienda de nuestros abuelos, (Conferencias de Aldea) por D. Modesto Fernández y González». XXVIII (13 de septiembre de 1872) 135-40. # _____. Noticias literarias. «Los españoles de hogaño colección de tipos de costumbres dibujados a pluma por varios autores». XXVI (13 de mayo de 1872) 155-59. # _____. Noticias literarias. «Personarios de un alemán-español por D. Juan Fastenrath». XXVIII (13 de octubre de 1872) 428-32. # _____. Noticias literarias. «Retratos y semblanzas por D. Modesto Fernández y González». XXVIII (28 de octubre de 1872) 570-74, # _____. Noticias literarias. «Revista bibliográfica del año 1872». XXX (13 de febrero de 1873) 417-30. Cos Gayón, Fernando. «Cuestiones monetarias». XXIV (28 de enero de 1872) 227-54; (13 de febrero) 394-409. _____. «Notas al Diccionario de la Academia». XXIX (13 de noviembre de 1872) 28-53. # _____. Noticias literarias. «Discurso pronunciado por el Excmo. Sr. D. Antonio Cánovas del Castillo en el Ateneo científico y literario de Madrid, con motivo de la apertura de sus cátedras. y De la libertad política en Inglaterra desde 1485 hasta 1869 por el Vizconde del Pontón». XXV (28 de abril de 1872) 631-39. # _____. Noticias literarias. «Principios generales del arte de la colonización por Joaquín Maldonado Macañaz». XXXII (13 de junio de 1873) 427-31. * _____. «Revista política exterior». XXIV (febrero de 1872) 460-67; 615-22. XXV (marzo/abril) 141-49; 299-306; 460-67; 622 30. XXVI (mayo/junio) 146-54; 301-09; 467 74; 614-23. XXVII (julio/agosto) 131-18; 275 81; 4 16-22; 563-71. XXVIII (septiembre/octubre) 128-34; 275-83; 421-27; 563-69. XXIX (noviembre/diciembre) 131-40; 274-83; 416 25; 556-64, XXX (enero/febrero de 1873) 129-38; 277-87; 407-16; 558-67. XXXI (marzo/abril) 129-37; 2 72-81; 415-25; 559 68. XXXII (mayo/junio) 128-37; 279-81; 416 26; 549-56. XXXIII (julio/agosto) 119-28; 268-74; 404-12; 558-68. XXXIV (septiembre/ octubre) 130-40; 262-72; 415-24; 555-65. XXXV (noviembre/diciembre) 121-31. # Cotarelo, Arturo. Noticias literarias. «Letras y armas por D. Luis Vidart». XXXII (13 de junio de 1873) 427-31. Echegaray, José. «Análisis espetral.» XXIV (28 de febrero de 1872) 533-51. Escalante, Amos de. «Peregrinaciones: Covadonga». XXV (13 de abril de 1872) 395-408. XXVI (28 de mayo) 223-39. * Fastenrath, Juan. «El príncipe de Bismarck». XXX (28 de enero de 1873) 211-36; (febrero) 306-14; 464-74. XXXI (marzo) 40-49;186-89; (28 de abril) 451-63. XXXII (mayo) 191-214. _____. «La Walhalla y las glorias de Alemania». XXIX (13 de diciembre de 1872) 310-48; XXX (13 de enero de 1873) 34-49. XXXII (28 de junio) 472-83. XXXIII (julio) 31-43; 214-43; (13 de agosto) 323-39. XXXIV (13 de septiembre) 24-42; (13 de octubre) 321-45. # Fea, José Leopoldo. Noticias literarias. «La cuestión social por D. Ignacio María Ferrán». XXXI (28 de marzo de 1873) 282-87. # Fernández González, Francisco. «El doctor iluminado: Raymundo Lulio». XXVIII (13 de octubre de 1872) 356-75. # Ferrán, Agusto. «Una inspiración alemana». XXV (marzo de 1872) 111-26; 276-85. * Ferreras, José. «Revista política interior». XXVII (julio de 1872) 122-30; 264-75; (13 de agosto) 407-15. XXVIII (13 de septiembre) 112-27; (28 de octubre). XXXII (junio de 1873) 408 15; 539-48. Fuensanta del Valle, Marqués de. «Instituciones de Venecia: el Consejo de los Diez». XXXII (13 de mayo de 1873) 88-103. XXXIII (28 de julio) 163-94. Fulgosio, Fernando. «Apuntes para el libro de Zamora». XXXII (28 de junio de 1873) 533-50. «El cura de Fruime» XXVII (28 de agosto de 1872) 494-519. XXVIII (28 de septiembre) 193-21328. * _____. «Últimas relaciones de España con la república de Chile». XXIV (28 de enero de 1872) 196-211; (28 de febrero) 562-79. XXV (28 de marzo) 240-63. * «G». «Revista política interior». XXVIII (28 de septiembre de 1872) 267-74. Gadeo, José. «El empréstito francés y el crédito de las naciones». XXVII (28 de agosto de 1872) 520-35. * García, J. «La última crisis electoral en el Perú, sus antecedentes, curso, desenlace y consecuencias». XXVIII (13 de octubre de 1872) 301-21. # García Ayuso, Francisco. «Estudios
sobre el Oriente». XXV (28 de marzo de 1872) 204-25; (28 de abril)
520-41. XXVI (13 de junio) 399-425. XXVIII (13 de octubre) 343-55. XXIX (28 de
noviembre) 221-38. XXXI (13 de abril de 1873) 341-59. XXXII (junio) 399-407;
496-
# García Cadela, Peregrín. «Batalla de sabios». XXIV (28 de febrero de 1872) 580-607. _____. «El arte casero». XXV (abril de 1872) 435-47; 580-610. XXVI (mayo/junio) 113-26; 265-91; 437-55; 589-603. XXVII (13 de julio) 107-22; (13 de agosto) 385-40630. García de Luna, Luis. «El Monasterio de Piedra». XXXI (28 de abril de 1873) 464-74. _____. «Nuestra Señora de Atocha: Gracián Ramírez». XXXIII (13 de agosto de 1873) 356-6831. +Giner, Francisco. «Condiciones del espíritu científico». XXVIII (28 de octubre de 1872) 475-88. +_____. «La política antigua y la política moderna». XXVI (13 de junio de 1872) 358-7532. * Gisbert, Lope. «Los proyectos de Hacienda del Sr. Ruíz Gómez». XXIX (13 de noviembre de 1872) 99-118. Goicoerrotea, Ramón. «Breves apuntes sobre la casa y los muebles de los romanos». XXVI (28 de mayo de 1872) 161-82. * Gómez Díez, José. «Revista política interior». XXXII (mayo de 1873) 119-27; 258-67. XXXIII (julio) 110-18; 261-67 (28 de agosto) 549-57. +González Serrano, Urbano. «Una cuestión de actualidad». XXIX (13 de noviembre de 1872) 84-98; (13 de diciembre) 349-57. XXX (28 de enero de 1873) 191-210. # Herrán, Fermín Noticias literarias. «Descentralización universal o el fuero vascongado aplicado a todas las Provincias, con un examen comparativo de las instituciones suizas y americanas por D. Julián Arrese». XXXIII (28 de agosto de 1873) 569-73. XXXIV (13 de octubre) 425-31. # _____. Noticias literarias. «Historia de Juan Sebastián Elcano por D. Eustaquio Fernández de Navarrete». XXVII (28 de julio de 1872) 282-86. +Huelín, Emilio. «El expresar sin habla distintas clases de amor y otras emociones de hombres y brutos». XXXIII (13 de agosto de 1873) 340-55. _____. «El fin del mundo anunciado para el inmediato 12 de agosto». XXVII (28 de julio de 1872) 190-201. +_____. «El saber científico y las modernas clasificaciones de las ciencias». XXXII (13 de junio de 1873) 362-31. +_____. «Los brutos, supuestos engendradores del hombre». XXV (13 de marzo de 1872)5-30. _____. Noticias literarias. «Crónica científico popular, revista para todas de novedades y progresos científicos e industriales notables que ofrecen universal interés e importancia». XXIX (35 de noviembre de 1872) 141-43. _____ . «Petróleo, cual agente de bárbaros incendiarios, y de otras distintas maneras considerado». XXXI (13 de marzo de 1873) 5-25. Janer, Florencio. «De algunas antigüedades chinas del museo arqueológico nacional». XXVI (28 de junio de 1872) 508-28. # _____. «De los cancioneros antiguos». XXVIII (13 de septiembre de 1872) 81-10033. # _____. Noticias literarias. «Continuación de las memorias para escribir la historia contemporánea del reinado de Isabel II», por el Marqués de Miraflores. XXIX (13 de diciembre de 1872) 426-31. # Jimeno, Amalio. Noticias literarias. «Los pequeños poemas-cartas a la señorita doña R. G. (carta segunda)». XXVIII (28 de septiembre de 1872) 283-86. # _____. Noticias literarias. «Los pequeños poemas por D. Ramón de Campoamor». XXVII (28 de agosto de 1872) 572-73. # Larra, Mariano José de. «Recuerdos: Romance inédito de Fígaro». XXIX (13 de diciembre de 1872) 398-402. # Laverde, Gumersindo. «Sonetos». XXXIV (28 de septiembre de 1873) 249-52. XXXV (13 de noviembre) 106-0934. * Lasala, Fermín de. «La restauración de los Borbones en Francia». XXV (13 de marzo de 1872) 90-112; (28 de abril) 481-501. XXXIV (28 de octubre de 1873) 482-511. XXXV (13 de noviembre) 45-75. * León y Castro, Felipe. «Revista política interior». XXIX (28 de noviembre de 1872) 265 73; (28 de diciembre) 545-55. XXXI (13 de marzo de 1873) 114-28. López Domínguez, J. «Isly y Tetuán: estudio militar comparativo». XXIV (28 de febrero de 1872) 523-32. XXV (28 de marzo) 226-39. # López Guijarro, S. «La última conquista, [cuento]». XXXII (28 de junio de 1873) 451-72. Lozaño Múñoz, Francisco. «Apuntes sobre Marruecos». XXVII (13 de junio de 1872) 462-93. * Llorente, A. «De los impuestos sobre la renta y sobre las primeras materias». XXIV (28 de febrero de 1872) 481-522. * Llorente, Teodoro. «Fragmentos de Fausto de Goethe: traducción». XXXI (28 de abril de 1873) 546-52. XXXII (28 de mayo) 226-36. Maldonado Macañaz, Joaquín. «Colonias: Colonización». XXVIII (28 de octubre de 1872) 433-49. * _____. «El tercer imperio en Francia». XXXI (marzo de 1873) 26-39; 199-214. _____. «Los portugueses en Asia: estudio de historia colonial». XXV (13 de abril de 1872) 321-40. +Marticorena, Octavio. «Filósofos españoles: Luis Vidart». XXV (13 de mayo de 1872) 61-80.
+Martín Mateos, Nicómedes. «Consideraciones sobre la discusión de La Internacional». XXIV (13 de enero de 1872) 101-09; (35 de febrero) 365-76. XXV (13 de marzo) 81-91. +_____. «De la necesidad del estudio de la teología». XXVII (28 de julio de 1872) 145-56. XXVIII (13 de octubre) 289-300. XXIX (28 de noviembre) 145-57. +_____. «La revolución filosófica en el siglo XIX». XXXIII (julio de 1873) 145-62; 304-22. XXXIV (septiembre) 84-97; 245-62; (28 de octubre) 512-2835. Martínez, Manuel Alonso. «Estudios sobre la propiedad». XXXI (28 marzo de 1873) 215-21; (28 de abril) 492-99. XXXII (13 de junio) 332 44. XXXIII (13 de agosto) 289-303. XXXIV (septiembre) 43-52; 163-72; (13 de octubre) 313-20. +Molina, Ricardo. «El espiritisimo: consideraciones sobre su carácter materialista y sus aspiraciones religiosas». XXX (13 de febrero de 1873) 348-60. +Monasterio Correa, José de. «El vapor y la industria». XXV (13 de abril de 1872) 408-22. * Montero Ríos, Eugenio. «Carta». XXXII (13 de mayo de 1873) 104-1836. * Moreno y Manent, Silverio. «Ligero estudio sobre el carácter del matrimonio y el divorcio». XXV (28 de abril de 1872) 566-71. Múñoz de Luna, R. T. «Cartas del Barón Josto Liebig sobre la agricultura moderna». XXVI (28 de junio de 1872) 551-68. * Navarro, Isidoro N. «Entrevista de los emperadores de Austria, Prusia y Rusia». XXXII (28 de junio de 1873) 521-38. Navarro y Rodrigo, C. «Falsificación universal». XXVIII (13 de octubre de 1872) 398-40937. # _____. «La santificación del domingo (cuadro bizantino de una colección inédita)». XXX (28 de enero de 1873) 247-66.38 * Olózaga, José. «Carta». XXXI (28 de abril de 1873) 552-5739. Olloquí, Emilio. «La rendición de Gerona». XXVI (28 de mayo de 1872) 257-64. O. y B. «Necrología española». XXIV (13 de febrero de 1872) 468-78. Palomo, Manuel María «Coeli enarrant gloriara Dei». XXXIV (octubre de 1873) 393-407; 537 46. XXXV (13 noviembre) 93-105. _____. «El principio de propiedad». XXVIII (13 de septiembre de 1872) 5-34. +Panadés y Poblet, José. «Las dos escuelas católicas y Pío IX». XXVIII (28 de septiembre de 1872) 220-32. +Paula Canalejas, F. de. «De la necesidad del estudio de la Teología». XXVI (13 de junio de 1872) 321-37. +_____. «La ciencia de las religiones». XXV (28 de marzo de 1872) 161-83; (28 de abril) 502-20. +_____. «Religión y filosofía». XVII (28 de marzo de 1872) 289-305. # Pereda, José María de. «Los buenos muchachos». XXVIII (13 de octubre de 1872) 384-98. # _____. «Un marino». XXVIII (13 de septiembre de 1872) 108-11. Pérez de Castro, Mariano. «Estudios histórico militares: Batalla de Calatañazor». XXVI (28 de junio de 1872) 558-67. _____. «Estudios histórico-militares: Batalla de las Navas de Tolosa». XXVIII (28 de septiembre de 1872) 233-41. _____. «Estudios histórico-militares: La batalla del Salado». XXV (13 de abril de 1872) 552-61. _____. «Estudios histórico-militares: los Almorávides: conquista de Valencia por el Cid». XXXIII (28 de julio de 1873) 247-55. * Pérez de Guzmán, Juan. «De la libertad de imprenta y de su legislación en España». XXV (28 de abril de 1872) 501-36; XXXIV (13 de octubre de 1873) 364-9240. # Pérez Galdós, Benito. «Antes de Trafalgar, (páginas de una novela)». XXX (28 de febrero de 1873) 501-17. * _____. «Revista política interior» XXIV (febrero de 1872) 452-59; 608-14. XXV (marzo/abril) 127-34; 286-99; 448-59; 611-22. XXVI (mayo/junio) 136-45; 292-300; 456 66; 604-13. XXVII (28 de agosto) 555-63. # _____. «Un tribunal literario». XXVIII (28 de septiembre de 1872) 242-66. Pezuela, Jacobo de la. «El Conde de Aranda» XXV (13 de marzo de 1872) 31-50; (13 de abril) 341-67. Piñedo y Vega, P. «Estudios sobre los crímenes y penas de la antigüedad» XXIV (28 de enero de 1872) 212-26; (28 de febrero) 378-93. XXV (13 de marzo) 92-110. Pisa Pajares, J. «Discurso leído en la solemne inauguración del curso académico de 1872 en la Universidad Central (Madrid 1871)». XXIV (28 de febrero de 1872) 479. Polo de Bernabé, José. «Observaciones sobre los servicios y gastos públicos y su relación con la deuda». XXXII (28 de mayo de 1873) 184-218; (13 de junio) 336-84. Pontón, Vizconde del. «El gobierno parlamentario en Inglaterra desde 1793 hasta 1820». XXVI (28 de mayo de 1872) 183-206. _____. «El gobierno parlamentario en Inglaterra en tiempos de Jorge II», XXVI (13 de mayo 1872) 5-26. _____. «La emancipación de los católicos y la primera reforma electoral en Inglaterra». XXVII (13 de julio de 1872) 26-46. _____. «Últimas reformas del reinado de Guillermo IV» XXVII (13 de agosto de 1872) 322-40. Porcar, Jaime. «Estudios históricos: las tres dinastías». XXX (13 de agosto de 1873) 518-31. +_____. «Observaciones psicológicas:
_____. «Pensamientos» XXXII (28 de mayo de 1873) 279-81. * Prellezo, F. M. «Las insurrecciones en Cuba por D. Fausto Zaragoza». XXLY (28 de noviembre de 1872) 284-86. # Prieto y Prieto, José. «El último sueño, [cuento]». XXVII (28 de agosto de 1872) 536-55. # Revilla, Manuel de la «Literatura sánscrita-El Ramayana». XXVI (13 de mayo de 1872) 27-63. XXVII (28 de agosto) 433-51. XXVIII (28 de septiembre)178-92. XXIX (13 de noviembre) 5-27. # _____. Noticias literarias. «Cervantes y el Quijote por D. Francisco M. Tubino». XXVI (13 de junio de 1872) 475-78. * Rivera Delgado, Manuel. «El criterio legal en los delitos políticos» XXDC (28 de noviembre de 1872)158-68. # Rodríguez Correa, Ramón. «Rosas y perros, no vela» [continuación]. XXIV (13 de febrero de 1872) 421-5141. # _____. Noticias literarias. «Episodios nacionales por D. Benito Pérez Galdós. La batalla de Trafalgar, La Corte de Carlos IV. El 19 de Marzo y el 2 de Mayo» XXXIV (28 de octubre de 1873) 566-73. Rodríguez-Ferrer, Miguel. «Carácter geognóstico y geológico de la región cubana». XXX (13 de enero de 1873) 50-69. _____. «De la hidrografía de Cuba». XXVIII (13 de octubre de 1872) 322-43. XXIX (13 de noviembre) 54-83. _____. «De la orografía cubana». XXVII (13 de agosto de 1872) 341-60. XXVIII (13 de septiembre) 35-53. _____. «De las enfermedades, longevidad y fecundidad cubanas». XXVII (13 de julio de 1872) 59-86. _____. «De los terremotos, temblores de tierra y otras explosiones locales en la isla de Cuba». XXVI (28 de mayo de 1872) 240-56; (13 de junio) 376-98. _____. «El país vasco, su lengua y el príncipe Luis Luciano Bonaparte». XXIX (28 de noviembre de 1872) 199-20; (diciembre) 382-97; 482-505. _____. «Estudios filosóficos, geográficos y geológicos de la isla de Cuba». XXV (13 de abril de 1872) 368-94. XXVI (13 de mayo) 64-89. * Rodríguez Solís, Enrique. «Los concelleres de Barcelona». XXX (13 de febrero de 1873) 398-406. # Ros de Olano, Antonio. «A quien leyere: Jornadas de retomo escritas por un aparecido». XXX (enero de 1873) 81-102;145-71; (13 de febrero) 315-4742. # _____. «Sonetos». XXXIV (28 de octubre de 1873) 546-49. Rubió, Federico. «Conferencia sobre el examen microscópico del vapor atmosférico de la enfermería del doctor Martín de Pedro en el Hospital General». XXVI (13 de junio de 1872) 338-57. Salvá, Melchor. «La mujer bajo el aspecto económico» [continuación]. XXVI (13 de mayo de 1872)127-35. XXVII (28 de julio) 237-63; (13 de agosto) 361-84. XXVIII (13 de septiembre) 71-80. * Sánchez Bazán, José. «Nociones de las leyes internacionales» XXVI (28 de junio de 1872) 568-88. XXVIII (13 de septiembre) 100-08. XXLY (28 de diciembre) 531-44. XXXI (13 de marzo de 1873) 88-101; (13 de abril) 360-66. +Sánchez de Toca, Joaquín. «El matrimonio». XXXIII (julio de 1873) 66-96; 195-213; (28 de agosto) 470-94. XXXIV (septiembre) 53-71; 173-90. # Santiago, el Conde de. «Leyendas de la Aldea; Fragmento del libro inédito». XXVIII (28 de octubre de 1872) 548-5043. Sastre, I. «El café». XXXIII (agosto de 1873) 384-93; 520-3644. Sedaño, Carlos. «Un paseo a Viena». XXXV (13 de septiembre de 1873) 72-83. Sempere y Miguel, Salvador. «Aplicación del arte a la industria: las escuelas para la enseñanza del dibujo». XXID (28 de noviembre de 1872) 239-64. _____. «Aplicación del arte a la industria: las escuelas inglesas para (a enseñanza del dibujo». XXX (13 de enero de 1873) 103-14; (13 de febrero) 385-98. XXXI (28 de marzo) 222-35; (28 de abril) 514-32. XXXII (28 de mayo) 215-25. # Sureda, Juan. «El teatro en nuestros días». XXV (13 de abril de 1872) 423-3345. # Tournelle, Felipe. Noticia literaria. «Ejército permanente y armamento nacional por D. Luis Vidart» XXVI (28 de mayo de 1872) 310-18. Tubino, Francisco María, «Crítica artística; el Museo del Prado, la Academia de Bellas Artes y el catálogo del Sr. Madrazo». XXDC (28 de dicembre de 1872) 506-30. _____. «Filosofía del arte en Andalucía». XXV (28 de marzo de 1872) 184-203. XXVIII (13 de septiembre) 54-70. _____. «La reforma artística». XXXI (28 de marzo de 1873)170-8546. Ulloa, Augusto. «Mis impresiones en Venecia». XXXII (13 de junio de 1872) 289-361. _____. «Estudios de las costumbres romanas en el primer siglo del imperio». XXXV (13 de noviembre de 1873) 5-28. +Valera, Juan. «El racionalismo armónico». XXXIII (28 de agosto de 1873) 433-50. XXXIV (13 de octubre) 289-31247.
# _____. Noticia literaria. «Estudios sobre la Edad Media por D. Francisco Pi y Margall». XXXIII (13 de agosto de 1873) 413-30. # _____. Noticia literaria. «Obras de D. Antonio Aparisi y Guijarro, t. I. y Pensamientos y poesías». XXXIV (28 de septiembre de 1873) 273-86. * _____. «Revista política interior». XXX (28 de febrero de 1873) 546-57. * Vázquez y Quiepo, V. «Breve observaciones sobre las principales cuestiones que hoy se agitan respecto de las provincias ultramarinos». XXXV (13 de noviembre de 1873) 75-92. Velázquez Sánchez, J. «El guarda-velas (papel suelto)». XXXIII (28 de julio de 1873) 240-46. # Vega, Ventura de la. «Cartas inéditas». XXXI (abril de 1873) 367-86; 433-50. XXXII (13 de mayo) 48-6348. # Vidart, Luis. «Los poetas líricos contemporáneos de Portugal». XXV (18 de mayo de 1872) 50-60. # _____. «Amor de perdición, novela original de Camilo Castello Bronco, traducida al castellano, por ***». XXXI (13 de abril de 1873) 426-3149. * «X». «Velázquez, artículo escrito en inglés por Mr. Layard y traducido para la Revista de España». XXX (febrero de 1873) 289-305; 433-512. * «X». «Revista política interior». XXXIV (28 de octubre de 1873) 550-54. Zaragoza, Justo. «Las insurrecciones en Cuba; Apuntes para la historia política de esta isla en el presente siglo». XXVII (13 de julio de 1872) 107-22.
Obras Consultadas
Carr, Raymond. Spain: 1801-1975. 2ª edición Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982. Cruz Seoane, María. Historia del periodismo en España II: el siglo XIX. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1983. Dendle, Brian J. «Albareda, Galdós y la Revista de España». La Revolución de 1868: historia, pensamiento, literatura. Ed. C. Lida e I. Zavala. New York: Las Américas, 1970. 362-78. _____. «Galdós and the Death of Prim». Anales galdosianos 4 (1969): 63-71. _____. Introducción. Los artículos políticos en la «Revista de España». Por B. Pérez Galdós. Lexington: 1982. i-xii. Espina García, Antonio. El cuarto poder: cien años de periodismo español. Madrid: Aguilar; S. A., 1960. Estébanez Calderón, Serafín. «Evolución política de Galdós y su repercusión en la obra literaria». Anales galdosianos 17 (1982): 9-23. Goldman, Peter. «Galdós and the Politics of Conciliation». Anales galdosianos 4 (1969): 73-87. Gómez Molleda, María Dolores. Los reformadores de la España contemporánea. Madrid: CSIC, 1981. Hoar, Leo. Benito Pérez Galdós y la «Revista del Movimiento Intelectual de Europa» (Madrid, 1865-67). Madrid: Ínsula, 1968. López Morillas, Juan. Hacia el 98: literatura, sociedad, ideología. Barcelona: Ariel, 1972. Ouimette, Víctor. «"Monstrous Fecundity": The Popular Novel in Nineteenth-Century Spain», Canadian Review of Comparative Literature (September, 1982): 383-405. Pérez Galdós, Benito. «Amadeo I». Obras completas t. 3. Madrid: Aguilar S. A., 1968. _____. «Memorias de un desmemoriado». Obras completas t. 6. Madrid: Aguilar, S. A., 1968. Shulte, Henry F. The Spanish Press 1470-1966: Print, Power and Politics. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1968. Tobajas, Marcelino. El periodismo español (Notas para su historia). Madrid: Ediciones Forja, S.A., 1984. Utt, Roger L. «Galdós's Early Journalism in Madrid and the Las Novedades (Dis-)Connection». Anales galdosianos 19 (1984): 71-85. Zavala, Iris M. «La prensa ante la Revolución de 1868». La Revolución de 1868: historia, pensamiento, literatura. Ed. C. Lila e I. Zavala. New York: Las Américas, 1970. 293-310. Zavala, Iris M., Romero Tobar y R. Benítez. «La realidad del folletín». Romanticismo y Realismo. Ed. I. M. Zavala. Barcelona: Editorial Crítica, 1982. 380-91.
Gayana Jurkevic
Baruch College / City
University of New York Throughout his lifetime Miguel de Unamuno was fascinated by doubling, self-duplication, and fraternal rivalry: His notion that every man harbored within himself both Cain and Abel, or the active and the contemplative personalities, may be traced to the essays of En torno al casticismo (1895), in which a dual concept of history and national character was first introduced. Don Miguel frequently chose civil war as a metaphor to represent fraternal conflict, and in his first novel, Paz en la guerra (1897), he described the second Carlist War as a battle for economic supremacy between urban cainitas and rural abelitas, while the novel's two protagonists, Pachico Zabalbide and Ignacio Iturriondo, represented two highly different facets of the author's youthful personality. However, it is in the novel Abel Sánchez (1917) and the play El otro (1926), where to the elementary problem of fraternal competition, Unamuno adds the more complex dimension of the problem of personality. In these works fraternal enmity metaphorizes the conflict between the conscious ego and the unconscious contents of a rival shadow personality50. The battle between the light and dark sides of the human psyche, or as Unamuno was to call it, the problema de la personalidad, was of great personal interest to don Miguel, and it acquired an especially prominent place in the fiction he produced after the publication of Niebla (1914). This growing preoccupation with twins and personality splitting perhaps had its basis in the author's own inability to resolve his now famous internal dichotomies. Certainly the many works of literature in which Unamuno elects to study the effects of psychological dualism on the personality seems to reveal the author's attempt to fathom the dual tendencies of his own psyche. The coincidence of opposites Unamuno infers the human personality to be is nowhere expressed with such dramatic intensity as it is in Abel Sánchez, a novel whose timeless qualities can possibly be attributed to the mythological context in which the work evolves, and the familiar symbolism of its archetypal contents. That archetypal motifs appear frequently in the work of Unamuno should be of no surprise since as a Hellenist don Miguel had greater access than most to a wealth of mythological heritage still extant today in the Western canon. Abel Sánchez appears to rest on several layers of mythological tradition, each independently confirming Unamuno's assessment of the human personality as continually susceptible to its innate divisiveness. This essay intends to examine three sources frequented by don Miguel: classical mythology, the Bible, and the Romantic view of the personality, all of which seem to corroborate the novelist's psychologically oriented approach to the archetype of self-division. Otto Rank suggests that the idea of self-duplication was created as a defense mechanism against the threat of death, but the twin, or double, also appears in folklore as a reminder of death's imminence (85-86)51. Twins have been regarded as anthropomorphic representations of personality cleavage, and as such have been the subject of superstition in the taboos of primitive cultures. The assumption that one twin was of divine origin while the other was of mortal descent is most likely modeled on the dual paternity of the Dioscuric gods, Castor and Pollux (Mauron 293)52. Throughout its history the shadow-image has aroused
paranoid ideas of pursuit to which a common solution is eradication of the
bother
In works such as Abel Sánchez and El otro, Unamuno divided between two fictional personae what normally would be considered the complementary halves of one psyche. Only the elimination of one of the antagonists involved brings a temporary, if misleading solution to the problem; misleading since the pursued often perishes within a short while of his pursuer. The conclusion Unamuno appears to draw from his fictional examination of doubling, is that the psyche functions completely only in the presence of a complement upon which it depends to provide its sought-for wholeness. While in literature competition between the ego and its rival shadow has had a long association with the metaphor of the hostile double, in psychology the same motif expresses the archetype of self-division (Neumann 95; Rank 12). It has been suggested that authors most attracted to this motif are also those most concerned with articulating «the universal theme of the Self's relation to itself» (Rank xiv), a topic which seems to have engaged Unamuno's curiosity with increasing frequency in the second half of his life. The double, or imagined pursuer, is habitually portrayed as the protagonist's brother who personifies that part of the ego which becomes detached, and assumes an independence threatening to the protagonist (Rank 20). Rank concludes that the double motif occurs most often in the work of those authors who themselves experienced male sibling rivalry (75). Considered in these terms, it can be argued that Unamuno's fascination with the theme of the hostile double may be explained first, as a reflection of his personal quest to forge a truce from among the plurality of his many selves, but more specifically, by the lack of empathy between himself and his younger brother Félix, who could never quite adjust to don Miguel's growing notoriety53. The siblings Cosmas and Damian; Jacob and Esau; Abel and Cain have traditionally been paradigmatic of the split personality (Jacobi 40). Especially noteworthy is Unamuno's use of these pairs in his work as metaphorical expressions of psychological dualism. In the case of Abel Sánchez, however, the Old Testament archetype of unlike brothers is only the tip of the mythological iceberg upon which the novel is constructed. In order to appreciate the palimpsest of mythological tradition upon which this novel rests, it is necessary to go beyond the familiar Cain and Abel story which appears as its first, and most recognizable layer. The double motif in its pristine state appears to derive from the brothers Cosmas and Damian, two Persian physicians who suffered martyrdom for their conversion to Christianity (Gullón 166). Cosmas and Damian, the names Unamuno gave to the rival twins of his play El otro, are thought to be the Christian equivalents of the pagan, Dioscuric gods, Castor and Pollux. A connection between the Dioscuri and Abel Sánchez is further provided by the gods' sister, the infamous Helen of Troy. Married to Menelaus, she allowed her self to be carried off by Paris, son of the King of Troy. This mythological abduction was instrumental in causing, if not the oldest extant archetype of fraternal warfare, then certainly its most notorious and legendary exponent. It is therefore highly significant that Unamuno should have chosen the name «Helena» for the heroine of his modern adaptation of brotherly strife54. The legendary triangle Paris-Helen-Menelaus is mirrored by the Unamunian triangle Abel-Helena-Joaquín, the latter-day Helen flanked by the hostile brothers Abel and Cain, each vying for her favors. As Abel studies the Bible for a new painting he plans to execute, Joaquín pointedly in quires whether Helena could not also serve as a source of inspiration. Puzzled, as in the Biblical episode no woman plays a significant role, Abel queries: «¿Mi mujer? En esta tragedia no hubo mujer». Joaquín's reply that «en toda tragedia la hay, Abel» (2: 711), is most likely a reference to the similarity between the mythological war inspired by Helen of Troy between the Greeks and their Trojan kinsmen, and the discord Helena has sown between Abel and Joaquín, the «hermanos de crianza» of Unamuno's novel (2: 689).
The Greek Helen displays a personality remarkably similar to Unamuno's beautiful and vain Helena who, like her predecessor, is as unaware as she is unconcerned by the passions she stirs in men55. The sphinx-like pava real that both Joaquín and Abel conclude her to be, is described by Unamuno as a quasi-divine being, «solemne y fría, henchida de desdén, como una diosa llevada por el destino» (2: 693). In point of fact, both the Homeric and Unamunian heroines seem to share a passive acceptance of their destinies as professional femmes fatales. It is quite likely that Unamuno had the Trojan Helen very much in mind when he drafted Abel Sánchez. Contemporaneous with the novel is an essay, «Las coplas de Calaínos» (May 21, 1917), in which Unamuno translates a passage of the Iliad that is reminiscent of his fictional heroine: «No hay que indignarse de que los troyanos y los aqueos de buenas perneras sufran tanto tiempo dolores por semejante mujer, parécese en su figura terriblemente a las diosas inmortales» (3: 1008). Homer's description of Helen of Troy resembles Unamuno's own of Helena as a god-like creature whose portrait takes a provincial capital by storm, and who now strolls its avenues «como un inmortal viviente... ¿No había acaso nacido para eso?» (2: 695). In Abel Sánchez, however, the mythological brothers Castor and Pollux, are replaced by the more familiar, Old Testament rendition of the same archetype: the unlike brothers Abel and Cain. Fraternal enmity reappears as a Biblical theme in the New Testament dichotomy Satan and Christ. Milton, whose epic poem plays an important role in Unamuno's novel, established this antagonistic, yet clearly dependent relationship in Satan's challenge to Christ: «... in what degree or meaning thou art called / The Son of God, which bears no single sense; / The Son of God I also am or was / And if I was, I am; relation stands...» (Paradise Regained 393). The same relationship between Christ and the Antichrist was also perceived by C. G. Jung for whom the pair symbolized a polarity of psychic characteristics in need of reconciliation (9, ii: 81). It becomes evident, then, that Unamuno, in his reworking of the Cain and Abel legend, reproduces one of the most ancient images contained in the collective unconscious of mankind. Don Miguel's Cain is a demonic and rebellious individual, while Abel, the Biblical tender of sheep, personifies innocence and the contemplative personality traits customarily associated with the Lamb of God56. The link between Joaquín, Satan, and the sulfureous fumes of Hell is established when, in the first chapter of the novel, Abel insists that Joaquín curb his jealous anger by using the verb sulfurar on two occasions in the same confrontation (2: 695-96). This association is strengthened at the end of the same chapter which concludes with an excerpt from Joaquín's diary in which he notes that «aquella noche nací al infierno de mi vida» (2: 607). From that moment on references to Joaquín's life as a living Hell, and to the demonic qualities of his personality, continue throughout the novel57. Rof Carballo, following Melanie Klein, suggests that the most envied of people are those who possess the gift of creativity. He proposes that Lucifer's crime was not that of pride as is commonly believed, but the envy of God's creative capabilities (4). It is quite possible that Unamuno may have inferred a similar connection between the envy which motivates Joaquín, and Monegro's resentment of Abel's artistic talent. Certainly Joaquín's insistence throughout the diary that he, the medical doctor, is an «artista, un verdadero poeta en su profesión, un clínico genial, creador, intuitive» (2: 704), appears to confirm the relationship Rof Carballo perceived between Satan's envy of God's creative power and the general, human tendency to envy those blessed with creative talent. The representation of Cain as Satan's ally reached its apogee in Romantic literary iconography which often portrayed both figures as unjustly doomed and excessively maligned creatures58. The Romantics are also credited with anticipating certain theories of depth psychology, particularly those of C. G. Jung whose concept of the integration of opposites forms the cornerstone of the individuation process (Russell 173-74). According to Jung, the successfully individuated self is a coincidentia oppositorum, or synthesis of fight and dark qualities (5: 368). The process of individuation itself consists in the recognition of the shadow personality, the identification of its contents, and, in the case of men, its reconciliation to consciousness through the mediating role of the female anima (Hannah 270). Anticipating Jung, the Romantics subscribed
Because of his transgression, Lucifer, once the fabled morning star, is banished from Heaven to the shadows of Hell. In this passage, however, Unamuno pleads with Christ for reconciliation between the unlike brothers («Dale, Señor, tu mano»), who as an integrated unit, once more will come to signify a felicitous restitution of opposites in the grace of God, the Father. Fin de siècle interest in doubling as a psychological phenomenon has been attributed to the neo-Romantic revival which occurred in late nineteenth-century Europe59. These were the years in which both Unamuno and Jung reached adulthood, and given their essentially romantic, somewhat mystical natures, it is hardly surprising that they would have shared an interest in the double, one of the most popular motifs in Romantic literature60. As captivated as he was by the phenomenology of psychological dualism, it is quite possible that Unamuno might have been attracted to Lord Byron's exegesis of the Cain/Abel legend. Jeffrey Burton Russell suggests that the Romantic poet interpreted the Biblical fratricide as an attack made by Cain/Lucifer on his unintegrated, rival self, or the Abel/ Jehovah facet of his personality (186). Although he denied the influence of Byron's Cain: A Mystery (1821) on Abel Sánchez (2: 685), Unamuno, like Byron, equated Cain with Satan, and his empathetic description of Cain as predestined to do evil, damned a priori by God to a fall he could not evade, is also typically Byronic61. Don Miguel's pity of Cain is revealed unequivocally by Joaquín Monegro during the famous banquet speech commemorating Abel's painting. «¡Pobre Caín!», he exclaims, «Nuestro Abel Sánchez admira a Caín como Milton admiraba a Satán... porque admirar es amar y amar es compadecer. Nuestro Abel ha sentido toda la miseria, toda la desgracia inmerecida del que mató al primer Abel...» (2: 716, emphasis added)62. Although in this instance Unamuno compares Milton's admiration of Satan's tragic majesty to Abel's admiration of Cain, Byron's psychological approach to the Cain/Abel myth could not have but stimulated a responsive chord in Unamuno. Not only is Byron's Cain read and discussed by the antagonists of Abel Sánchez, but Unamuno himself conveys an interpretation of the Old Testament fratricide that is analogous to Byron's view of the same rivalry as an embodiment of split personality. Unamuno may have found additional inspiration in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, an annotated copy of which exists in the Unamuno library at Salamanca (Valdés 234)63. Similar to the Romantic and Jungian views of the human personality as a coincidence of opposites, Stevenson's short novel has been interpreted as the story of a divided psyche battling for integration (Hannah 38-71). As does Stevenson, Unamuno intuits that split personality occurs when an ego rejects its unconscious shadow by denying it access to participation in the adult self. Under these circumstances the shadow splinters away from the personality and assumes the rival existence of an autonomous psychic entity (Jung 9, is 279). Joaquín Monegro, however, presents the more infrequent psychological case in which the positive qualities which normally comprise the ego are rejected, while the negative qualities of the shadow personality are permitted to surface and to seize hold of the ego (Hannah 19; Jung 5: 66). In these rare cases the positive characteristics of the ego are repressed causing it to assume negative character traits (Jung 9, ii: 8). Although it is normal to discharge
psychic incompatibilities by projecting them onto others, it is likewise
possible to reject the positive values one feels are alien or inaccessible to
the self (Jung 6: 457). Those parts of his personality which Joaquín
erroneously rejects as non-existent, namely kindness,
Considerable moral effort is required to face the self-scrutiny necessary to initiate a process of psychic integration. Although Monegro is capable of recognizing and identifying the characteristics of his demonio de la guarda, as Unamuno terms the shadow personality (2: 707), he chooses to beat the inner demon into quiescence rather than to reconcile with him through acceptance. Joaquín's tragedy lies in being unable to overcome the psychological resistance he feels toward assimilating the self which hates Abel, and in his rejection of his wife, Antonia, as anima and partner whose role it is to mediate the shadow to consciousness. Monegro therefore goes through life an unwell man, unwell be cause of his insistence on separation rather than relatedness, and his fear and hatred of himself. Hate and rejection of some aspects of the self, personified by the pursuing shadow image or double, often culminate in «suicide by way of death intended for the irksome persecutor» (Rank 33). Joaquín's role in Abel's «accidental» death is thus symbolic of a last attempt to remove that part of the psyche which had pursued and tormented him for many years. The act is, of course, futile since the slaying of one's double is an illusory separation of the ego from the self. This characteristic elimination of the «other» is tantamount to suicide since the ego cannot attain wholeness without the presence of all of its component64s. Rather than relieving Joaquín of the unwelcome pursuits of his shadow, Abel's death causes him to fall into deep melancholy: «[un] espeso bochorno de misterio pesaba sobre la casa» (2: 757). Within one year of Abel's passing, Joaquín seems to will his own death: «¿Para qué [vivir]? ¿Para llegar a viejo? ...calló. No quiso o no pudo proseguir» (2: 759). Monegro's end becomes imminent when a crucial part of his psyche is definitively severed, and with it, the reason for his existence. The death of this shattered man is permeated by the same sense of finality that overwhelms the tragic lives of all the characters in Unamuno's repertoire who fail to complete a process of individuation. As conceived by Jung, the harmony of individuation can only be attained through compromise. It consists of a metaphorical smoothing of the rough edges of ego and shadow so that each can adjust more successfully to the other's dimensions. While the archetype of individuation surfaces repeatedly in Unamuno's prose fiction, the metaphysical compromise it implies seems to have made it impossible for him to entertain the viability of psychic totality on the practical level. In Unamuno's ontology the essence of being is thought of as an «esfuerzo por ser más, por serlo todo: es el apetito de infinidad y de eternidad» (3: 367). While don Miguel's «furiosa hambre de ser» (3: 114) alludes to what Jung sees as the human striving toward psychic plenitude, what Unamuno proves to be seeking is not an existentially tenable coexistence with the «other», but an aggressive kind of self-expansion through the «ingestion» of the potential rival65. This notion first appears in Dr. Montarco's claim that «... no es el crecimiento y la multiplicación de los seres lo que les pide más alimento... sino que es una tendencia a... sobrepasar de lo necesario. No es instinto de conservación sino instinto de invasión; no tiramos a mantenernos, sino a ser más, a serlo todo» (1: 1131). Unamuno's insistence on being all things at all times, while conserving a discrete, personal identity within the «whole», placed tremendous limitations on the conciliatory frame of mind necessary for a successful integration of psychological opposites to take place. However much Unamuno's desire «por ser más, por serlo todo» is also thought to indicate a protean ego or ontological insecurity, I believe this kind of intensity to be the product of a psyche which yearned to incorporate its congeries of selves into a coherent and indissoluble totality. It is conceivable that Unamuno's unflagging exploration of the split personality reveals an intent to analyze his dual nature through the therapy of literary creation. The solution don Miguel reaches in Abel Sánchez, however, does not take into account a successful resolution of inner dualism. Nevertheless,
Unamuno appears to find an equivalent of Jung's spiritual
coincidentia oppositorum in the
chiasmus, a rhetorical trope which he transposes from its normally stylistic
context to one allowing for the structuring of a novel based on the principle
of binomial conceptualization. Essentially the chiasmus, a
Adopting the chiasmus to convey the inner dualism of his protagonists seems to be the only response possible on Unamuno's part to the integration of psychological polarities. I suggest that only through the chiasmus, that is through the intellect, is Unamuno able to approach the archetype of individuation which he normally found inadmissible on the existential and ontological levels. Thus his stories of male, and not infrequently female doubling, are but pretexts for a quest to reconcile what don Miguel perceived as his own conflictive public and private, or passive and aggressive personalities. Abel Sánchez presents a good illustration of this point. While Joaquín Monegro begins life as an ostensibly cynical doctor, and Abel Sánchez as an intuitive artist, their attributes are quickly reversed: Monegro develops into an intuitive medical artist, while Sánchez becomes a scientific painter and covert cynic. It is Abel who immortalizes on his canvasses the patients whose lives Joaquín fails to prolong through medical science: «Él, el que con su arte resucita e inmortaliza a los que tú dejas morir por tu torpeza...» (2: 706). This chiastic juxtaposition is rendered by the following diagram:
Another chiasmus is constructed around the tide of the novel. Although it bears the words «Abel Sánchez» the book is actually about Joaquín Monegro, the character meant to represent the ego personality whose tortured life the novel intends to chronicle. Abel Sánchez will be remembered by posterity only because Joaquín recreates Abel in his diary: «... la mayor coyuntura que tienes de perpetuarte ...no son tus cuadros, sino es que yo acierte a pintarte con mi pluma tal y como lo eres» (2: 747). Joaquín has, in effect, ingested Abel, and Abel becomes a kind of parasite, staying alive through the nourishment of Monegro's written word. However, as Abel becomes the recipient of Joaquín's rejected ego, he acquires a fictional stature greater than that of Joaquín. Without Abel, Joaquín would not have suffered the torments which led him to begin his journal, and without this journal, Monegro has no reason to exist as the exceptionally tormented fictional entity that he is, worthy of a reader's attention. Unamuno therefore reverses the ego/shadow relationship as described in the chiasmus below:
By allowing his shadow to replace his ego, Joaquín relinquishes autonomy and permits his conscious life to be manipulated by a threateningly independent alter-ego. The novel therefore bears Abel's name since it is Abel who determines the course of events in Joaquín's life. Like the rhetorical chiasmus which hurls two airs of unlike, but complementary verbal constructs against each other into a momentary union, the splintered facets of Joaquín the poetic scientist, and Abel the scientific painter, are simultaneously attracted to, and repelled by each other, sundered by their uncompromising individuality. Although Joaquín and Abel are essentially indivisible, neither is able to surrender his autonomy in the interests of harmonious co-existence67. Thus they remain, like Unamuno's own personality, an ego forever at variance with its shadow.
Works Cited
Clavería, Carlos. Temas de Unamuno. Madrid: Gredos, 1953. Earle, Peter G. Unamuno and English Literature. New York: Hispanic Institute, 1960. Feal Deibe, Carlos. Unamuno: El otro y don Juan. Madrid: Planeta, 1976. Gullón, Ricardo. Autobiografías de Unamuno. Madrid: Gredos, 1964. Hannah, Barbara. Striving Towards Wholeness. New York: Putnam and C. G. Jung Foundation, 1971. Jacobi, Jolande. The Way of Individuation. Trans. R. E C. Hull. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1967. Jung, C. G. Symbols of Transformation. Trans. R. F. C. Hull. Ed. William McGuire et al. 2nd ed. of Vol. 5 of Collected Works. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1970. _____. Psychological Types. Trans. H. G. Baynes. Ed. William McGuire et al. Vol. 6 of Collected Works. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1971. _____. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Trans. R. F. C. Hull. Ed. Sir Herbert Read et al. Vol. 9, Part 1 of the Collected Works. New York: Pantheon for Bollingen Foundation, 1959. _____.
Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the
Self. Trans. R. F. C. Hull. Ed.William Self. Trans. R. F. C. Hull. Ed.
William McGuire. Vol. 9, Part 2 of the
Collected Works. Princeton: Princeton
_____. Psychology and Religion: West and East. Trans. R. F. C. Hull. Ed. Sir Herbert Read et al. 2nd ed. of Vol.1 of the Collected Works. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1969. Landsberg, P. L. Reflexiones sobre Unamuno. Barcelona: Cruz del Sur, 1963. Mauron, Charles. Des métaphores obsédantes au mythe personnel. Paris: Corti, 1962. Mermall, Thomas, «The Chiasmus: Unamuno's Master Trope». Forthcoming PMLA 105.2 (1990). _____. «Unamuno's Mystical Rhetoric». The Analysis of Hispanic Texts. Ed. Isabel Tarán et al. New York: Bilingual Press, 1976. 256-64. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Paradise Regained. Ed. Christopher Ricks. New York: NAL, 1968. Neumann, Erich. The Origins and History of Consciousness. Trans. R. F. C. Hull. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1969. New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. Trans. Richard Aldington and Delano Ames. Intro. Robert Graves. 1959. New York & London: Hamlyn, 1972. Olson, Paul R. «Sobre las estructuras quiásticas en el pensamiento unamuniano (interpretación de un juego de palabras)». Homenaje a Jean López Morillas. Eds. José Amor y Vázquez and A. David Kossof. Madrid: Castalia, 1982. 359-68. Rank, Otto. The Double; A Psychoanalytic Study. Trans. & Ed. Harry Tucker. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1971. Rof Carballo, J. «Envidia y creación». Ínsula 15 dic. 1958: 1. Round, Nicholas. Unamuno: Abel Sánchez. London: Grant & Cutler, 1974. Russell, Jeffrey B. Mephistopheles. The Devil in the Modern World. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1986. Salcedo, Emilio. Vida de don Miguel. Salamanca: Anaya, 1964. Stein, Murray. Jung's Treatment of Christianity. Wilmette, IL: Chiron, 1985. Ulanov, Ann B. The Feminine in Jungian Psychology and in Christian Theology. Evanston: Northwestern UP, 1971. Unamuno y Jugo, Miguel de. Obras Completas. Ed. Manuel García Blanco. 9 vols. Madrid: Escelicer, 1966-1971. Valdés, Mario J. and Maria Elena de Valdés. An Unamuno Sourcebook. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1973. Ziolkowski, Theodore. Disenchanted Images. A Literary Iconology. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1977. Zubizarreta, Armando F. Unamuno en su nivola. Madrid: Taurus, 1960.
Transgression and the Social Order: Redemption and Retribution in Sergio Galindo's La justicia de enero
Judith C. Richards
Rockhurst College
La justicia de enero68 (1959) is a novel in the «intimist» mode. In mid-twentieth century Mexico, the appearance of such novels coincided with -and was somewhat overshadowed by- broad totalizing works such as Carlos Fuentes's La región más transparente (1958). Both the intimate and the total novel pursue an elusive sense of personal and national identity; however, while the latter demonstrates an intense historical consciousness, the intimist approach examines Mexico through the microcosm of multiple but specific interpersonal relationships. In this manner, Sergio Galindo's texts project towards the universal from the personal, frequently through a series of micro-récits69 portraying individual circumstances. Galindo writes about personal limitations and individual isolation, in combination with innovative focalization techniques, to permit an elucidating examination of human behavior. His repeated juxtaposition of third and first person perspectives and voices within a single paragraph effectively dramatizes the manner in which characters react to their environment and interlocutors. The reader is continually reminded of the multiple intellectual and emotional components that shape language and relationships. In addition, a penetrating and persistent extradiegetic narrating voice seems to become itself a character in the narrative, such is its role in uniting the multiple perspectives. La justicia de enero is Galindo's second novel. Set in Mexico City, the urban location reflects the impersonal and somewhat cosmopolitan dimension of the characters' employment in the national immigration service. Nevertheless, the details of how these persons represent and reinforce the status quo, their fluctuating values and materialistic concerns, are representative of provincial as well as urban contexts. The fact that Galindo will situate all but one of his novels in the provinces attests to his view that the general existential malaise extends beyond the metropolis. As the title suggests, the novel is concerned with the justice system, both specifically (Mexico City) and conceptually (the defining of truth). Héctor Loeza, Pedro Ruiz Castro, Victor Rivas, Gregorio Ferat, and Alberto del Campo are colleagues in the immigration service, pursuing and deporting illegal aliens. Alongside their professional interactions, glimpses into their marital relationships provide additional information about the financial and emotional constraints they confront. The multiple micro-récits present the variety of adjustments and compromises that individuals choose when confronted with a dissonance between beliefs and needs. Pedro and his wife Mercedes manage to find mutual happiness. Victor reacts to a childhood tragedy-his father's abuse of his mother led to her killing him, then to her subsequent imprisonment and suicide; he cannot accept the arbitrary definitions of justice with which society judged his mother, and later used against the Italian prisoner Ena, whom he loved. Gregorio Ferat and Alberto del Campo are opportunists who do reasonably well within the profession, through corruption and the manipulation of fellow employees. The phrase
«la justicia de
enero» is used to describe the change of perspective that
judges undergo in the course of their careers:
«Da a entender que no hay jurado o
juez o gobernante que sea igualmente justo al iniciar que al terminar su
periodo. Empiezan muy estrictos y terminan magnánimos, o lo contrario.
Although substantial narrative time is de voted to the stories of each of the five couples, the dynamics in their relationships and their responses to their individual realities form the total presentation of one reality; the signified of the whole work is the mosaic of its various components. The novel opens and closes with the micro-récit of Héctor and Cecilia, and it occupies more time and space than the other four récits. Héctor is well-established in his career, and seemingly respected by his superiors; his secure position makes the newer recruits wary of him and his opinions. As a young man he was fiercely honest, obeying his own concepts of justice. As an adult Héctor pursues a simultaneous self-definition (professional police officer) and self-destruction (unyielding husband) through his service in a system of arbitrary values. When he marries Cecilia they five with her mother Marcela. Cecilia had been raised out side of the Catholic Church, but well within the consensus values of domesticity, and the concommitant illusion of control over one's own environment. Marcela's perceptions of Héctor are disquieting: she has reason to believe that he tortures prisoners to elicit confessions, and may even kill those who don't cooperate. Cecilia resists facing this possibility, but finally realizes that she cannot accept his seemingly dichotomous values. Feeling betrayed by a duplicitous love, she seeks an alternative life, one that will punish Héctor and challenge the idealized female image her mother had promoted. After fleeing Mexico City for Tijuana, Cecilia becomes a cabaret prostitute. As she effects changes in her life, the story becomes mainly Ceciliás. Because today's reader is more liable to look at the social con text that produces her behavior than to be affected by the marginal nature of her choices, and also because modern sensibilities are less liable to redeem Cecilia than to propose alternative channels for her rebellion, I have chosen to present her as the protagonist of the novel. Answering the Brooks and Warren question, «Whose fate is at stake?» (659), I would respond that Cecilia's future is of crucial interest in fight of establishment values. Héctor does what is expected of a man in his position and always has the mask of his profession. Cecilia's quest into unknown and marginal social spheres yields no real solution for dealing with the values she has rejected. In the course of the récit she changes and abandons her search for the ideal relationship; ultimately she simply seeks to stay alive. Through Bernardo, owner of the cabaret in which she works, Cecilia finds a possible return to respectability. Bernardo, too, envisions their mutual redemption through his marriage to Cecilia, and a reformed life in a new location. But society demands retribution from Bernardo: he is arrested and extradited to San Diego, to stand trial for a murder he inadvertently committed. With regard to Cecilia, the novel's key episode occurs at the end of the récit when she recognizes that Bernardo is gone and she is effectively alone.
She has defied bourgeois society and been denied access to conventional modes of redemption. In order to examine the dynamic factors in this text, I have
done a schematic analysis similar to that proposed by John Brushwood in the
fourth chapter of
Genteel Barbarism (63-81), involving the
narrative strategy of paradox in the
récit. The analysis is based
on Floyd Merrell's model of narrative structure (150-69) which Brushwood has
developed into two paradigms that offer an examination of the basic antimonies
underlying the action in a text, their development through the binary
oppositions presented in the narrative, and their possible resolution through a
mediating agent. The analysis includes three levels of study: 1] the
axiological level -the abstract representation of the deepest existential
(universal) conflicts that characters can encounter (Merrell, 154-55;
Brushwood, 64-65); 2] the symbolic-semantic level, representing the surface
conflicts that produce the drama of the work, and symbolize the underlying
(axiological)
On the axiological level, community vs. individual suggests a conflict of values that occurs when individuals are required to maintain and reinforce social institutions (the Church, the family, and the legal system). Self-worth is associated with an individual's success or failure in being part of these systems; punishments -either self-inflicted or as a consequence of chosen actions- insure the perpetuation of the values these structures represent. The axiological level in this case establishes an ironic situation, the irreconcilable opposition of institutional and individual value systems; it suggests that social systems, in order to survive, cannot implement the values they embody. The axiological oppositions necessarily produce tension and anguish, which in terms of action appear in the diagram as redemption vs. retribution. With regard to the community, solid line A promises redemption through consensus ideals and punishment for those who fail to comply; here, Cecilia is well within prescribed social boundaries as a loyal and obedient daughter. A slight deviation from the norm occurs in that Cecilia was raised out side of the Church; the idea of some degree of self-determination has been part of her socialization: «No soy creyente. Mi madre es una mujer especial, no me dio ninguna religión para que fuera yo la que decidiera... Pero aún no decido» (65). Solid line B indicates that Society allows penitent rebels to rejoin the status quo through the appropriate channels, in the case of Cecilia by marriage to Bernardo. The broken lines show the contrasting values of the two symbolic-semantic terms that have quite different meanings depending on whether they are used with respect to the community or to the individual. Broken line A shows Cecilia having become a prostitute, rejecting her roles as daughter, wife and female, subsequently being brought back into society by a person who himself is an outsider. They are to be married, this time by the Church, after three months of reformed living. Significantly, Bernardo believes that only through Cecilia can he redeem himself: «... había confiado en el cambio de Cecilia, pensando que dicha transformación lo incluía a él por igual... Aquella nueva vida -el hacer planes y pensar en los detalles del matrimonio y del futuro hogar... los recuerdos de la infancia; el mismo calor... Fiestas de familia, misas de domingo, tenues pasos al entrar en alcobas tranquilas con alfombras viejas y retratos queridos y ridículos» (138). Cecilia's redemption is to be effected by a pimp; the restoration of the social order, the redemption of the renegade and defiled female, and the perpetuation of community values is in the hands of the anti-hero. Ironically they will reinforce the status quo that is responsible for their marginalization. Another dimension of broken line A is that of the
role of transgression in society. Georges Bataille observes that the orgy
-which in this situation is represented by Cecilia's several transgressions
through sexual encounters and her addiction to alcohol- offers two important
changes: equality among participants, and the abolition of limits (129).
Bernardo and Cecilia have both participated in the community's proscribed
activities; their seeking
Solid line B, then, offers an illusion, or perhaps a deception. As Bataille reminds us, «the devil was a rebellious angel at the start, but the gaudy colors of revolt wore thin; rebellion was punished by despair, and what had been transgression turned into hopelessness» (broken line B) [137]. Cecilia's radical, and yet stereotypical, reaction places her in society's firing line, at the same time the concomitant self-degradation it produces causes her to seek a return to well-defined limits. Further, the fact that Cecilia finds no resolution to her dilemma does not invite a reconciliation between the community and the individual. And additionally, broken line B shows prostitution as a reactive -and not proactive- response. In other words, her initial action yields to a passive posture as she becomes society's victim. Just as solid line B revealed a deceptive situation, broken line A shows that Marcela's daughter had envisioned a sense of control she could not possess; her career as a prostitute neither satisfied her desire for retribution nor permitted her redemption. Apparently transgressions can result in redemption, and a reinforcement of the status quo, but they do not always do so. The novel is divided into two parts. A dramatic shift occurs in the opening sentence of the second half; Cecilia, having returned to Tijuana and Bemardo after a visit to her mother's house in Mexico City, recovers from a period of severe illness and asks Bernardo, «De qué estuve enferma?» (117). After her deviation from the social norms (metaphorically a «sickness») in Part 1, there follows a period of spiritual and physical regeneration, when Cecilia spends several months at a seaside cottage, preparing herself for marriage. The elements of the transgressive «orgy», her defiance and self-degradation, give way to a wholesome recuperation, nurtured by Bernardo.
The discourse of ailment -alcoholism, disappointment, loneliness, alienation and impersonal sex- transvalues, changes to that of «correct», healthy, sane conventionality: baptism, confession, pardon, freedom from sin, eternity, indissoluble guarantees. Cecilia's interpretation of reality changes: redemption through the patriarchy (broken line A) is realized not through rebellion within the community (rejection, marginalization) but rather through allegiance to the strong social prescription of Christianity and the male savior: repentance through a type of hierogamic union. Having journeyed into the unknown and assumed a «heroic» (active) stance when confronted with injustice, Cecilia succumbs (passively) to the implacable stipulations of society, and restores the social order by accepting punishment (justice). Cecilia's quest ends with a belated discovery: that she does indeed need the «protection» of a male counterpart. She had been unprotected, the victim of her own mother's vision (no mention is made in the novel of her father). Solid line A reveals the direct and ironic relationship between the obedient (correctly-socialized) female figure, and the same figure as the victim of her own socialization. The individual male intermediary (himself knowledgeable as the result of a journey into the marginal social spheres) serves to define the community role. Other underlying tensions that provide the synchronic and metaphoric
interaction of the novel are: 1) pride vs. sacrifice; 2) guilt vs. innocence;
and 3) conservatism vs. progress. The initial item in the first two pairs
refers to mechanisms that maintain the third pair's conservative power. The
second items provide victims for the
status quo and inhibit progress or
reform, the completing element in the third opposition. Masculine pride keeps
Héctor from pardoning Cecilia; his need to maintain a reputation for
exacting confessions from detainees reinforces his professional reputation:
«Con la deportación quedaba
salvado el honor de la oficina y la eficacia de los jefes»
(191). Initially he alienates her through his professional expertise;
subsequently he maintains her at a distance by expressing his disgust over her
defiled status-her «experience»
Because of her pride, Cecilia sacrifices, both intentionally and unintentionally. She loses faith in her husband, and then in herself: «Había abandonado a Héctor unas horas atrás para castigarlo; para que pagara así el crimen que había cometido, pero el castigo había sido para ella. Porque Héctor era fuerte y hasta cierto punto no llegaba a alterar nada esencial de su naturaleza el hecho de cometer una falta. En cambio ella era vulnerable, ella se transformaba, se volvía la culpa, el crimen, el horror» (121). Cecilia's need to question the social order and yet still be allowed an acceptable place within it -in other words, her very flexibility- make her vulnerable. The dynamics of guilt and innocence are finely blended in the narrative. A version of their possible reconciliation is voiced by Pedro Ruiz Castro when he decides to give up his profession, observing that the attainment of justice is outside the jurisdiction of mortals, and that therefore guilt cannot pertain to crime because justice has nothing to do with the truth. «Puedes... buscar mil definiciones... y no te dirán nada más que puedas aceptar como aplicable o explicable de la realidad...» (203). Pedro's personal solution, to abandon the pursuit of justice, does not finally work for Cecilia, although broken line A suggests that she was willing to modify her original stance. Solid line A indicates an ironic twist to the opportunism of characters like Héctor Loeza, Alberto del Campo, and Gregorio Ferat, who adjust their behavior to fit the circumstances and their beliefs to the exigencies of quotidian detail. Del Campo's self-image is ambiguous, as is his sexuality: «No era cuestión de cobardía ni de sensibilidad, era cuestión de creer en lo que se hacía. Creer, aunque fuera en la estafa, en el cohecho. Pero creer» (190). Eventually the System exacts its own retribution on those who promote it: ambiguous values marginalize these people too in the effect that their decisions have on their inter personal relationships-Del Campo's impotency, Ferat's conjugal submissiveness, and Loeza's isolation. The conflict between conservatism and progress is particularly crucial to the novel's message. It seems to include an awareness of gender as an additional category of concern with the personal limitations imposed by society. When Cecilia discovers that Bernado's partner Max has absconded with the money from the sale of the cabaret, she reflects: «El buen Max. El fiel Max. Lloraría a Bernardo en América del Sur. Sólo un hombre podía darse el lujo de largarse así, y "empezar" otra vida a un paso de los cincuenta años. Max era viudo, podía hasta casarse por la iglesia, si quería» (209). The novel's denouement takes a very conservative turn. Effectively barred from legitimization -a legal union with a man- Cecilia resumes her life as a prostitute; «... era como si ya hubieran decretado su pena de muerte o su cadena perpetua o lo que fuera. Pero nunca su libertad, nunca devolvérsela para que la llevara [Bernardo] al altar...» (209). As the paradigm of metonymic associations suggests (see next page), Cecilia's efforts to challenge society's established values and proscribed roles reveals not only her own failure and victimization, but also the failure of Society in providing her with options70. In the upper left-hand corner, the praxemic trajectory of the novel shows Cecilia's desire to challenge the community that demands a compromise of her values. This desire leads directly and ironically to her efforts at reintegration into the same community, thereby restoring the social order and reinforcing Establishment values. Bernardo's arrest and subsequent deportation suggest a possible collusion on Héctor's part -another act of retribution enacted by the Establishment. The praxemic total is the failure of Society to provide options for Cecilia's needs. On the right hand side, the synchronic dimension of the paradigm shows that Cecilia as an individual fails. Society has denied her value system, challenged her personal integrity, and revealed the heroic facade of those Héctors and Bernardos who might have been her saviors. The paradigm indicates a double failure, of society's capacity and of Cecilia's options, on both the metonymic and the metaphoric levels, and it assigns ironic significance to any mediating dimension. Perhaps the only possible mediator is the Outsider, who momentarily challenges the Establishment even while recognizing the inflexibility and inevitable dominance of the community's ethics. If the Outsider (Cecilia and Bernardo) is the mediator, we have observed that s/he is also the scapegoat. The ambiguous nature of
the mediator, and therefore the fact of a fleeting coincidence of
And finally, however the modern reader understands the novel, it is important to note that the alternatives proposed for Cecilia by the implied author represent a traditional social and literary context that is still controlled by patriarchal definitions, and therefore, still actively curtails the options of the questioning female individual. Works Cited
Bataille, Georges. Erotism, Death and Sensuality. San Francisco: City Light Books, 1986. Brooks, Cleanth and Robert Penn Warren. Understanding Fiction. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1959. Brushwood, John S. Genteel Barbarism. Experiments in Analysis of Nineteenth-Century Spanish American Novels. Lincoln: The University of Nebraska Press, 1981. De Anhalt, Nedda G.
«Personajes femeninos de Sergio
Castellanos, Rosario. «Un nombre en ascenso: Sergio Galindo». La Palabra y el Hombre 59-60 (julio-diciembre 1986): 13-15. Galindo, Sergio, Personal interview with Alice Reckley. May 1, 1981. Merrell, Floyd. «Toward a New Model of Narrative Structure». The Analysis of Hispanic Texts: Current Trends in Methodology. New York: Bilingual Press, 1976. Trejo Fuentes, Ignacio. «La vejez en la obra de Sergio Galindo» Segunda voz: Ensayos sobre la novela mexicana. México: UNAM, 1987.
«Parenting the Text»: Female Creativity and Dialogic Relationships in Isabel Allende's La casa de los espíritus
Doris Meyer
Connecticut
College In The Newly Born Woman [La Jeune Née, 1975], the French feminist critic Hélène Cixous speaks of a woman's symbolic bisexuality, «that is to say the location within oneself of the presence of both sexes, evident and insistent in different ways according to the individual...» (85). For Cixous, this «gift of changeability» (88), this «capacity to depropriate herself without self-interest» (87), is potentially liberating and radically different from the traditional man's need to prove himself, to «gain more masculinity: plus-value of virility, authority, power, money, or pleasure, all of which reinforce his phallocentric narcissism at the same time» (87). As portrayed by Cixous, hierarchical Western society has trapped and, ironically, victimized man on a psychic level, ensnaring him in his own «rigid law of individuation» (96). Woman, on the other hand has managed to stay in touch with her bisexual unconscious by «liv[ing] in dreams, embodied but still deadly silent, in silences, in voiceless rebellions» (95). Breaking this silence by the act of writing, woman can «displace this 'within', explode it, overturn it» (95), externalize the private world of the feminine Imaginary and «spread values over the world, un-quoted values that will change the rules of the game» (97). Cixous's «sorties» into the terrain of feminist theory are not an exercise in utopianism; The Newly Born Woman is a political text with an autobiographical impulse. «I come», writes Cixous, «biographically, from a rebellion, from a violent and anguished direct refusal to accept what is happening on the stage of whose edge I find I am placed, as a result of the combined accidents of History» (70). As a Jewish Algerian French woman, Cixous is committed to bringing about a non-hierarchical, non-repressive future, «defeating [masculine domination], yes, but in order to espouse... a union that is the opposite of rape and masculine abduction» (116). A similar vision of a «newly born woman» engendered by personal experience emerges from Isabel Allende's first novel, La casa de los espíritus [1982]. Like Cixous, Allende believes literature can help transform society: «We are a new people. Out of so much accumulated, shared suffering, out of so many forms of violence and oppression, a tremendous force is arising which, as it gathers momentum, will change our relations of dependence. We have the audacity and candor of the young. Imagination and a sense of the magical will not only serve to seduce the readers of the ill-named literature of the Boom; we will also be able to use these qualities in building an original society, one that is happier and more just» («A Few Words» 10). In the early 1970s, Allende witnessed the beginning of a democratic movement for socioeconomic change in Chile, only to see it crushed by an alliance of conservative forces. Her response in this novel is a direct refusal to accept the patriarchal oppression historically practiced by the upper classes and the military in Latin America. In addition, and of central interest to this
paper, Allende creates a feminocentric novel that -in the tradition of the
self-conscious text- represents through discourse two empowering and
transforming female experiences associated with renewal: giving birth and being
reborn. In other words,
La casa de los espíritus focuses
both on the physical experience of creating a text (within the text) and the
psychological experience of creating a new self. Central to this
female-centered
La casa de los espíritus is the story of four generations of a Latin American (implicitly Chilean) family told by two narrators. The primary voice, representing 90% of the narration, is that of Alba, the youngest member of the Trueba family. Despite occasional subjective references, her voice is essentially objective assuming the tone of an omniscient narrator who recounts the history of her family. Only when she reaches the present [ca. 1974] in the epilogue of the novel does she reveal how and why she is writing. The secondary voice is that of her grandfather, Esteban Trueba, who interrupts Alba's narrative from time to time with his own testimony. In the epilogue we learn that the elderly Esteban has, in fact, just died, and that it was he who urged Alba to write the family story: «Empecé a escribir con la ayuda de mi abuelo», she says, «cuya memoria permaneció intacta hasta el último instante de sus noventa altos. De su puño y letra escribió varias páginas y cuando consideró que lo había dicho todo, se acostó en la cama de Clara» (378). In addition to her grandfather's memory, Alba has her grandmother Clara's notebooks, her mother Blanca's letters, and assorted records and family documents to help her piece together her narrative. Like Isabel Allende, Alba identifies with her foremothers and finds in their writing a timeless mirror of female experience:
This sense of the community of female experience across the boundaries of time and space conveys a message of female empowerment that subverts historical stereotypes of submissive women and mocks androcentric individualism. Alba -who perceives this strength and survives because of it- is a symbol of female self-awareness and potentiality on the eve of a new era. Unlike most contemporary feminist authors who reject or exclude the hegemonic patriarchal voice as non grata other, Allende is, on the whole, conciliatory; indeed Esteban Trueba's testimony is essential to the novel's theme of self-renewal and rebirth. Nearing death, Esteban writes, with Alba, in order to explain the past, but he also writes out of his own need to exorcise the sins of selfishness and pride that drove him to violence and cost him the love of his adored Clara. His testimony, like his refurbishing of the eccentric house built for Clara and neglected since her death, is an effort to renounce authoritarianism and seek communion with the spirit of his indomitable wife. In Allende's metatext, Esteban represents the androcentric vision of history, the perspective within Latin American (and Judeo-Christian) culture that has traditionally imposed its discourse of power and law of privilege. The intersection of Esteban's aging, disillusioned voice -no longer dominant- with that of his young, vibrant granddaughter -no longer muted- points toward a transformation in «the rules of the game». Indeed, Allende's ingenious blending of the two narrative voices not only clearly situates the female voice within the context of a machista culture but it also displaces and subverts the power of that culture. One might interpret this narrative strategy as a novelistic rendering of the «double-voiced discourse» described in socio-ideological terms by the Russian critic M. M. Bakhtin as «social heteroglossia» or «another's speech in an other's language serving to express authorial intentions but in a refracted way» (324-26). Elaine Showalter has adapted Bakhtin's concept of the «double-voiced discourse» to her theory of gynocritics in order to illustrate the internalized duality of female literary expression, generated in the language and culture of a «dominant» order but from the perspective of a «muted» group within that order (204). Applied to the discursive relationships of La casa de los espíritus, this dialogic approach to the novel reveals an ironic twist: the muted voice (Alba) has become the dominant one in the novel, and vice-versa. Allende
explicitly traces the emergence of this confident female voice through Alba's
Alba adored her grandmother as «el alma de la gran casa de la esquina» (250, and when Clara died, the child understood that they would be separated in flesh but not in spirit. Years later, when Alba was raped and tortured and left to die in a military prison isolation cell, Clara's spirit appeared to her urging her to fool death and write herself into life again. She must testify, Clara told her, to the events she had witnessed and write her way out of the «cramped confines of patriarchal space»72 into the liberating space of female truth. Alba's text, inscribed only in her imagination, would be her private refuge in a world of madness, just as Clara's diaries had liberated her from Esteban's uncontrolled violence. Silently and alone, Alba began to create her secret text of life and hope. After being transferred to a woman's concentration camp, she found unexpected support among her co-prisoners who cared for her and encouraged her to write, giving her a precious notebook and pencil. In writing her own story, they said, she would write for them all. This protective female community, united in mutual concern and support, reinforced Alba's will to survive. As Nina Auerbach has noted, communities of women bound by hospitality and sympathy «possess a power of quasi-magical self-sustainment that blooms of apparent death» (11). By writing, Alba transcended her own personal tragedy, achieving a new level of collective historical awareness that was far stronger than her grandmother's evasive rebellion. Alba's act of communal affirmation fulfills the generative, transformational relationship, of reader/text/author, central to Allende's novel. Alba «reads» the «texts» of female experience (such as Clara's, Blanca's, Ana Díaz's) and, inspired by this polyvocal female testimony, she «authors» her own text and consequently «en-genders» her own selfhood. Her awareness of the social context of gender is highlighted by her identification with Clara, as cited earlier and as represented by the circular structure of the narrative, which begins and ends with words from her grandmother's notebooks. By taking Clara's words and making them her own, Alba both accepts and adapts them to suit her own intentions, which respond to a different historical context. Her language is thus a result of dialogic interaction, an experiencing of self vs. other which is, according to Bakhtin in «Discourse in the Novel», the natural orientation of all human discourse:
The expropriation of
language, and thus the act of becoming, necessarily involves
«reading» the various heteroglossia, or different languages, of the
world around one. This is illustrated by Alba who feels compelled to write out
of understanding that
«cada pieza [del rompecabezas] tiene
una razón de ser tal The blending of two narrative voices, representing two opposing «languages» is also an example of what Bakhtin refers to as «hybridization»: «one of the most important modes in the historical life and evolution of all languages. we may even say that language and languages change historically primarily by means of hybridization, by means of a mixing of various "languages" co-existing within the boundaries of a single dialect, a single national language...» (358-59). Such intentional novelistic hybridization, according to Bakhtin, «is an artistically organized system for bringing different languages in contact with one another, a system having as its goal the illumination of one language by means of another, the carving-out of a living image of another language» (361)73. A classic example of this would be Cervantes's Don Quijote in which the dialogue between Don Quijote and Sancho has a transformational effect on both protagonists and the concomitant effect of making the reader question the monologic, univocal world-view of the protagonist or others like him. Allende's narrative juxtaposition achieves a similar effect: not only are the fundamental tenets of androcentrism (the primacy of the male over the female, logos over eros, vertical hierarchy over lateral relationships) repudiated, but the traditional family/State structural reinforcement of the nationalistic romance, so popular in Latin America in the early and mid 20th century, is called into question74. In a recent essay on feminist literary criticism and the discourse of power in Latin American women's literature, Jean Franco points out that critics should focus less on defining a female voice or style in writing and more on women's relationship with the institutions of power, be they literary or otherwise. To quote Franco:
Franco places the word «contra» in quotes to indicate the internalized nature of the patriarchal voice and the paradox of the female writer's struggle against its persuasive authority in an effort to give birth to the sense of «otherness» within. In an article written in response to Franco's, Francine Masiello points out that Bakhtin's double-voiced discourse is particularly suited to Latin American reality and feminist concerns:
By structuring La casa de los espíritus as a double-voiced discourse in which the grand father represents the internalized patriarchal culture and the granddaughter the newly born feminist, Allende embodies this emergence of a polyvocal feminist text which expresses the hope of a ethically transformed community. By giving voice to the oppressor in addition to the dominant voice of the oppressed, Allende symbolically portrays the «parented» female text as defined by Elaine Showalter:
Alba effectively comes to grips with
both her paternal and her maternal precursors by making peace with her
grandfather and collaborating with him in writing the family history75. I She is the child of the
independent Blanca and
Although Alba is the dominant narrative voice, she interprets the experiences of many women divided by class, race and economic situation, who, like herself, have been oppressed by patriarchal culture in Latin America. If they have something in common, it is not an ideology but a spirit or moral affiliation that values nurturing relationships over the exercise of power76. Without rejecting the paternal inheritance, Allende's novel calls for a revaluation of the maternal generosity epitomized by the anonymous woman of the slums who comforted Alba on the night of her release from prison: «Le dije que había corrido mucho riesgo al ayudarme y ella sonrió. Entonces supe que el colonel García y otros como él tienen sus días contados, porque no han podido destruir el espíritu de esas mujeres» (377).
Works Cited
Agosín, Marjorie. «Isabel Allende: La casa de los espíritus». Revista Interamericana de Bibliografía 35 (1985): 448-58. Allende, Isabel. «A Few Words about Latin America». An address to Hispanic students at Montclair State College, April 1985. Trans. Jo Anne Engelbert. Type script courtesy of translator. _____. La casa de los espíritus. Barcelona: Plaza & Janes, 1982. Auerbach, Nina. Communities of Women: An Idea in Fiction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Press. 1978. Bakhtin, M. M. «Discourse in the Novel». The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Ed. Michael Holquist. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981. 259-422. Bauer, Dale M. Feminist Dialogics: A Theory of Failed Community. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988. Cixous, Hélène and Catherine Clement. The Newly Born Woman. Trans. Betsy Wing. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986. Franco, Jean. «Apuntes sobre la crítica feminista y la literatura hispanoamericana». Hispamérica 45 (1986): 31-43. Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982. Masiello, Francine. «Discurso de mujeres, lenguaje del poder: Reflexiones sobre la crítica feminista a mediados de la década del 80». Hispamérica 45 (1986): 53-60. _____. «Texto, ley, transgresión: Especulación sobre la novela (feminista) de vanguardia». Revista Iberoamericana 132-33 (julio-dic. 1985): 807-22. McCarthy, Mari. «Possessing Female Space: 'The Tender Shoot'». Women's Studies 8 (1981): 368. Showalter, Elaine. «Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness». Critical Inquiry (Special Issue: Writing and Sexual Difference) 8 [Winter 1981]: 179-205.
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