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JACKSON, Richard Lawson, 1937- THE GREGUERIA OF RAMON GOMEZ DE LA SERNA: A STUDY OF THE GENESIS, COMPOSI­ TION, AND SIGNIFICANCE OF A NEW LITERARY GENRE.

The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1963 Language and Literature, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan naturaleza," the new monster replacing Lope de Vega as an excellent example of creative v ita lity . In 195^ he celebrated his golden an­ niversary in literature, and during the last fifty-eight years he has produced around one hundred and f if ty volumes and thousands of a rtic le s written for newspapers, periodicals, and magazines all over the world. An edition of his complete works i s coming out, two volumes of which have already been released. There is also an edition of his Total de Greauerifas as well as separate volumes and editions of his complete biographies and biographical sketches. Gomes de la Serna has cultivated many of the existing genres and has attempted others.2 Among his huge output are about a dozen plays, over thirty novels and innumerable books and essays of criti­ cism which include prefaces to works of such writers as Guillaume Apollinaire, Oscar Wilde, Colette, Estebanez, Calderon, etc. These prefaces alone represent a respectable body of critical work. He has written many biographies and some biographical sketches of such figures as John RuskLn, Oscar Wilde, Azorfn, Goya, Valle-Inclan, Velazquez, El Greco, Edgar Allan Poe, Quevedo, Baudelaire, Nerval, Pirandello, both Machados, Ibsen, Eohegaray, Benavente, Blasec Ibanez, Pardo Bazan, P&ez Galdos, Kafka, Manuel de Falla, Juan Ramon Jimenez, Keyserling, Jean Cassou, Rerny de Gourmont, Eugenio d'Ors, Baroja, the Goncourt Brothers, Mallanne, Unamuno, Colette, and Lope de Vega, his most recent.

^Two examples are the greeuerfa and the tramoanto.los. CHAPTER VI

VERBAL TECHNIQUE

As an introduction to this chapter on verbal technique we have selected the following pertinent greguerfas on language and sounds: Tan to habiar y nadie ha invented o una vocal mas* INada mas de cinco desde siemprei AEIOU: las cinco notas del piano humano. La laringe es la escalera de las palabras* Los ofdos son los ttfoeles de las palabras* El gallo canta en una lengua muj anterior al sanscrito, la prindtiva lengua en que le ensenaron a cantar. Si todas las palabras fuesen canto crac, chirriar y quiquiriqui, podrfa existir el lenguaje universal. Aside from word play which we will discuss shortly, there are other varying structures which contribute to the verbal technique of the greguerfa. The preceding chapter was primarily concerned with re­ semblances between things or ideas to which words refer* The emphasis in this chapter will be on the phonetic resemblances between words themselves which to a certain extent have become things. In addition, Gomez de la Serna has exceroised his predilection for word manipula­ tion by bringing together two concepts whose juxtaposition produces the effect. We see this teohnique at work in the two following categories.

A lteration Gomez de la Serna has taken old proverbs and sayings and has 93 altered their structure and content for humorous purposes. .Following are some examples: Nunca es tarde si la sopa es buena. Mas vale soltar el pajaro que tenerlo en mano. Cartas que no lleg&n, corazon que descansa. Dadme un amigo y movers e l mundo. Esoaleras del mundo: (UnJiosi y nos podreis llevar al cielo. By changing a word or two, shifting their viewpoints, he manages to add new aspects and possibilities of truth, however humorously conceived. Many of the greguerfas are based on popular sayings in Spanish. For example: La inmortalidad del cangrejo consists en andar hacia atras, rejuveneciendo hacia el pasado. Gomez de la Serna asserts that many popular sayings themselves can be considered as greguerfas—because popular language is metaphorical—and cites the following examples: Montira hasta los codos. Dios da pelusa al que no tiene ombligo.

Inference In some of the greguerfas the principal effect is -cjerlved from the power "'of suggestion with inference to something not mentioned, but readily called to mind on the basis of a kind of association not based on analogy. Domingo: diabetes de los nlnos. The process of association is brought about through the mere mention of a word which has been linked at one time or another to the descrip­ tion of habits or characteristic behavior in the juxtaposed phrase. An adequate example o f th is group i s the one centered around the d efin itio n 9*f suggested by the presence of the word "Sunday.1* The common ground does not He in the existence of a physical likeness but in the juxta­ posed presence of a veil-known behavior peculiar to ‘bat particular day (diabetei^sweets).

Visual E ffect of Typography

Parentheses « Platanos: parentesis frutales. Hay nubes que solo son parentesis de la tarde. El beso es una nada entre parentesis. La media luna mete la noohe entre parentesis. Lirat musica entre parentesis. Las golondrinas entreoomlllan el cielo. Los parentesis salen de las oejas del escrltor. In these greguerfas the curved shapes of the parenthetic lines have been observed by Gomez de la Serna and likened to the shapes of bananas, half moon, a kiss, fitting them within the curvature of a sug­ gested parenthesis, depending on physical sim ilarities between two realities. In additon, some are based on the function of the parenthesis which is to serve as enclosures, as boundaries. For example, in the second one ve have a picture suggested by clouds that reappear everyday at the same time, always announcing the approach of evening.

L etters and numbers Letters and numbers can serve as Initial stimuli in the gregua- rfa because of their sound and also because of their visual typograph­ ic a l aspect. For example: La n dice adios con su panuelo a los ninos y a los nonos. The idea here has been suggested by the shape of the letter n as it 95- *• * appears on the printed page—the tilde supposedly representing the floating handkerchief of the n being waved at the ninos and no no s. Aside from playing verbal diagrams with numbers and th e . alphabet (see Appendix) the author has done likewise with other w rit­ ten signs—for example, the dollar sign which we mentioned e a rlie r: EL dolar es una S con bastoncito. and

<• •. Los guiones son los valles de lo esorito. SO. etc. etc. etc. es la trenza de lo escrito. The important result is that the typographical signs are released from th e ir real function and given new meaning. The existence of a group of greguer£as centered around the presence of the letter H in words in Spanish though unpronounced pro­ vides us with excellent tran sitio n al m aterial from le tte r and number play to word play. In the following group the letter H takes on an importance much more valid than the phonetic one in the body of the word. Gomes de la Serna seems to have been dedicated to the establishment of separate meaning fo r the le tte r H in Spanish which, to a certain extent, has no phonetic justification. In the greguerfa it has found a purpose for being—in fact, various purposes—in the context of a word made possible at times because of its resemblance to something else. The rusulting hypotheses and suggestions of Gomez de la Serna are humorous possibil­ ities of his new reality: LDonde esta el moho del moho? En la hache. La hache es una letra tan transparente y tan muda, t^ue no es raro que a veces n o nos demos cuenta de que no esta en la palabra en que debiera estar. Si aL honor pierde su hache, esta perdido. Escribfa habrigo con hache porque asf resultaba mas abrigado. 96 Siempre he querido asorlbir uva eon hache t como si as£ estuviese representando su hollojo. Erudicion deb£a tener hache, pues no se sabe porque, palabra tan doctoral, no tiene ese pingorote. No se como le queda sun la hache a nihilists. Harmonica debe escrlbirse con hache, porque esa H es la lira de la palabra.

Word Play

In many of the greguerfas Gomez de la Serna reveals a variety of word play involving sound, sense, and a combination of the conceptual and phonetic nature of both. We have tried to categorize all the known examples of word play in the Total de gregnerfas with the intention of summarizing and clarifying the basic techniques which he uses in those diverse experiments with language. Such a systematic approach toward a tabulation of the collection reveals the existence of four main types of word play, all relying heavily on the phonetic element. The four categories involve (1) the purely phonetic ones, some of which are close­ ly associated with the .pun, (2) the phonetic-conceptual ones, (3) those involving word division, and (4) mixed word formations involving con­ tractions and inventions of new words.

Phonetic (nun) Ten& ojos de ajo. Cuando se saca la baraja es como cuando se saca la navaja. Ostrogodos: grandes comedores de o stras. Casi siempre e l que c ita a Fenelon es un melon. Cuando ya estamos metidos en el baroo, el mar es una galerfa de galeras. Biblidmano es una espeoie de oleptamano de los libros. La ferreter£a es una farmada ferruginosa. Diccionario quiere decir ndllonarlo en palabras. Para dedr bien "IPardiezl" hay que comer perdiz. El femenino del 'btro yo$ es el notro ya.n Al o£r hablar del nfuero £htimo” me pareoe o£r el "forro £ntlmo.n 97 . In the first group we have greguerias containing at least two words resembling each other through some similarity in sound* let a . small difference in them makes them to ta lly apart in meaning regard- Jf less of the similarity in phonetic structure. The auditory kinship is defied by their semantic value.

Phonetic-conceptual Another form of word play involves an interplay of lik e sounds resulting in what would seem to be ordinary puns or in some cases non­ sensical coupling of the same sounds simply for the sake of repetition: Diccionario quiere decir millonario en palabras. The inspiration here is due to a word or part of a word which sounds like another word of an entirely different meaning. But what distin­ guishes this type of greguer£a from the ordinary pun is the accuracy with which the second or associated word describes the concept repre­ sented by the first word of the statement. Dictionaries contain millions of words and by virtue of this fact, they are millionaires—in words. Thus, Gomez de la Serna does not simply play with words as sounds, as is usually the case with puns, but often also with the conceptual value of the terms. —AQue haces bobo? —Bobeo. Bar: barbarldad alcoholics. Los juglares de l a jungla son lo s monos. La coima es e l caiman de lo s negocios sucios. Cu&L es la mujer m£s antigua? Antigone. Estar en la inopia sign!flea la miopdCa m&dma. Frase artfstica: la alegorfa de la gloria. I Que nombre mas afrodisxaoo el de Afrodital Tener un mar de dudas y un mar de deudas: mufragio seguro. Frase contradictories estaba galvanizado por la galbana. El que no deja deudas deja deudos. Las homonas son las hermanas de las vitaminas. Haoer similes pareoe oosa de slmios. El pantopon es el tapon de los dolores. No ms gusta dedr presbitero, porque me pareoe que llamo pres- bita a un sacerdote. There Is a very thin line separating the first group from the second, that on phonetic-conceptual word play, because so many of both groups contain an equally impressive and significant relationship be­ tween the meaning of the two words sharing the d istin ctio n caused by the phonetic modification of both. This brings into the picture not only the approximation of sound but also similarity in meanings. In fact, there are very few greguerfas in the collection which depend solely on the repetition of like sounds for the sake of rhythmic har­ mony. Most of them have an additional conceptual element, such as in the following example: El pantopon es el tapon de los dolores. The association of like sounds in the two words pantopon and tapon is coupled by the concepts represented by each, which are identical. Pan­ topon is the Spanish trade name for an analgesic, a substance used for stopping or cutting pain. "Tapon" is a plug, a stopper. We have a common function coupled with the repetition of similar sounds to make a word play. The phonetic effect of the repetition of the kindred sounds in the two words would be lo s t and the association of "tapon" and "pantopon" would be u n ju stifiab le i f the id en tical concepts which they embody were not associated in the reader's mind. 99

i Phonetic-conceptual: Repetition of id en tical word —iVino alguien? iiSf, vino el vino. La Paroa es paroa en palabras* La violeta nos escribe en violeta. Descartes: el que se descarto de muchas ideas para quedar solo con las buenas. El caracol sienpre esta subiendo su propio escalera—de oaracol. Arrojate a la nada y nada. Cuando se emplea la palabra "cardeno" le sale un cardenal a la prosa. Gomez de la Serna excells in discovering the word with pluralistic semantic values. In some of the above examples he u tiliz e s rep etitio n of the identical word for the phonetic effect as well as for this plu­ rality in sense. The result is apparent nonsense and obvious ambiguity.

Word division

El eseritor que U m b a su pluma caLamo es un calamdoano. tOjalai es la palabra mas mora del diccionarlo. ... El ojo de Ala se proyecta en alia sobre el deseado porvenir. Tragaldabas: pareoe tin tragon de aldabones. Panacea: cesta de pan. ... Panadero: escultor de la harina* Monolo^o quiere decir mono que habla solo. iHipopotmo ? Estoy cansado de ir al zoo y nunca le he oido el hipo. Con el dolor que hay en el nayn se puede hacer un hai-kai. Word division involves the multiple application of the same word or parts of it, uaing the same word in two fold application. The principle is to use a word in its regular form and then again with a slight alteration in form and the slighter the alteration the more con­ vincing that different meanings are expressed by the same word, es­ pecially if the syllables can become new words themselves. For example: Monologo quiere decir el mono que habla solo. In other words, this type of word play relies on the repetition of 100 sounds and also on this Interplay of associated concepts represented in the whole word, or In the Isolated parts, Gomez de la Serna tries to show that, because of Its lack of precision, language is a deceit and, lik e re a lity , i s not what i t seems.

Mixed word formation Se llama, crisaLogo y era astroLogo. lEso es demasioLogol Hipocondrfaco, no se^porque, me pareoe algo asf como la mezda dlsparatada de hipopotamo y cocodrilo. iHa pensado alguien en una pel£cula en esperanto? I Serbia esperantosal Meteorolog^a: mentirologJLa. The formation of a new word—from the fusion of two—which ex­ presses simultaneously two ideas, is another word play technique of the greguerdua. S pecifically, th is device involves the modification of a given word through appending a second element. For example: Se llama crisaLogo y era astroLogo. IE so es demasiaLogoi In order to obtain the desired effect which is the repetition of like sounds, the author has appended the suffix "-ologo" to the otherwise un­ changeable adverb for of "demasiado." This condensation of a mental process which synthesizes on a single word i s explained by Freud through his now-famous example taken from Heine—FAMILLIONAIHE—which oan be described as a composite of twoconstituents "familiar" and "millionaire." He writes: Here the word which acts as the c a rrie r of the w itticism appears in the first place simply as a faulty word-formation as some­ thing incomprehensible, inconceivable, and enigmatic. It is for these reasons that i t is confusing. The comic element results from the solution of the enigma and from the understanding of the word . . . the comic effect depends on the solution of the 4

101 seemingly senseless word. . . . Thus the wit would have to be attributed to the formation of this word and to the char­ acter of the word so formed.1 The Freudian explanation of this type of word play is helpful in the understanding of one of the essential features of the greguer£ai its condensation.

^Sigmund Freud, Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious, ed A. A. B rilly(New York: Moffat Yard & Co., 19l6)» P Comparisons Because of the nature of his writings and certain similarities which could be coincidental, or the result of influence, he has been compared from time to time to Cervantes, Juan Ruiz, Quevedo, Gracian, Goya, El Greco, Baroja, Azor&i, Picasso, Proust, Rimbaud, Apollin a ire , Max Jacob, Cocteau, Renard, Whitman, Poe, Rilke, Hans Christian Ander­ sen, Charlie Chaplin, and other equally diverse people. Such a l i s t reflects some of his complex characteristics. On this astounding ver­ s a tility , Rodolfo Cardona says th a t "with the penetrating observation of a Goya, the nimble gaiety of a Juan Ruiz, the piercing humor of a Quevedo, the sublime humor of a Cervantes, Gomez de la Serna is a loyal Interpreter of Spanish hum anism .Jose Maria SaLaverria adds that his humor reveals "una espede de Quevedo pero sin e l amargo del hom- bre oojo" and that it has "ademas largas raices espanolas ... en el Goya de los Caprichos y Disparates. Jose Bergomjfh states: "Como Char- v lot, pareoe triste a fuerza de alegria. ... Ramon escribe mal, como Char­ io t anda mal ... expresamente ... expresivaaente."^ Angel Aller relates him to Cervantes because of his "amor a los humlldes; a las cosas, a los dnos, a todo lo que es poco.f^ For this same reason Azorfh's ten­ derness toward "las cosas pequenas" is brought to mind. Guillermo de

^Cardona, op. c j t . , p. 7 2. ^"Ramon Gomez de la Serna," Ruevos retrato s (Madrid: Compa- n£a Ibero-Americana de Publicaoiones, S. A., 1930),p. 104. ^"Comentarios sobre Ramon," reprinted in Obras completas. tomo I (Barcelona: Editorial A. H. R.), p. 23*

^"Ccmentarios sobre Ramon," ibid. . p. 3 4 . s

PART H I

102 CHAPTER VII

INFLUENCE OF THE GREGUERIA

The greguerfa Is one of the main examples of the prose lyricism prevalent in the styles of Spanish writers during the early part of the twentieth century, a period in whioh images and metaphors constitute the core of expression in most genres'. Many of the writers: poets, "gregueristas,11 novelists, essayists, dramatists, evidence the influence of the new genre, especially in th e ir use of imagery and metaphor* A large number of critics are contending that Spanish letters, prose as well as poetry, have not been the same since the appearance of the gre- guerfa of Ganez de la Serna* The purpose of this chapter is to present a sampling of the criticism on the subject, to bring together some of this gregueristically oriented language of Gomez de la Serna1 s contem­ poraries, and to show the extent of the influence of the greguer£a. Anthologists such as Carlos Garcia Prada have presented the gregueria in verse form in order to dramatize its association with poet­ ic activity. In contrast to this practice, we will present our se­ lected examples of gregueristio language taken from poems, as statements of prose, in order to emphasize their association with the greguer£a* In other words, just as anthologists try to show the greguer£a as poetry, we will present poetry examples as gregueristlc examples in prose.

103 104 In our opinion, Garcfa Frada--in his anthology of poems in miniature—-has succeeded in confusing certain twentieth century short lyrics gregueristic in tone with the Japanese haiku* The difference i between the image and the metaphor furnishes in essence the same cri­ teria for distinguishing between the greguerfa and the haiku, and sub­ sequently between ly ric s showing an a ffin ity with the haiku and those gregueristic ally oriented. An image is the "representacion viva y eficaz o de una cosa por medio del le n g u a je." The metaphor consists in "tras- 3 ladar el recto sentido de las cosas en otro figurado.11 True haiku is pure imagery, the presence of metaphor almost negligible. Gomez de la Serna had defined the greguerfa as being humor plus metaphor* Yet, some of the greguorias are pure images and in this sense are related to the haiku. However, i t s two basic components are humor and metaphor. I t is our purpose here to show that in most of the so-called hispanic "hai- kaistas,” J. Carrera Andrade, for example, the daring use of the stir- prising, startling, and humorous metaphor sets the tone of much of their verse. Goinez de la Serna once said that the image is not enough, in fao t very l i t t l e , compared to the transforming power of the metaphor. He says that an image is worthless unless it startles, surprises. It is primarily the humorous spirit of his "fecundos juegos de ingenio en

^•Leve espurna (Mexicot Ediciones de Andrea, 1957)* ^Definition preferred by Ramon Gomez de la Serna. Total de greeuerias (Madrid: Aguilar, 1957), P* xxix. 3lbid. 105 h, que predomina el puro juego" which is revealed in other writers of his time. To these writers literature is primary and this humorous "juego de ingenio" is seoondary. To Gomez de la Serna "el humorismo es ... la esenoia y la forma mas cabal de la literature,"^ and for this reason humorlsm is the "finalidad misma de su arte."^ But even when the greguerfa is "puro juego" or "puro chiste" we can still see "una meta­ fora, un atisbo de poesjua."^ Thus, as Valbuena Prat has observed, many times the greguerrfa "alcanza cimas U lricas an nada superadas por Q los mejores poetas de la meWCfore."

Spanish American Gregueristas

Gomez de la Serna went to South America in 1931 for the & rst time, and in that year "concursos" of greguerfas began to be sponsored , by newspapers, especially in Argentina and Uruguay, with prizes awarded to the creators of the best and most original ones. This practice is not unlike the traditional haiku contests held for the general public

through the years. Gomez de la Serna^ tells us that the two following examples won f i r s t prize in Buenos Aires and Montevideo respectively: La Q nacio un d£a en que la 0, Uena de alegrfa, movio su reb illo .

^Angel Valbuena Prat, Historia de la literature espanola (Barce­ lona: E ditorial Gustavo G ile, S. A., 1953), P* 576. ^Alberto Zum Felde, Indice orftico de la literature hispanoame- rioana (Mexico: E d ito rial Guarania, 195^)• P* 56?. 6Ibid. ^Valbuena Prat, op. cit., p. 576* 8Jb£d. ^These two examples and a ll the others of the Spanish "gregueris­ tas" are taken fromthe prologue of Total de greguerfas. pp. lxi-lxvii, and pp. llx v iii-lx x ix . 106 Cuando las dos manillas del reloj se reunen es para pregun- tarse: £Que hora es? Since the author's appearance on the Spanish scene, young writers have consciously practiced greguerfas. Many of his followers, admirers, and Imitators have turned to him for guidance and Inspira­ tio n and have sent to him examples of th e ir work to s o lic it his candid opinion on their "ingenio." We have chosen some of those which Gomez de la Serna himself considers "dignos de cltarse" j

Solar y Perez—Guatemala Despues que ha habido mucho ruido, e l silencio ha.ce la digestion. El eohete, al salir, desesperado, impone silencio, como para que se escuche su i&tlma protesta. La pizarra es un espejo de riguroso luto. La X es el esparadrapo del aLfabeto. La B es la conjundon del mmero 13* Los que nacen tuertos nacen apuntados. El peUcano es un cucharon con alas. El organo es un piano ventr&ocuo.

Carlos Plttaluga—Argentina Cuando falta agua en los grlfos del lavabo se ponen enfermos; lea dan aroadas, como si vomitaran. Las moscas, cuando estan paradas, hay un momento en que hacen calceta.

Evalio Bernal—Cuba La d ieta del enfermo es la comlda del medico y del boticarlo. El porron es la retorta reformada para uso de los bebedores. Antes de H over se pone tr ls te e l clelo , como el nino cuando va a llorar.

Fernandez Moreno—Argentina Las navajas barberas se saben tan canallas, que apenas se atreven a mostrarse entreabiertas en los escaparates. 107 Morir es penetrar en un cuarto oscuro en donde no hay un solo mueble en que tropezar. La vejez es un cansanolo que no nos quita el otrod^a, como ore£amos ingenuamente a l acostam os. Fernandez Moreno, "el gran poeta," as Gomez de la Serna calls him, is a prolific cultivator of so-called aphorisms, according to critics. Yet, his short, pithy sentences do not state general doctrines nor are they instructive sayings dealing exclusively with people. The following selections, which are extremely gregueristic, are taken from De la taarlposS y la viga under the title "Aire aforfstieo." They re- veal his humorous perception and attachment to "las oosas mas hundldes": A veces pareoe que la s nubes saben con toda exactitud a donde quieren ir. Aquel reloj no daba las horas; se las arrancaba con un quejido. EL arpa es un telar, el telar de la musica. Cuando una tripuladon pone en alto los remos, estos se acuer- dan de que han aido arboles. EL asno sera muy asno, pero sus orejas son dos alas de golondrina. EL ciroo parece enorme, vao£o, hasta que aparece el elefante. El mejor pisapapeles es una manzana. Morir es esperar a los demas. Entre lunLtas, decfa la rdna, por decir entre parentesis. La sombra excava a nuestros pies el controno de la propia sepul- tu ra. Fernandez Moreno's gregueristic vision of re a lity i s helpfully summarized in the following quotation which is designed to be his poetic attitude toward things: Iba por la vida enamorado de las cosas mas humildes; y las sal- vaba para la poes£a con solo mirarlas. Qaienes creyeron que su poesfa era trivial porque triviales eran sus temas ... no supie- ron coaprender la hondura de su imaginacion. ... No hab£a para

E. Anderson Imbertaid Eugenio Florit, LLteratura hispano- americana: Antdogfa (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc., I960), p. 58^* 108

&L objetos mas poeticos que otros: todo lo mas vulgar, lo mas insignificant® , lo mas pequeno y tran sito rio , era p o e tiz a b le .^ #

Not all of the greguerfas that Gomez de la Serna has received from these Spanish American w riters are, according to him, worth men­ tioning. He says that some of them are n suposioiones gratuitas, en- gendros desesperados, alusiones sin punterjfa, fracasos de imagenes saldos de la vida mono torn y estrenida." The most serious fault of the gregueristas "de ultima hora" is their .mistaken assumption that "hay que maximizar en las greguerfas cuando a quien menos tienen que seguir es a La Rochefoucauld, ml mas grave enemigo, mi anticuerpo, mi ant£te- sis trascendontal."^ For the most p art the young gregueristas in Spanish America have demonstrated their ability to create the suprising and humorous statement in prose. In fact, Gomez de la Serna himself has taken some of th e ir original examples and knowingly or not created sim ilar ones. The prize winner: La Q nacio un d£a en que la 0, lleno de alegrfa, movio su ra- b illo has furnished the basis for the following greguerfa of Gomez de la Serna: El a en que la Q se canso de mover e l rabo nacio la 0.

Spanish Peninsular Gregueristas

Eugenio d'Ors Under the t i t l e of Bxergos which he published in 19^2, Eugenio d'Ors wrote some greguer£as, from which Gomez de la Serna selects the

12Total. p. lxl v. 13Ibid. 109 following as a typical example: El piropo es un madrigal de urgenda. Goinez de la Serna comments that "en uno de sus glosarlos titulado *Cuan­ do se gregueriza* es el que con mas autorldad ha actual!zado el genero, revelando algunas greguerfas arranoadas a sus elegantes damas, slendo la mejor de todas estast"* 14 Cuando la planchadora acerca el hlerro a su mejilla para saber si esta caliente, es como si se preparase a telefonear al in flem o .

Noel Claraso As for Claraso "que es el humorlsta que 'viena pegando,1 n he says: "Ha encontrado de su propdo peculio bellas greguerfas. En materia de arte la opinion del director de una agenda de amas de erfa no tlene ningun valor. El golf es muy dlvertido con tal de no proponerse meter la pelota en el agujero. Habl&r durante un conderto es inutil, porque siempre es la musica la que suena mas fuerte. La major ama la paradoja, su nariz es tan grande como la nuestra, pero su panuelo es la ml tad. He aquf una damostradon de las ventajas de la Haturaleza sobre la maquina: los relojes de sol son los que menos se estropean. In 1950 • N. Claraso published Dicdonario humorfstico. 350 pages of humorous definitions of the kind listed below, patterned somewhat on the greguerfa of Gomez de la Serna: Voluta: el humo, aunque sea de un dgarro malo, traza volutas perfect&s en el alre. Abandonar: lo s boxeadores son los \£nicos que no pueden aban- donar el lo cal cuando empiezan lo s golpes. Gal ope: moviraiento que han inventado lo s cab alio s para hulr del rufdo que hacen e l tro ta r.

lifIbld.. p. lxxvi. 1^Ibid.. p. lxxvii. Claraso, like Gomez de la Serna, believes that there are two kinds of definitions for everything, "unas mas finas y otras mas gruesas,”^ and both authors prefer the latter. like Gomez de la Serna, Claraso believes that nlas cosas son siempre de dos maneras: como son y como parecen. ... La aparlencia es un disfraz tenue y transparent© que 1 nuestros ojos y nuestro entendimiento, acostumbrados al juego social de una cosa por otra, .ya apenas saben descubrir." 17 His dictionary of humorous definitions was written "para ayudar a los hombres a recupe- rar el sentido de la apadencia de las cosas ... para eubrir de un man to de plata la aparienda de las cosas.He justifies such a treatment of everything with the statement: nTodo lo humano es una cosa y parece

o tr a ." ^

Jardiel Poncela This close friend of Gomez de la Serna has written Mfoimas minimas. a book of 5^1 aphorisms presenting "por igual lo agradable

y lo desagradable de las cosas, es decir la dlusion y su reverso amargo." At times his "marimas minimas" embody the surprising and humorous tw ist similar in intent and form to the gregueria: Lo unlco que a la mujer le interesa de la cabeza del hombre es el pelo.

______4

^%oel Claraso, Diccionario humoristico (Barcelona: Edioiones La Osa Menor, 1950), p. H> ^Ibid.. p. 9. l8lbid.. p. 8. 19Ibid.. p. 1^. ^Enrique Jard iel Poncela, Maxima s mini mas (Mexico: Editora Latino Americana, S. A., 1957), I l l La vida es tan amarga que abre a diario la s ganas de comer* Suicidarse es subirse en maroha a un ooche funebre. Lo ocurido con la Venus de Hilo fue que se le infeotaron las vacunas. El medico de cabeeera esta siempre a los pies de la oama* Los muertos son gente f ria . En la mnjer las lagrimas son el vemrat del amor. La belleza de la mujer fraeasa en el codo*

In brief, then, the foremost gregueristas in Spain have cul­ tivated the genre but eventually have come to camouflage i t under new. names—humorous dictionary, minimum maxims, e tc .—which they feel best describe their work.

Gregueristic Language in Spanish American Poetry

In addition to the gregueristas of Spanish America, much of the poetry of the area reflects the language of the gregueria of Gomez de la Serna. More specifically, many of these poets have cultivated the ingenius concept, the surprising, unexpected, and humorous meta­ phor which offers a startiingly new outlook on some old facet of reality. This attitude^ seen in the following examples, toward their poetic art fulfills the effect strived for in the gregueria. The similarity in techniques and results could be coincidental or due to influence of the gregueria. The latter is very probable. We mentioned earlier that Gomez de la Serna traveled to Spanish America ii 1931* Even more sig­ nificant is the fact that practically all of the authors of this gre- gueristically oriented verse had visited Spain before 1931 &nd had come in direct contact with the "greguerismo" of the literature dis- Torre has written articles on the artistic parallelism between Gomez de la Serna and Picasso; Orestes Plath discusses the similarity of Chaplin and de la Serna In their approaches to humor; Ballesteros de Martas w rites on "Proust y Ramon." These are but a few of the many articles which have been inspired by the artistic kinship of Gomez de la Serna to his contemporaries. Federic Lefeuvre, commenting on the title "Apollinaire espanol" given to Gomez de la Serna by Roberto Delaunay, agrees that i t is certain that Gomez de la Serna knew and admired him and that in addi­ tion "un sincere afecto le une desde hace tiempo con Jean Cocteau ... pero estos parentescos espirituales me pareoe que son siempre super- ficiales. Ramon es Ramon"? and as such he Illustrates perhaps better than other writers the universal Spanish Intellectual of the twentieth century. F. Lefeuvre adds then: "Si tuviesemos compararlo forzosamente con algi£n escritor francos contamporaneo serf a el nombre de Max Jacob el que se ofrecerfa a nuestra vista, no solamente a oausa de su fanta- sfa coanin, a menudo burlesca, slno por la oalidad de su sensibilidad y por la naturaleza fntima de su talento. Jean Cassou, commenting on Gomez de la Serna's similarity to Cocteau, also brings Giraudoux Into the picture: "El genero que oultivan es en re all dad muy similar. Los tres han predicado el retomo a la ingenuldad de la infancia, la reintegracion al alma pura e inexperta de los ninos y de los salvages,

?"Comentarlos sobre Ramon," Ibid.. p. 47 • 112 21 gregadora" of Gomez de la Serna which he was cultivating as early as 1904. In addition, he established a literary "tertulia" in Paris (La Consigns) during his stays in that city at which times he made friends with many Spanish American w riters.

Julio Casal In a poem en title d nKL alamo biancotn Julio Casal of Uruguay, who lived in Spain from 1909 to 1925, speaks of a tree in the following manner: Tan to has le£do el libro de la naturaleza que hoy eres una p£gina, nada mas en el libro ... una p£gina musical (Arbol 1925)*

Oliverio Girondo This Argentine poet who has been called the "poeta de la gre- guerjfa" w rites of Toledo: La. ciudad muerde con sus almenas un pedazo de cielo (Calcoma- nfas 1925)•

Vicente Euidobro This Chilean "creacionista" has written some very good gre- g ’-^as. In the poem "Ecuatorial" we have: Las estrellas que ca£an eran luciernagas del musgo (Ecuatorial 1918).

Carlos PeUioer Carlos P e llic e r is one of the four Mexican poets lis te d below

p “l E. Anderson Imbert and E. Florit, on. cit.. p. 588. 113 whose choice of metaphor shows strong greguerlstic tendencies: i Las palmeras son primas de los sauces. El caiman es un perTo aplastado. Las garsas inraovilizan el tiempo. La tarde es un amanecer nuevo y mas largo • ( "Estudios" 1927)

Xavier Villaurrutia The "agudeza de vision" and the "juego de intdigencia" of this Mexican poet has produced many greguerlstic metaphors in which the in ­ genius concept finds expression! Eco: la noehe juega con los ruldos copiand&os en sus espejos de sonidos. Tranv£as: casas que oorren locas de incendio, huyendo de s3l mismas. ("Suite del insoumio)

Jaime Torres Bodet' Little by little "en diaLogo con los 1contemporaneos,' Jaime r, A Torres Bodet ... fue entendiendo la algarahfa de su tiempo," in poetry and in prose* Among his best verses are those which axe "humorfs tica- mente frfvolos"^ like the following: Palmeras: con plumeros de esmeralda, quartan limpiar de nubes e l cielo de l a uanana*

Jose Juan Tablada This Mexican poet who preferred the name of "haikai" fo r his brief poetic compositions has been called the "poeta japones" of his

country* Nevertheless we find that some of his "poamas sinteticos" do have a greguerlstic twist because of the way he manages to turn his

22Ebid*. p. 698. 23Ibid, 11^ gaze toward resemblances in reality whose Juxtaposition provides a fresh insight into things such as the flower, the turkey, the insect, etc. like Gomez de la Serna he gives expression to the non-human eile- ■ ments of the world as they observe man, the traditional observer: Pavo real: largo fulgor por el gallinero democrats pasas como una procesion. irfa lluvioso: eada flor es un vaso laorimatorio. El pequeno mono me ndra. ••• Quisiera decirme algo que se le olvida. El caballo del diablo: clavo de vldrio con alas de talco.

Flavio Herrera This Guatemalan author of Cosmos indios is one of the most prolific creators of poetry containing greguerlstic definitions re­ lying on the transposing qualities of the new metaphor. La golondrina: iQuien le puso alas al suspiro? El canario: LQuiein ha puesto en la jaula una yema de huevo con alas? El papagayo: una antorcha que canta. Los cuervos: son papeles quemados que arremolina el viento. El oiempLes: un peine vagabundo. La cebra: se escapo del presidio. El cone jo: un resorbe entre un copo de algodon. EL hormiguero: un reguero de le tra s adnusoulas, imprime su aventura en el suelo. El puerco-esp£n: sastre rural. En la camisa lleva sus alfileres. La orqujfdea: una quimera hecha flor. La uva: la uva es un cascabel de locura y de mi el. El jazm£n: ies el alma de la nieve? La laguna: jffcara de cristal para el chorro del cielo. Poes£a horizontal. Destino: Jsabe la flor que por ella se resigns la rafz a no ver las estrellas? Herrera, more than any of the other writers has managed to attain the childlike recreation of reality based on the naive innocence of the imagination which first rediscovers things and then transfers them through art into their new roles, as if seen for the first time. H 5 Jorge Carrera Andrade The most important of the Spanish American poets who forces his readers to look at life from new and unaccustomed angles as he attempts to reach the boundaries of the infinite possibilities of the metaphor is Jorge Carrera Andrade, the leading oon temporary poet of Ecuador who is also in the front ranks of Latin American lite ra tu re . His work undoubtedly has been affected by much travel and study abroad which has made possible his friendship with many foreign artists. Three of his most important books of poetry were published in Spain: Boletines de mar y tierra in Barcelona; Rol de la Manzana.and El

•m iifnwna.1 both in Madrid. Of his Rol de la Manzana (1926-29) Ben­ jamin James says of him that "prefiere ante todo saludar directamente a las cosas, no a sus reflejos retori* cos.” 2k His poetry, like the O C greguerjfa, "es la que pone nombres nuevo&.a la s cosas." For him, the 26 whole world is "un mapa de juguetes." Each of his poems functions as a "cajita de sorpresa";'in27 fact, his metaphors have been described as a series of surprises, of aesthetic shocks which reveal to us the es­ sence of things. The new and unusual metaphors which play the main roles in his poetry are very similar to the language of the greguer£a which had already been absorbed in the current of Spanish writings by the time he came to reside in the country. The following are some

^ J . Carrera Andrade, Rol de la manzana: Poesjfas (1926-1929) (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, S. A., 1935)P» 9» ^Tbid.. p. 10.

^Pedro Salinas, "Registro de J. C. Andrade," Revista Ibero- amerlcana. Nos. 9 y 10 (mayo y sept, de 1962), p. 288. 116 samplings of his metaphor and imagery: La guitarra es tan solo ata\£d de caneiones ("Biograffa"). An da: trebol de hierra ("boletfh de viajen). La montana brava ha abierto su oseuro paraguas de nubes eon varlllas de rayos ("Sierra"). Hues: sabidurfa coraprimida, diminuta tortuga vegetal, cerebro de duende paralizado por la etemidad ("Nuez"). Caracol: wrfri-lma. d n ta m etrics con que nri.de e l campo Dios ("Lo que es un caracol") Angeles: p d lu d o s de la Madre Marfa ("Domingo")• Gaviota: ceja de espuma de la ola del silencio. Panudo de los naufragios. Jeroglffico del cido* Moscardon: uva con alas. Arana dd sudo: charretera cafda del hombro dd tiempo. Vida dd grillo: trabajador, con las antenas haoe cada dfa su pesoa en los rfos dd aire. Luciemaga: lintem a diminuta que se enciende en la hierba. La palmera es la columns d d ajimez d d c id o . Los pajaros son las letras de mano de Dios. Flamenco: movible flo r de espuma sob re un desnudo ta llo . Gusano: sin. oesar traza en la tie r r a d rasgo largo, inconcluso, de una enigmatica le tra . Chopo: moja d chopo su pinoel en la dulzura dd cido y hace un paisaje de m id . EL pajaro es d periodico de la manana en d campo. Pedro Salina has daborated on the last example in discussing this type of poetic perception which was prevalent at the time and cultivated by Gomez de la Serna, Carrera Andrade, and their contemporaries. He notes that in this example los dos terainos operantes de la metafora son de un lado un pajaro, de otro un diario material. Pero la resultante poe­ tic a, no es precisamente un pajaro sino pajaro acrocido, en- rlquecido, con toda la copia de nuevas luces que le viene de su confrontacion con d periodico. Es: un pajaro +algo. Y an&ogamente d diario es: un diario + dgo. Ese dgo, esa tercera cosa, lo erctra-pf jaro, lo etxtra-periodico, const! tuyen la nueva realidad inventada por d p o e t a . 2 8 His condusion is that "en d primer paso dd proceso poetico hay dos

28Ibld.. p. 293 • 117 objetos vistos; en el postrero un objeto visionado." 29 What we have here, in other words, is the use of metaphor, not as a transposing phenomenon based on the external resemblances of the two objects, but rather based on the similarity of function. On the whole, hotfever, the metaphors of J. Carrera Andrade, like those of the gregueria, are basically directed toward the physical resemblances found in the world of things, transforming them into heretofore unattained poetic realms.

Greguerlstic Language in^Spanish Peninsular Poetry

P ractically a ll of the examples of Spanish American gregue- ristic verse were written between 1919. and 1930. It is during this period also when several poets in Spain published books of poetry, for on the most part born out of a tendency to "cazar metaforas," tottes- variar con gracia."-^1 This poetic practice relied heavily upon "el concepto ingenioso," the trademark of the greguerfa. During these years we see the appearance of books such as Garcia Lorca's Libro de poemas in 1921, Imagen of E. Prado in 1925, Marinero en tierra and Las islas invitadas of Rafael Alberti and M. Altolaguirre which came out in 1925 and 1926 respectively, Ambito of V. Aleixandre and Cantico of Jorge Guillen, both in 1928.

2% bid.. p. 29^. 3®Luis Cemuda, Estudios sobre poesia espanola (Madrid: Ediciones Guadarrama, 1957), p* 175* '^‘Ibid. . p. 172. 118

Luis Cemuda has commented on the connection of the greguerjfa to this particular group of poets which he oalls the generation of 1925* He writes that "como la greguer£a se Integra en una imagen o una metafora y estas ... no solo fueron una parte importante sino un todo, principalmente la metafora en los versos escrltos por muchos poetas espanoles hacia 1925* In the greguerfa Spanish poetry finds "el antecedente historioo mas importante para ciertas formas de 'lo nuevo1" 33 which was the obsession of so many writers and poets at that time. He continues: En la vision y lenguaje poetioo <^ue caracterizan, si no todos, algunos de los poetas entonoes jovenes, al menos en la etapa prlmera de su labor, se observe una influencia evidente de aquella vision de la realidad introducida en nuestra literature por Gomes de la Serna bastantes anos antes, hacia 1910, cuando ^ todavfa el modemismo paree£a regir nuestros destinos literarlos.3^ Cemuda* s main thesis i s th a t the "juego irresponsable que caracterizo los actos y los versos de algunos poetas entre 1920-30" 35 is closely related to Gomez de la Serna, whose preference was for "la metafora, la evasion, y el juego. Their taste for "frases ingenios&s"3^ shows in

effect that the reality of that time was observed "desde el angulo visual peculiar de Gomez de la Serna quien enseno a no pocos de aquellos poetas a mlrar y a ver."3®

3?ibid.. p. 170 33Ib id . . p. 168.

3*»Ibid. 33Ib id . . p. 169.

36Ib id . . p. 17^ 37 lb id . 38Ib id .. p. 175 . 119 We will first select examples of the "frases ingeniosas" frcsn these works and then elaborate more specifically on the influence of the greguerfa on the works of Federico Garcia Lorca.

Pedro Salinas Agua en la noche: serpiente indeoisa. Rosas . . . la prometida del vlento (Presagios 1923) • Las columna8 sostienen techos de nubes blancas (Seguro azar 1929)>

Jorge Guillen Radiador: ruisenor del invlerno (Cantico 1928).

Gerado Diego La g uitarra es un pozo con vlento en vaz de agua (imagen 1922). Todas la s ohimeneas en aetitu d orante, como hundldes rebanos de la torre gigante (Sorfa 1923). La vlda es una torre que crece cada difa sobre el nival del mar. (Manual de espumas 192*0 Nace del cielo tanto humo, que ha oxidado mis ojos (Manual de espuma, 192k).

Rafael Alberti Verde caracol, la luna (Marlnero en tierra 1925)■

Juan Jose Domenchina Las estralias ... quieren abandonar sus sandalias luodnosas en el bianco manantial de las montanas (SI taoto fervoroso. 1930). LLuvia de estfoi en los arboles verdes cuelga sus nidos. ADice el estanque la verdad cuando funde nuestras imagenes?

Leon Felipe El mundo es un slot-machine con una ranura en la frente del cielo . 120

Mauricio Bacarisse Daspoina las nubes otra vez, lunita, rompe-azules.

Juan Ramon Jimenez He was a great friend and critic of Gomez de la Serna, who has always believed that Juan Ramon Jimenez changed his metaphorical technique after his first contact with the greguerfa. El dormir es como un puente que va del hoy al manana* Por de- bajo, como un sueno, pasa el agua. La nube: humo arrollado y ahogante de mi mal sueno apagado.

Ramon de Basterra Las peras, lagrimas cadudas del ramo. Mueve la luna sus muy lentas patas, tortuga de oro por el lento cielo (Vifrulo 192h),.

Federico Garcia Lorca We have mentioned the increasing awareness on the part of critics of the influence of Gomez de la Serna on twentieth century Spanish literature. In no place is this awareness more evident than in the growing acceptance of his influence on Garcia Lorca. The similar­ ities and parallels of both authors have caused no less than four critics to specify the work or works of Garcia Lorca which they believe show the greatest influence of Gomez de la Serna. 39 Manual Duran tells us that if we read Garcia Lorca1s Cancionero gitano we will occasionally find expressions reminding us of Gomez de

3?Lorca: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Manuel Duran (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1962), p. 7. 121 la Serna's paradoxical linages. He selects the following examples: Tres golpes de sangre tw o y se nrorio de p e rfil. Viva moneda que nunca se volvera a repetir. Noche de torsos yaclentes y estrellas de nariz rota aguarda grletas del alba para derrumbarse to da. kn R. M. Nadal finds it surprising that of the many other names which have been cited in connection with Garcia Lorca's Libro de poetnas no one to his knowledge up "£o th a t time had mentioned the name of Gomez de la Serna. In this book, he says, are many examples of the gregueria type. A lizard lying on the roadside is called "dragon of the frogs," "a drop of crocodile." The moon is a "white tortoise," "the veronica's veil of the sun." "The corn-cob has its harsh and yellow laugh." His accurate conclusion is that it is not enough to say that this type of image is to be found scattered here and there in the classic literature of Spain because the "cut" of these examples is typical of Goinez de la Serna and i t is through the gregueria that they have reached Garcia Lorca. Rafael Solana writes that Gomez de la Serna is "otra de las vooes capitales que es posible escuchar en Garcia Lorca." He says that "lo que en Gomez son inusitadas soobras, absurdos sombreros, Stfbi- tos copetes, extranas colas que arrastran las cosas detras de si, en Garcia Lorca son piedras fundamentales del edifldo poetico en que la realidad vulgar esta dejada de lado, saltada a la torera." He con­ tinues: "Se puede rastrear en la obra farragosa y piramidal de Gomez de

^Federico Garcia Lorca, Poems, selections and introduction by R. M. Nadal (New York: Oxford University Press, 1939)* P« x. y el dejar rlenda suelta a la fantasia.However, Caasou states a difference* For him Grfmez de la Serna carece de la sutileza de los autores franeeses menoionados. Su humorismo difiere absolutamente de la agudeza del "wit" ingles o de la ironlfa francesa. Sus libros son variaclones lnflnitas sobre un teoa por lo dem£s indefinible 7 que es l a expresion de Tin estado de alma que se eneuentra a medio oamino entre lo tierno 7 lo grotesco, lo sentimental 7 lo macabre*^-® He concludes by establishing an analogy based only on a personal ec­ centricity: "suprirair de su apeUido*"^* In this capricious practice he considers Cocteau and Gdmez de la Serna nalmas henftanas." After Valery Larbaud compared Gomez de la Serna with Rimbaud, Waldo Frank had the following to say: The aesthetic object of Ramon is indeed the atom, but where­ as in Rimbaud the atom is explosive, bursting the cerements of cultured France, the atom in Ramdn merges forever with the intricate flow of tnairing sense and thought. His true fellow is not Rimbaud but Marcel Proust. Proust made a portrait of a society in deliquescence, of its breakup into the es­ sences, atoms, maggots of dissolution. Rarntm also weaves the filmy spell of a dissolving world, although in him the dis­ solution is not social but subjective. Spain stirs in this limbo: her eye peers back into the fleeting images of dreams. Ramon i s her eye.3-2 F inally, Jean Cassou has also compared Gomez de la Serna to Hans C hristian Andersen in h is divine sympathy fo r things, objects, e tc .,

^Reprinted in Cien autores. tomo I (Santiago de Chile: Edi- oiones Ercilla, 1941), p. 3^1*

1QIbld.. p. 349. n jbid. ^Waldo Frank, Virgin Spain (New Tork: Boni & Liveright, 1926), p . 2 7 9 . 122 la Serna, el orlgen de muohas de las figures familiares a Garcfa Lorca, y desde luego, el metodo de Introdudrlas y la iniciativa de llamarlas."2*^ He concludes that Garcia Lorca, like Gomez de la Serna, did things "simplemente por sorprender, como un nino a las gentes." In an a rtic le on Garcia Lorca's theatez; Angel del R fo ^ dis­ cusses his eacperlments In S u rrealist th eater. The play In question,

Asj^ que pasen dnco anos. was written between 1929 and 1930 and co­ incides with the climax of Surrealism in France and its reflection In Spain with Alberti in poetry and Gomez de la Serna and AzordCn on the stage. Del RJio says that the atmosphere of the play is one of dreams, with masks, mannequins, clowns, or real people like the rugby player or the card players dehumanized in the manner of the characters of Gomez de la Serna, and he adds: "to whose Influence this work is largely in­ debted ." 2*3 44 Roy Campbell elaborates on the technique of the early poems of Garcia Lorca and somehow falls to mention the name of Gomez de la Serna, although the major points discussed are basically concerned with that'aspect of Garcia Lorca's poetry which bears the "cut" of the gre- guer£a: the humanization of the particular in nature. Campbell says that the things that attract Garcia Lorca's attention most as a poet

4lRafael Solana, "Mapa de afluantes en la obra poetica* de Federico Garcia Lorca," Letras de Mexico. Ho. 28 (1938), p. 6 . ^Angel del Rio, Lorca: A Collection of Critical Essays, p. 144.

^Ibid.. p. 145. 2|2*frbld.. p. 68. 123 are always In his Immediate surroundings, with their peasants and their animal population of bees, butterflies, nightingales, cicadas, frogs, and lizards. We are torn by Garcia Lorca between a comic grotesqueness and a heart-rending pathos with which he in se rts these slig h tly humanized creatures of the fields. Garcia Lorca notices on the lizards their "little white aprons," calls them "drops of crocodile" and "dragons of the frogs" seeing their "green frockcoat of a devil's abbot." The description of the voices of the frogs "freckling the silence with little green dots," Campbell adds, i s another uncanny but perfect image. He includes another brief passage in which a mere visual image performs the function of a poem, like the Japanese haiku which are satisfied with producing a single vivid picture: Trees, have you been arrows that fall from the azur? What terrible warriors shot you forth? Were they the stars? Even when handling one of the very best of Garcia Lorca's metaphors (ArbdLes: flechas caidas del azul) he fa ils to acknowledge the "cut of the gregueria." Campbell concludes by enumerating other "greguerlstic" language in Garcia Lorca's early poems. He addresses the passion flower as the "anvil of the butterflies," mosquitoes as the "pegasi of the dew." A straight road is a "lance wounding the horizon." Throughout the later poems in the Libro de poems.a. Campbell concludes, tie poet is perfecting his command of these terse and vivid epithets of which he showed such mastery in his later works that they become his very style i ts e l f . These "epithets" of which Cambell speaks bring to mind a study on epithets in Spanish poetry by G. Sobejano in which the latter 124- concludes that the "metaforas humoristicas y rebajadoras en que general- mente conslsten la s greguerias" never a tta in the "dinamismo tra g ic o " ^ of those of Lorca. Although he admits "lo cerca que estan algunas de estas imagenes de la gregueria ramoniana,"^ he contends that Lorca "no desciende a ellas.He arrives at such conclusions through equating the humorous metaphors of the gregueria with a form of degradation and abasement, a highly improbable conclusion In view of the fact that on the one hand very few, if any, of the greguerias are In bad taste, and on the other, although humor Is the keynote <£ the gregueria, Gomez de la Serna does not dismiss as trivial what others consider unimportant. In his search for what is real in the world, many of the greguerias appeal to a sense of "dinamtsmo tragico,n typified in the gravely serious and philosophical ones. In brief, just as Gomez de la Serna tried to give "otro traje" 48 to things, the Image for Garcia Lorca was "un cambio de trajes." The most startling metaphors for both were those that "yuxtaponen objetos muy dejados" in a "mundo metaforico"* 49 in which "el sol puede ser una naranja, y una naranja puede ser el so l," a world in which everything can simply be "otra cosa." The fact is that if we glance through the complete works of Garcia Lorca we discover that the greguerlstic Image Is not limited to one

'Gonzalo Scbeiano. El apitato en la lirica espanola (Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1956), p. 470« Ibid. 'Ibid. 'Concha Zardoya. "La tecnica metaforica en la poesia espanola contemporanea," uuaaernos amencanos (.Mexico: mayo-junio, 19 WJ, p. 272. book of poems or one play but rather that samples like the following are found throughout: "Su seso tiambla enredado como pajaro a las zarzas"; "La luna: oaballo de nubes quietas (Romancero gitano)": "Las cerillas apagadas se comfan los trigos de la primavera ('Iglesia aban- donada,' Poeta en Nueva York)": "La penumbra, con paso de alefante em- puja las ranas y los troncos (Casida de los ramos)": "Los arboles trans- forman sus ramas an brazos para abrazar la tie r r a (Libra de poemas)." The sea smiles in the distance with its "diantes de espuma" and "labios de cielo (Balada del agua de mar’)." In the Poema del cante jondo the guitar has "boca redonda" through which escapes "el sollozo de las almas perdidas ('Seis euerdas*)." In Primeras canoiones "un arbol grande se abriga oon palabras de cantares ('Remanso: Candon fin a l')* " In Oda a l Santfa^ny* Sacramento del A ltar c itie s have "hombros de cemento ( ‘Mundo1). “ In the same work God is "cuerpo de luz humana con mtisculos de harlna, pun to de union dd siglo y el xdLnuto." In Poemas varios the wind is "esoultor de bultos (1 Adan*) .11 In Romancero gitano wings of angels are not of feathers but of "navajas de albacete ('Reyerta')." "A lo lejos viene la gangrena (Llanto).11 The sea is "el lucifer del azul: el cido caldo por querer ser la luz." The sun is "girasol de

fuego (A b£ cue pasen cinco anos. Act I)." The sky is "esa esponja gris ('Navidad en el Hudson,1 Poeta)." A knife becomes "pez sin escamas ni r£o" and blood becomes "flor dd cuehillo (Bodas de sang re . Act IH )." "La tarantula teje una gran estrella para cazar suspiros (Poema dd cante .iondo)." and fin a lly , "el magnjffico sauce de l a llu v ia , cadfa." 126 Garcfa Loroa, then, was a great assindlator of the material of other writers and. for the most part " sabfa devolver lo que tomaba ... convertido, florecido, mas rico.And in general "nadie conocJLa luego las cosas. But some of his imagery in which he relied on the new metaphor in his attempts to place together two things which had always been considered as belonging to two different worlds and in that fusion and shock to give them both a new vitality is in essence the oore and mainstay of the new style which had already been introduced in abundance in Spanish literature through the greguerJia of Gomez de la Serna, "tan en boga en aquellas fechas."-^

G reguerlstic Language in Spanish Prose

"Toda la prosa espanola se engalana con gallardetes de la gre- guezua."-^’

Jose Bergam£n Jose Bergamfn published in 1923 a book of aphorisms called El cohete y las estrellas in which the characteristic "fleehazos mentales" 55 reveal a manner of thinking which contains "algo de juego ... de juego gracioso,"'^ and as such is closely aligned with one aspect of the gre- guerfa. Like many other Spanish writers he is concerned with problems

^Rafael Sol ana, on. cit.. p. 7*

^^Xbjd. 53 q. Sobejano, op. c i t *. p. h70. 5^Max Aub, Discurso de la novela espanola contemporanea (Mexico, D. F .: El Colegio de Mexico, 19^5) , P» 79 • 55pedro Salinas, L iterature espanola del sjglo XX (Mexico: Anti­ gua LibrerjCa Robredo, 19^9), p« 1&3.

56 Ibid. 1 2 ? of man, but ha chooses to express his conoem, as Gomez de la Serna has done, through "la sorpresa mental, la elegancia expreslva ... el ingenio facll."^ When he writes brief aphoristic prose statements such as "EL cohete es una cana que piensa con brUlantez" we cannot help but think of the "juego y capricho" of the gregueria of Gomez de la Serna.

Benjamin Jam es. In Locura v muerte de nadie (1929) female bodies are described * * i as machines. The mother is "un aparato de reproducir." The human element is reduced to an impersonal level through imagery and metaphor­ ical expression made up of non-human names for people and descriptions such as "la preciosa geometrfa de las piemas." In describing a woman's body he writes: "Su cuerpo es una rama en tension de lo que cuelgan los dos menudos conos tan sabrosos." Aside from the dehumanized descriptions of the qualities of the animate characters, we also find in this novel examples of an opposite tendency: the humanization of things. In EL profesor inutil (1926) Benjamfn James writes: ffPor el balcon ... dos faroles nos guinaban picarescamente el ojo." At any rate, both tend­ encies bring to mind a type of "metafora ingeniosa" found in the gre- guerfa of Gomez de la Serna.

Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui Angel Valbuena P rat was one of the f i r s t to recognize th at the style of Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui "ofrece punto de contacto con Ramon, 128 i - a en el arte de la gregueria hecha novela." This metaphorical 11 juego de Ingenio" Is found In many of his works, especially In some of his early novels and short stories. The Influence of the gregueria of Goinez de la Serna p articu larly In the use of Images and metaphors Is revealed In prose statements such as the following: "En el tapete os- euro del cielo, la luna era el monoculo cajfcLo de Dios (La Vocacion)"; " ... la estllo g rafica de la s chlmeneas ya no firma en el talonarlo del delo cheques de poderio. ..." "Fuera la lluvla ata el palsaje con sus «■ mil cuerdas (both, from El ChluLlnchandle). 11 Elaborating on the connection between these two writers, Rodolfo Cardona^? says that the Influence of Gomez de la Serna on Antonio de , , Zunzunegui also makes itself felt in a certain type of short narrative of an Imaginative nature In which he presents the power of suggestion In which an Inanimate object may have upon a person's moods and even upon his l i f e . This is a theme which abounds In Gomez de la Serna and which appears In Antonio de Zunzunegui from the very beginning of his literary career. Stories of his such as "Fortunas y adversidades de un llavin de buenas costumbres," "Tres en una, o la dichosa honra," "Historia apaoible de un hombre gordo," "El hombre que iba para estatua," "La vida y sus sorpresas” all reveal the unmistakable touch of Gomez de la Serna both in the nature of the subject matter and In the style In which they were written.

■^Angel Valbuena fra t, o p . c i t . , p. 737* -^Rodolfo Cardona, Novelistas espanoles de hoy (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1959), p» 129 Francisco de Cossio The novel Tasiiwatro of Francisco de Cossio, according to Valbuena P rat,^ belongs to the world in which "asoman las greguerias de Ramon en frases como esta: *Aun mas triste un automovil viejo que un caballo v ie jo .1" * Carmen Conde In the novel of another lesser known figure, En manos del silen- cio, there are still reminiscences of the gregueria of Gomez de la »Serna even as late as 1950: "Todos los hilos van cortando en secciones paralelas un gran canal del aire. ... AQue traen, que llevan? El soplo largo, soplo de leguas de unos seres a otros."

^®Angel Valbuena Prat, op. cit. , p. 7^9• CONCLUSION

We have seen that the core of Gomez de la Serna's vision of the world evolves from his personal and humanistic attitude which is re­ flected in the gregueria, based on the personificationy animation, and humanization of the world of things through a "proceso rehumanizador." We can conclude from this that the world of Ramon Gomez de la Serna has to be an intensely subjective one although filled with things. He has brought about a change of perspective quite unlike the traditionally accepted one, rendering a vision in which objects play important roles, achieving new values, having been liberated from their ordinary place and reassigned to a radically new one. 4 The metaphorical discoveries which lie at the base of his gre- gueristic vision allow him to broaden his search for reality through a total communion of all things. This reality reappears in the gregueria as if reflected in a magic mirror in which relationships are absorbed in a sponge-like imagination. This magical vision of things seen through the eyes of Ramon Gomez de la Serna is partly an attempt to create a novel universe, not based on magical invention but rather on a fresh and obvious—-childlike—-association of things deeply rooted in the material reality of the world around us. By probing into this world he discovers no single essence but arrives at the conviction that

130 131 the possibilities are inexhaustible. Therefore, he is left with no one convincing truth, and this, paradoxically, is in itself a revelation. He has looked at reality from all possible angles, has shifted view­ points of proverbs, popular sayings, of everyday language, thereby en­ larging the boundaries of this reality which is the sum total of the infinite multiplication of itself. Poets have always been aware of the infinite possibilities of analogy and Ramon Gomez de la Serna among them has ventured to take daring steps which join clashing and contrasting extremes thereby en­ larging the scope of analogy. The power to startle consistently with surprising analogies is one of the major artistic achievements of the gregueria. The expression of this surprise, shock, and astonishment is one of the main objectives of the gregueria, as it first takes inventory of a world which becomes transformed through the imagination of its creator. He, then, takes his place alongside, if not in front of, those artists whose main artistic purpose is "abrir nuevas cajas de sorpresas." as he searches for what is real in the world. The whole philosophy behind his personal and poetic vision of reality—£ reality in which all things resemble something else—is not unlike that of another Spanish visionary Don Quijcta, so it appears in the following gregueria: Lo bueno saria que al final se descubriese que los molinos no son molinos, sino gigantes. In short, the gregueria of Gomez de la Serna is an artistic re­ action to the world of our time, a personal treatment of the reality around us, which, in the eyes of Ramon Gomez de la Serna, is made up of a comparison not unlike the ones which relate him to Cervantes and Azoriji.

Purpose of study Gomez de la Serna and his work have been the subject of several studies, only few of whioh, unfortunately for the American public, are in English. Regretable too is the little regard displayed by American critics toward the gregueria. thus failing to understandIts author's approach to literature and life. One outstanding twentieth century scholar had quite frankly admitted his failure in putting his finger on the key to Ramon Gomes de la Serna's genius, stating that he "missed the point.*^ The general intention of this study is precisely to rem­ edy this amission by going to the core of Gomez de la Serna's style— the gregueria—and to carry out a systematic investigation of those as­ pects of his thought whioh relate to the gregueria, which we consider his greatest claim to fame and most important contribution. We shall also endeavor to relate the results of his theory of the gregueria to his artistic practice, in an attempt to find the above-mentioned nkey.n We sh all summarize b rie fly some of the previous attempts to explain the gregueria, then proceed to discuss some of the qualities, characteristics and methods of composition of this literary genre which he named and was the first to consciously cultivate. We shall ohoose

■^Statement made by Professor Bruce Wardropper in a paper read at the Modern Languages Association Convention in Washington, D. C., December, 1962. 132 an infinity of realities, i.e., greguerias, all constantly seeking expression. As a result of his cultivation of a style which he hoped could reflect accurately this vision and interpretation, a new literary style comes into being, coinciding with a new outlook on reality, and accompanied by a corresponding name to describe i t : The gregueria. APPENDIX

The purpose of the following appendix is to provide a source of reference that will enable the interested reader to have at his fingertips a selective tabulation of the gregueria according to its most used subject matter*. All of the selections were taken from the 1955 Aguilar edition of the Total de greguerias.

133 1 3 ^ On races and national groups I Que conflictoJ En la China no pueden disfrazarsa de chinos en Camaval. Los primeros que ensenan a estomudar fueron los chinos de la epoca de Chua-Chln-Chln. La escrltura china es un cementerlo de letras. Los ojos chinos son como son porque tlenen sueno de siglos. Los chinos se empolvan con borla do crlsantemos. Comio tanto arroz que aprendio a hablar el chlno. Todos lo s chinos parecen que andan de p u n tillas. El chlno se oontenta con un farolillo de papel. La navaja de afeltar la inventaron los ohinos. Los chinos no tlenen bien abiertos los ojales de sus ojos. Las palabras chinas tlenen coleta. So cortais una pera por la mitad, os encontrareis un chlno palido. La lavatlva es un Invento chlno. En China han mondado todos los mandarines. F iesta en Chinas mujeres ilumlnadas por dentro, como fa ro lillo s de papel. Los ohinos tlenen los ojos tan chicos para enfilar perlas en hilo bianco. En los negros es en los que mas sonrfe la blancura. Los negros tlenen tanto adedo a los ray os porque ya se carbonizaron una vez. Los negros, que son lo s hombres que nacen con guantes, se ponen los guantes mas amarillos del mundo. Cuando se ve un negro en la sala del cine durante el entreacto parece que no han encendldo la s luces. Las oiruelas moradas son negritos con la cara sucia. Los negros son negros porque solo asj? logran estar a la sombra bajo el sol' de Africa. El negro se debfa quedar bianco al morir, pero, es tan racial, que pre- fie re seguir siendo negro* Los japoneses con gafas tlenen algo de rana. Los japoneses tlenen amaestradas para el malabarlsmo todas las cosas de poreelana, menos las soperas. Los japoneses lievan escondidas en sus altos peinados sus cartas de amor. El Japon viva en pleno bazar. Los japoneses tlenen un pelo demasiado duro y demaslado negro para que no tengan emperador. Cuando un nlno ingles juega con un barquito en un estanque, los demas nlnos sienten la presenda del Almirantazgo. Era tan Ingles, que guardaba un pooo de niebla de Londres en una cajita. Por la tarde, an Inglaterra, todas las ninas tlenen leooion de aprender a saludar a la Reina. En Turqufa todos van con gorras de cotillon. Persia es el unico pais que tlene alfombrado el paisaje. Un portugues cone jo a la portuguesa: poco cone jo y mncho tomato. Los franceses hablan con la boca tan fruncida que parece que no van a poder a salir las palabxas. El espanol es un alma en pena. El espanol*es el torero de su alma.

On le tte rs and numbers La moy chula Hera en la fronts una S de peio. La 0 mayuscula es la empunodura de una espada sin hoja. Transfusion de sangre es el traslego de la pereza de B al cuorpo de La T es el martillo del abecedarlo. La T grlega mayuscula es la copa de champana del alfabeto. Los gulones son los valles de lo escrlto. El dolar es una S con bastonolto. El etc. etc. etc. es la trenza de lo escrlto. La A es la tienda de campana del alfabeto. La S es el anzuelo del abecedarlo. La 1 es el dedo menique del alfabeto. La Q de Quevedo se parece a el y tlene hasta su blgote perillan. La n dice adlos con su panuelo a los ninos y a los nonos. La Q con dieresis es como la letra malabarista del abecedarlo. La tl con dieresls: dos fes slamesas. La T esta pldlendo hllos de telegrafo. La clsne es la 3 capitular del poema del estanque. La X es el corse del alfabeto. La n tlene el eeno frunddo. La F es el grlfo del abeoedarlo. La X es la s i1 1 a de tijera del alfabeto. La W es la M haclendo la plane ha. 44444: numeros haclendo fleodones gimnasticas. La n es la n oon blgote. El 6 es el ndmero langostlno. El 6 es el numero que va a tener famllla. La q es la p que vuelve del paseo. El 4 tlene la narlz grlega. El 5 os un numero que b aila. La M siempre se sentlra superior a la N. La B nunca acaba de dlsparar su fleoha. La B mayuscula es el alma de erfa del alfabeto. El 5: cuatro soldados y un eabo. El 11 son lo s dos hem anltos que van a l colegio. Cuando la C tlene en la mano la copa de beber se convierte en G. La K es una le tra eon baston. La U es la herradura del alfabeto. La 0 es el bostezo del alfabeto. La X es las tljeras abiertas del alfabeto. El 8 es e l r e l o j d e arena de lo s ntftneros. Colegio: nnnnnnnrmnnrmnnnM. (La M es la maestra). Rrrrrrrrrrr. (Un reglmiento en marcha). 136

On woman and children Cuando la mu jar se da rouge frente a un espejito, parece que aprende a deoir la 0 . Cuando la ipgujer se da polvos despues de la entrevlsta, pareoe quo borra todo lo dicho. Cuando una mujer ohlspa un petalo de rosa se da un beso a si misma.. La mujer que se ha olvidado del rouge se constema como si se hubiese dejado los labios en casa. La mujer pinta las unas para tener dies oorazones a mano. Cuando las mnjeres saoan todas las oosas de su bolsa pareoen policies de sdT ndsmas. Seis de la tarde: nnijeres ndrandose a los espejos. A muohas mujeres les gusta banarse en las liquidadones. La mujer que se da carman en lo s labios antes de en trar en algiin s itio pareoe copiar del diccionarlo del espejo la palabra con que va a en^anar. El bebe se saluda a s i n&srno dando la mano a su pie. La mujer se limpia con un panolito muy chico los grandes dolores y los grandes catarros. El peor borraoho es el de leche en termos. Lo primero que quiere ser un nino es contorsionista. El gesto mas de pedir caridad es el de la nina que suplica un pooo de perfume en la palma de la mano. Hay unas vallas que los ninos oreen que estan hechas con grandes lapioes. La mujer lima sus unas oomo el joyero sus joyas. Las que se pintan las unas color lacre son mujeres certillcadas. En el nino bosteza el mundo. Otra vez toda la monotonia de vivir. El acto mas bello de la playa es ver como se quita las medias de arena la mujer bonita.

On the moon La luna es la lavandera de la noche. La luna es el ojo de de la noche. I Como seran lo s ojos dt Dios que con uno ve el sol y co n o tro la lunal La luna es el eacpejo dtuL lavabo de la noche. La luna es el ojo de crlstal del cielo. El dia. en que la luna se compre un automovil la noche sera mas breve. La luna suena que es la luna. La luna tlene una nube en un ojo. La luna y la arena se aman con frenes£. La luna es como ese taller de maraolista que hay al lado de los camente- rlo s. La luna en la solapa de la noche es la condecoradon circulante. Sobre las murallas, la luna parece dar un sal to de trampoliji, y por eso esta a mayor altu ra que en otros s itio s . Hay noches en que la luna quiere ser el soL La luna adora los acantilados. Entro espejo y madera de la puerta del armario de luna esta el te s ta - manto de la vida. La luna neoeslta gafas porque se ha cansado la vista de trabajar solo de noche. Los dias de media luna gasta monoculo. La luna que se esoonde detras de los chopos juega a l escondite con todo el paisaje y lanza desesperados gritos de "orll Oril* La luna tiene un deseo voraz de gastar monoculo, y ha pensado en el ani- llo de Saturno, que ella no sabe que la iba a venir grande. Del otro lado de la luna cae el panuelo negro de su dolor de mueLas. La luna es la lapida sin epitafio. La luna es a voces una maestra de escuela que nos quiere ensenar geo- graffa,. Como la luna se pone mas alia del horizonte, nadie sabe si cae cara o cruz. La medalla de plata es la luna oculta en el escote adolescents. No sera la luna la tapadera enganosa de la caja de betun de la noche? En la noche alegre la luna es una pandereta. La luna es la exdamacion de sorpresa de la noche, su nohln luminoso. Hay noches en que nos damos cuenta de que la luna ha sido guillotinada. Vaho en la luna: limpieza de su vidriera. La luna es el unico viajero sin pasaporte. La luna es la gran enceradora de pisos de los lagos. Las estatuas son las espjfas de la luna. Muerte: eclipse to ta l do luna y de sol. La luna de America, en vez de oara, tiene pintado un paisaJo. La luna taxnbien espera que la toque la loterfa y retirarse a la vida pac£lloa de los planetas sin reflejo, cansada ya de estar filmando todas las npohes. La luna aumenta el tuetano de lo s huesos. La luna es el espejo de la experiencia de los siglos. La media luna es el sombrero de dos plcos de la noche. La luna y el sol no tienen mas que una sola cama para descansar y por eso la urn trabaja cuando e l otro duerme. La luna se eerba gangrenando. La luna: actriz japonesa en su monologo de silendo. Luna en el l&go: leche condensada mezclandose a l te . La luna: guillotina del dfa pasedo. Las nubes caen como leones sobre la luna pero no la pueden devorar. Los gatos beben la leche de la luna en los platos de las tejas. En Persia la luna siempre es luna Uena. La luna ilumina la e ifra de almanaque de lo s cisnes. Al pasar la luna por la sierra de los ladrones la robah el reloj. Despues del e d ip se , la luna se lava la cara para quitarse e l tizn e. La luna de Francia parece la mascariUa de Juana de Arco. La huella de la luna en el agua es tan efectista que no debe copiarse en los cuadros. La luna pone en el bosque luz de cabaret. La luna llen a que aparece despues de la toxmenta es un huevo pasado por agua* 138 iPor que tanto frfo? Porque ha nevado en la luna. La luna es como ese taller de marmolista que hay al lado de los cemente- rio s. La luna que se va se la llevan las nubillos. A la luna solo le falta tener marco. La luna es maestra elemental que nos vuelve a ensenar el ABC. La luna tiene que ver oon la s pastelerifas, y pone en e lla s sus medias lunas, excepto los djTas de luna llena en que despacha bollos de leohe. La luna tiene halo? No, la luna tiene monoculo. La luna, por como esta de ohlva, aaa muoho los jardines que encuentra y se detiene mas de la euenta en ellos* La lunaaprovecha el reves de las velas de los bare os para cambiarse de camisa. La luna va. fijando pasquines en bianco por los sitios que pasa. La luna esta subvencionada por la Policxia. El oielo no se allmenta mas que de luna, una cada tantos d£as. Claro de luna: sab ana que plane ha la luna. Claro de luna: invitacion al bar de bebidas blancas. El daro de luna esta; pero—£y la yema? La luna se pone distintas oaretas cada noche, desde careta de diablo a careta de gendarme. In terlu n io : dfa en que se cambia de oamiseta la luna« La luz de la luna es la carretera hacia el cielo. La luna: hermana de carldad de la noohe. -La luna, los dfas de halo tiene reuma. Luna con halo: "pierrot" con gola. Luna: apuntador mudo de la noche. La luna de verano tiene un memento maduro en que es raya am arilla de melon. La luna de verano reparte gazpacho. En el fondo de los pozos suenan los discos de la luna. La luna es la pastilla de aspirlna que de vez en cuando se toma el terra- queo para sus terribles dolores de cabeza y si aparece en el cielo de la raanana es que no pudo disolverla. La media luna mete la noohe en parentesis. La luna marca la s venas de la s carreteras. La luna es el banco de metaforas arruinados. La luna: mecanografa de la noche. Si sera ndedosa la luna, que en cuanto hay tormenta se va a acostar. A la luna nunca se ha sentado bien el sombrero. Luna: cineaatografo con pel& ulas v iejas. La luna pallida que aparece en el cielo durante el dfa es como una mentira en la urna del cielo. Y Si estuvieaemos equivocados? Y si la tierra fuese la luna y la luna la tie rra ? 139 On clouds Hay unas nubes blanoas que parece que intentan constuir un gran Capdtolio de paz en el cielo. El mejor destino que hay es e l "supervisor de nubes" acostado en una hamaoa y mirando a l cielo . Las transparentes nubes que pasan por delante de la luna son como las bailarinitas cuando bail an en corro y encubren a la primer a bailarina. Las nubes de la tarde acuden al acaso para empapar su sangre y caer como algodones usados en el cubo del otro hemisferio* Hay unas nubes largas y finas que son como costillas del cielo. Los difas nublados f los cielos son espejos de los rfos, en reciprocidad a que en los d&s azules los ribs son espejos de los cielos. Cuando oorren mucho las nubes pareoe que acuden presurosas a un incendio que se ha dedarado en el hoxizonte. Muchas voces aparece tambien en el museo escultorico de las nubes un dios o un gigante de los cielos que se acuesta en el colchbn. azul y aparece muy repanchigado. —iPor que corren tanto las nubes al mediodia? —Porque van a su casa a comer. Hay nubes que llevan una carta urgente y otras que van a la batalla de las Tenaopilas sin saber que llegan tarde. Nubes blancas iluminadas por la luna: nubes desnudas. Nubes como perros de agua: lluvia segura. La gaviota llev a sonibra de nube en sus alas. Hay nubes que aotuan como hamacas de la luna. Las nubes caen como leones sobre la luna pero no la pueden devorar. Afortunadamente, la arquitectura de las nubes es completamente barroca. La luna se toca muchas noches con nubes que parecen el sombrero de Napoleon. Nubes blancas: turbante del cielo del que se desdLne pronto. Las nubes tambien tianen deseos cinematograficos. Hay nubes que son como alas extraviadas. Hay nubes a la s que se le s ha caido al suelo su panu&Lo de sombra. Hay djCas en que las nubes corren en bicicleta. Al mirar esa len ta nube que nos tapa el so l, sentimos ganas de hacerla signos con la mano para que se aparte un poco. Nubes: rio s vagabundos. Nubes moradas como cargadas de vino: vino de la tie rra . On the rainbow El arco iris es comp el anundo de una tintoreria. El arco iris es la bufanda del cielo. El arco i r i s es la cinta que se pone la naturaleza despues de haberse lavado la cabeza. On s t a r s Las estrellas estan tan deslumbradas por su luz que no pueden verse unas a otras. 31 no las vigilasen los astromonos las estrellas variar£an de sitlo todos los d&s. Al ndrar al olelo nos aeogemos a una estralla que es de la cruz roja de la esperanza. Faroles y estrellas: nada mas que eso es la noohe* La estralla parpadea porque tiene sumo. Ray estrellas ferrovlarias--las que brill an en los alrededores de la estacion—que dan mas frfo que las otras estrellas* Las estrellas viven con tan gran holgura porque saben la cortesifa su- prema que es guardar la s dlstancias. La estrella al caer se humaniza, porque cae como un cohete que muere. Al mlrar al cielo de la noche piensa el pobre: nIeuantas estrellas y que pooo dinerofn Las estrellas telegraffan temblores. A las estrellas les sacan brlllo el mar y el invierno. Al mlrar a las estrellas se piensa que una, una entre todas, es nuestra estrella madrlna. Via lactea: oenioero de colillas estelares. Via lietea: el gran brasero del cielo. Bajo las estrellas samos como enanos. Cuando la luna sale en forma de hoz, tememos que siegue to das la s es- tre lla s . Para las estrellas siempre estamos en un abismo. En la noche hay una estrella que nos lleva con andadores. Aquella estrella llena, exuberant©, no estaba antes asi. Aquella estre­ lla esta embarazada. Miro la estrella de la mala suerte y a los pocos dias se moria. Todas las estrellas tienen hora diferente. En unas es ayer, en otras es hoy, y en otras es haoe muohos siglos. Haoia tal frlo aquella noche, que vi al cielo estomudar de estrellas* Estrellas: candiles de los siglos. Miranda a las estrellas nos adelantamos a los cementerios y a la rmierte. Se ve que todas la s e s tre lla s ban salido delvolcan de Dios. Peligroso es ver mas estrellas de las que hay. Las estrellas estan en posicion de carambola diffcil. Las est^fllas trabajan con red. Por eso no se cae ninguna sobre nues­ tra cabeza. El cielo estrellado propone viajes a pie por el infinito. En la noche estrella da se ve el esqueleto de la inmortalidad.

On God Unid todas las estrellas con lineas de lapiz luminoso y resultara la silueta de Dios. Tifon: el sifon.de Dios. l&L Ideas: oentlmillos que se le han cadudo a Dios. El alpinlsta pareoe que tiene prisa en dar un reoado a Dios. Por el orgullo con que bajan del avion los viajeros que aoaban de ate- rrlz a r, pareoe que ban hablado oon Dios y nos traen su mensaje. El mayor regalo que Dios hizo a los hombres fueron las semillas. Truenos: salvas en honor de Dios. Lo mas maravllloso de Dios es que creo las cosas sin formula, sin boceto nl anteproyeoto. Se ve que todas la s e s tre lla s han salldo del voloan de Dios. La eleo trld d ad forma parte del si sterna nervioso de Dios. El homo de la s comldas le cuenta a Dios s i esta blen o mal ganado lo que se come. Las tijeras del sastre vuelven a cortar al hombre a la lmagen y semejan- za de Dios. Que no sean orgullos lo s hombres. Los len tes estaban en la mente de Dios antes que hublese narlces. Lo unico verdadero que puede ser en la vida es un adndrador de Dios. Los profetas h&blan por t&Lefono con Dios. El largo compas que maneja Dios detiene la s pequeinos compases de los relojes humanos. En la pizarra del cielo la mano de Dios borra unas estrellas y escribe otras. En la toxmenta se ve al profesor Supremo escriblendo y borrando cal- culos electricos en la pizarra del cielo. Una paloma muerta signifies que algulen ha sido Uamado por Dios. En la cresta del gallo se esta vlendo la tij era del creador dahdole los i&timos oortes.

On the sun El sol es el gran ajustador de la maquina humana. Los girasoles son los espejos de boslllo del sol. E l»sol es la panecea universal: nos hace vlvir a nosotros, pero tam­ bien a los mlcroblos. Si se cierran lo s ojos frente al so l, comprobamos que estamos heohos de yema de huevo. El sol que sale despues de la tomenta, a las cuatro de la tarde, cree que puede oomsnzar e l mediod£a a esa hora, que aun puede resarcirse. El pino peina el sol bajo sus ramas. Cuando cae el sol en el buzon del ocaso no nos importa porque sabemos que tiene la contestacion pagada. Solo el sd. puede dar vaoaciones a las nubes. Nadie lo notara pero esas nubes estan al reves.

On ants, flies, crickets, worms. and other minutiae Y si las hormigas fuesen ya los marcianos establecidos en la tierra? Las hormigas blancas son la resureccion de los muertos. 1-

7 soma of the representative samples and discuss them from the standpoint of theme, verbal aspect, and types of metaphors found In them. By so doing, we hope to arrive at an acceptable explanation of this literary and linguistic phenomenon. Suoh a study will provide a background for a subsequent exploration of the bonds between Gomez de la Serna's lite r­ ary style and the poetic language used by some of his contemporaries. Since his artistic technique revolves around the greguer£a, we feel that any study of his works regardless of its approach must be preceded by such an attempt. It is our hope that this study will thus contribute to the establishment of such a basic premise. Our general purpose will be to trace the development of the poetic manner of communication of Gomez de la Serna (1) through the Im­ agery of the groguerifa, and ( 2) through the establishment of "gregueris- tic language" also used by some Spanish writers of his time. Our study i s based on two assumptions: (1 ) that the linguistic factors and stylis­ tic features which take place in the formation of Images In his other works are the same that take place in the formation of the greguerfa, and (2) th a t the sim ila ritie s which ex ist between the greguerdfa and cer­ tain characteristics of some of his Spanish contemporaries, are more than coincidental. Gomez de la Serna is a prose writer, but, because of his heavy dependence on Imagery, his language is mostly lyrical, which has led critics to consider him a poet who writes books of poetry, but in prose. Because of the sim ilarities between the poetic language of the greguerfa and that of contemporary poetry, we will give special attention to the possibility of the influence of Gomez de la Serna on some poets. Some 1 4 2

Las hormigas son los globulos rojos de la tierra. Las hormigas lie van eOL paso apresurado como si fuesen a cerrar la tlenda. El que transports un violon se parece a la hormiga cuando carga una brlzma demaslado grande. Lo mejor del cielo es que no puede Inundarse de hormigas. El mundo estara definitivamente viejo cuandolas hormigas negras se vuel- van hormigas blancas. A veoes las hormigas tienen una cosa espectral, como si fuesen minus- culas reencamaoiones de los ejerdtos muertos. En Cuba las hormigas toman cafe. El caracol siempre esta subiendo su propla escalera de caracol. Los ojales cerrados ni ven, nl oyen, nl entienden. El mosoon va vestldo de viudo. El mas pequeno ferrocarrll del mundo es la oruga. Los tornillos so n los ^usanos de hierro. El ddCa de su presentacion en sodedad es cuando la oruga se conderte en mariposa. ACoino ban podldo meterse tantos grillos en las ondas? Descriptivet la lengua del caracol lame la tapla. Las amapolas son las colegialas del trlgal. Al ver el cuallo de la mosca se piensa que vive estrangulada. Lo que mas repugna de la mosoa os que—vista aL microscopic—results que ademas es peluda. Un tom illo entre los davos siempre se equlvoca. El grillo nd.de las pulsaoiones de la noche. Los grillos parece que estan serrando un cascabel. El grillo intents limar las rejas del tiempo.

On elevators

Lo que se dice a traves del ascensor cerrado es la posdata de la conver- sacion. El ascensor llama en todas las puertas por los que pasanpero solo una le hace caso. Todos los que van en el ascensor hacen un apretado esfuerzo para que guarden silencio sus pensamientos y no se enteren de ellos los demss. El ascensor es mas peligroso que el avion, porque si se desgrada no sera posible salvarse nl con paracaiclas. Hay unos ascensores en las casas de dleoiocho plsos en los que para subir y bajar habriLa que dejar el corazon y el estomago en la porterfa. El ascensor pesa la poca y mucha fortuna del que sube. El ascensor esta lleno de serledad. El ascensor es un paracajfdas que tambien sirve para subir. Ascensor i pzision momentanea. iPor que tarda el ascensor? Porque se esta dando rouge el boton electrico y rojo del ultimo pi so. Cuando el ascensor comienza a bajar y subir en la madrugada es que tiene p esad llla. 1>3

On th e n a v e l

Al ombligo le fa lta el boton. El ombligo se quedo guinando el ojo. Timbre: ombligo sonoro. El tomate tiene ombligo. El colchon esta lleno de ombligos. El lagrimal es el ombligo del dolor. El creador guarda las Haves de todos los ombligos.

On statues

Losvojos de las estatuas lloran su inmortalidad. Las estatuas son las que mejor ven la identidad de los tiempos. Lo que mas mdesta a las estatuas de marmol es que tienen siempre los pies frfos. El marmol sabe esperar su estatua durante siglos. Las estatuas son la s espfas de la luna. Las estatuas viven porque comen palomas. El milagro del marmol se revela cuando aparecen los senos de la estatua. El marmol oonvertido en bella estatua va adquiriendo sistema venoso 7 al final de los tismpos tendra todos los entresijos 7 glandulas del ser bumano. Los estatuas de los jardines son las que mas excitan a amarse ... La mujer tiene en el hombro un morbido pedazo de marmol de estatua. La estatua ecuestre no es buena si el caballo no le da una coz al que lee el discurso. La estatua en cuya cabeza se f ija una paloma debfa sonreirse. La estatua, para vivir siempre, nace ya muerta, como figura mausoleo. Las estatuas no vuelven la cabeza. porque saben que si la volviesen se convertirian en efjuaeros seres mortales. Ojos de estatua: ojos sin hora. Una estatua yacente es una nube de piedra ca£da en el cepo de la catedral.

On kisses

El beso es hambre de inmortalidad. El beso es la burla del soplo. El beso es una nada entre parentesis. El beso es la huella de un matasellos en una tarjeta postal. El beso nunca es singular. El beso es mas comprometedor que una firma en un cheque en bianco. Beso: un poco de a ire comprimido. El djfa en que se enc? ntre un beso fosil se sabra si el amor existio en la epoca cuatemaria. On smoke El humo es la traduccion a la nada de lo que era algo. El humo es la oradon del hogar. La caja de oigarros es el libro del humo. El humo no logra pintarle bi^otes al dalo. El humo es la prestldlgltaoion del fuego. El humo de la s comidas le cuenta a Dios s i esta bien o mal ganado lo que se oome. El humo sube a l cielo cuando deb£a bajar a l inflerno.

On cheese El queso es el ahorro de la leche. Los quesos mas exquisitos son la gangrena de la leche. El queso roquefort tiene gangrena. El queso es un productor de suenos fementados. Lo malo de la Bmyere es que tien e nombre de queso.

On akiilis. banes, skeletons La calavera es tin reloj muerto. Esponjas: calaveras de las olas. En las orbitas de la calavera se ocultan los ratones de la muerte. Nuestra verdadera 7 unica propiedad son los huesos. Las olas esculpen en las rocas calaveras de gigantes. Los castillos son impresionantes porque, mirados al revss, son las calaveras de los siglos. Es d iffd l imaginar que una monda calavera sea una calavera de mujer. Cuando se ve la calavera de un buey en el carapo se piensa que la muerte ha andado jugando a l toro por allif. Los picados de viruela parecen calaveras.

On bridges, rivers Los puentes son los andadores de los rfos. Los puentes civilizan lo s r£os. El no cree que el puente es un castillo. El puente esta lleno de narcisismo de tanto xnirarse en el agua. ftfo con muchos puentes, braso con muchas pulseras. En los cubos de piedra de los viejos puentes se refugia el tesoro de los siglos.

On elephants Las orajas del eiefante--son animales o vegatales? Los elefantes estan hechos con lodo seco. 1^5 El olefante es el unioo animal que tiene pipa propia. El elefanto tiene orejas de planta del tabaeo. El olefante es la enorme tetera del bosque. El olefante no es un animal; es una asociacion.

On oats Los ojos de gato bianco son ojos de gato negro. El gato eree que la luna es un plato con leche. El gato solo adsdra a l hombre cuando eeha un leno mas a la chimenea. Si los gatos se subiesen unos sobre otros, llegarfan a la luna.

On monkeys El mono usa guantes en los pies. Momo es un mono disfrado de hombre. El mono siempre esta cejijunto. El mono tiene cara del hombre. El mono tiene su humorlsmo en e l rabo. El mono nos observa como si nos tomase por pedagogos. El mono no entiende pero esta siempre queriendo entender. Cuando es demasiado tocada por la radio una danza, llega a ser la danza de los monos.

On swans El cisne es la S capitular del poema del estanque. Los cisnes en el otono temen no poder bogar de tantas hojas como cubren los estanques. Nunca queda posada una hoja sobre el cisne: le serfa mortal. De la nieve cajfda en los lagos nacen los cisnes. On umbrellas Los paraguas son viudas que estan de luto por las sombrillas desapa- recidas. Ese que lleva el paraguas abierto cuando ya no llueve parece un paracai- dista cajfdo del nido. Solo el paraguas del nino es el que tapa. El paraguas puesto a secar abierto en el suelo parece una tortuga de lu to . Abrir un paraguas es como disparar contra la lluvia.

On automobiles, bicycles, motorcycles Lo unico que le falta al autamovilista es llevar ademas de una rueda de repuesto, una vida de repuesto envuelta en papel celofan. 1M La verdad es que vamos a la muerte en motocideta. La tfnica moto justificada es la de la Policfa. El ciclista es un vampiro de la velocidad. Cuando una bicicleta pasa por lo alto del camino pareoe que el paisaje se ha puesto los lentes. Escribia tan rapida en la msfequina, que pareofa un cidista. Los oiolistas no saben lo fragil que es la base del craneo. Siempre tememos que el ciclista que viene detras nos cercene y atra- viese por en medio. El dolista y la bicicleta enredados en la ca£da parecen un insecto boca arriba. Un foco de automovil proyectandose sobre nosotros nos oonvierte en palfC- cula. La motoclcleta va disparando su pistola espantaperros. La bicidleta es el ilnico veh£culo que tiene tratamlento de senorita. La bioideta es la nina mimada del rodado. Cidistas: hormigas en bicideta. Motocideta: tiene cuerpo de mcCquina de coser y destripamiento de ca- ballo de los toros. El motocicLista es, despues de todo, el nino que se ha escapado con su cochedto a to da velocidad. La motocideta es la primera querlda de los jomies. Domingo: inventos de la bicideta, la bicideta dotada de radio, la bicideta tirando de un cocheoito con dos ninos, la bicicleta que hace calceta. El ciclista que llega a la meta llega en el aire de la vdocidad antes que su bicideta.

On bullfights Mientras el toro lee su sentencia de muerte en la muleta, d rayo lo penetra. El espanol es el torero de su alma. La plaza do toros vudve la espalda alnundo. Cuando el banderillero y el toro se citan, queda en suspanso una unica ouestion; quien davara a quien. Cuando d matador va a matar se coloca como fotografo que va a instan- taneizar a la muerte. El caballo de lo s toros que es comeado gravemente dispara a l morir una xtLtima coz a la muerte. El toro lleno de banderiilas tiene algo de ciervo con gallardetes. Un sillon que se sale es como un caballo de toros bien comeado. Los cuemos del toro bus can un torero desdeeL principio d d mundo. Inolvidable momento en que la lengua del toro mal matado es d badajo de su muerte. Cuando d matador tantea la muerte dd toro, parece un oiego que levanta su baston bianco para orientarse en lo abismatico. Cuando d toro olfatea al caballo cajido a al torero que solo se hace el muecrto, se ve lo que tiene de perro manso. w ?

On l i f e a n d d e a th La vida es conceblr lo Inconoebible. Vivir es cantor como el Incansable grillo. El ser humane espera un viento que mueva atras las hojas de su vida. La tierra es la casa de los huespedes del uni verso. 31 v iv ir no fuese morirl que hermoso serfa v iv irl La vida gasta su tiempo arreglando motoolcletas. La vida o es aburrlmlento o es perversion. Los pajaros mueren en silen cio . Miro con melancolla los bancos de pledra del jardfn porque en una misma tarde pueden pasar de bancos a tumbas. Morlrse es meterse por sorpresa en un vagon de cargo vacfo. Dorndr la siesta es morir de ddCa. Pensamlento consolador: el gusano tambien morira. Si suplese traducir lo que quiere decir el gallo con su quiquiriqut del alba, sabr£amos aL secreto de la creacion. Al pasear por la pi ay a en inviemo se nota lo que tiene de margen entre la vida y la muerte. Cuando recogemos el guante cafdo, damos la mano a la muerte. El alma sale del cuerpo como si fuese la camLsa interior a la que le llego el ddLa del lavado. La frase que mas reune la vida y la muerte es la de "Estoy hecho polvol" Un epitafio es una tarjeta de desafio a la muerte. Nuestra verdadera y unica propiodad son los huesos. Las munecas que cierran los ojos, los cierran nnxertos, no dormidos. Aburrirse es besar a la muerte. 7 pensar que todos los de la Gtdia Telefonica un ckfa no estaran ni en la Guia Telefonica! La vida es a ir un concierto y marcharse de este mundo. En la muerte se suena? He aqul el terrible problema

On watches and clocks El re lo j que se atrasa es tin relo j ahorrativo. Tan pequeno era e l tiempo en su relo j de pulsera que nunca tenfa tiempo para nada. A las once y cinco y a la una menos cinco es cuando el reloj nos mira con sus impertinentes, estudiandonos a traves de sus binoculares manillas, porque eL tiempo quiere saber tambien como somos. El reloj es una bomba de tiempo, de mas o menos tiempo. Antes de inventarse el reloj ten£a el hombre en el pul so el tictac del reloj pulsera. A las siete y cinco de la tarde, el reloj tiene fiebre. El que tiene reloj de oro cree que tiene la vejez asegurada. lllusol Los relo jes de pared no descansan m£s que en la s mmianzas. Hay horas geometricas y rectil^neas que marcan el uigulo de la rectitud Los relojes de estacion son guardagujas de los ndnutos, y cada minuto que pasa hacen un brusco movimiento, como si levantasen misteriosas palancas. /

1 4 8

A las cinco y madia, el tiempo, cansado, so sirve de las manecillas como de unas mulet&s queapuntalan la quebrada barba. Hay un momento en que el reloj prepara el compas para trazar su cir- cunferencia. El relo j se sonrjfe a ciertas horas de nuestro empedernido olvido del- tiempo. El reloj de pulsera se atrasa en los hipotensos y se adelanta en los hi- pertensos* A la s doce y media y a la s seis en punto el horario se pone de pie* Los relojes que se reflejan invertidos en los espejos de los cafes pare- cen relojes chinos, relojes en que son las dos menos cinco cuando son la s dos y cinco. Con una mano invisible el reloj se atusa los bigotes. El reloj nos va afedtando la vida. El reloj no exists en las horas felices. El despertador nos esta tejiendo siempre un gorro de dormir. El tiempo sabe a agua seca. El reloj es el guardapelo del tiempo. Al reloj del doctor lo mueve la hormiga de la pulsacion. La calavera es un reloj muerto. El telefono es el despertador de los despiertos. Cada tumba tiene su reloj despertador puesto en la hora del juicio final. El despertador es Don Nicanor tocando el tambor. Despertador: telefono piivado del tiempo. Los relojes despertadores pueden Uegar a producir taquicardia. Parece que suenan los despertadores en el azul del amanecer, pero el amanecer no tiene que ver nada con ello s. El reloj se suelta la corbata antes de dar la hora. Reloj: flor de metal. El reloj del auto es el reloj de la distanaia y de la nada: no senala hora, sino huada, carrera, por eso es negro en plena luz. Al relo j parado le queda e l orgullo de que dos veces al dia senala la hora que es. El reloj electrico no tiene augurlos. El reloj correjsr aconseja. El ojo con monoculo se convierte en reloj. Reloj: moneda gorda y con hora. Los que juegan al aro corren despues del reloj sin cifras. Los relojes despertadores pueden Uegar a producir taquicardia. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aller, Angel. "Gomentarios sobre Ramon,” reprinted in Obras oomnletas de Raaon qokea de Xa Sens. Barcelona: Editorial A* H* R. , 1956.

Alonso, Aaado. Poesfa t e s tilo de Pablo Buenos A ires: E d itorial Sudaaericana, 1951* Alonso, Aaado, Bally, Charles, Riohter, EU.se, and Lids, Rose. B3L ia- igeslon^SMO en el lenguale. Buenos Aires: Instituto de Filoso-

Anderson, IabertE ., and Florlt, Eugenio. Literatura hispano-aaorloaaa: Antologfa. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., I960. Aub, Max. Diaoarso de la nousla esnanola oontemnordnea. Mexico, D. F.: El Colegio de Mexico, 19^5” Azor£n. "Comentarios sobre Raaon,” reprinted in Obras ooapletas do Q^ass do la Serna. Bareelona: A. H. R., 1956. Ballester, Torrents. de 1* literatura esnanola oontsaporfoea. Madrid: Edielones Guadarraaa, 1 9 o l. Bally, Charles, Riohter, SUse, Alonso, Aaado, and Idda, Rosa. El in- nreaioni^n^ lenguale. Buenos Aires: Instituto de Filoso- fia , 1936. Barja, Cesar. Libros y autorea oontemnortEnoos. New York: G. E. Stechert A Co., 1935*

Benaxdete, M. J ., y r£o, Angel d el. SL oonoento oonteapordneo de Bspaaa: Antologfade onaaros Tlo95^I932). Buenos Aires: Edi- torlalLosada, 19w. Berenguer Caxismo, Arturo, "Apuntes sobre la caricatura U terarla,” Cuadernos hisnanoainwrlcanos. Nos. 91-96 (Madrid), July-Dee., 1957* Bergam&i, Jose. "Comentarios sobre Raaon," reprinted in Obras ooanletas de Raaon Gomes do la Serna. Barcelona: Editorial A. H. R., 1956. 1M9 150 Blyth, Ruth* Haiku. 4 v o ls. Japan: Hokuseido, 194?* Borgaa , Jorge Luis* "Comentarios sobre Raaon,” reprinted in Obras oom» pletaa de Raro&a Gwaea de la Serna. Barcelona: A* H. R., 1956* Calleja, Rafael. Revista de ocoidente. XVI (1927), 378-385. Cansinos-Assens, R. Poetaa r proaiatae d el noveciantos. Madrid: Edi­ to r ia l America, 1929* Cardona, Rodolfo. Hovelistas esoanoles de hoy. New fork: VT. W. Norton & Co., 1959. ----- „—. Raaon: A Study of Goaes de la Serna and Hie Works. New fork: E. T. & Sons, 1957* Carrera Andrade, Jorge. Rol de la manzana: Poes£as (1926-1929). Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, S. H., 1935* Casares, J u lio . ”La greguerfa y la Academia," Insula. S ep t., 1962. Caaaou, Jean. Reprinted in Cien Auto re s. Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Eroilla, 1941. Cernuda, Luis. Bstudios sobre noes£a esnanola. Madrid: Ediciones Gua- darraoa, 1957. Cirlot, Juan Eduardo. Introdncdon al Surreal!smo. Madrid: Rsvista de Ocoidente, 1953* Chandler, Richard, and Schwarts, Eessel. New History of Spanish Lit­ erature. Louisiana: L. S. U. Press, 1961. Claras:?, Noel. Diooionarlo bmnorfstico. Barcelona: Ediciones de Osa Manor, 1950. Col, Richard. Eugene Ionesco. New fork: Grove P ress, I n c ., 1961* Corondnas, Juan. Sicoionario crft^,^ *f|toylogico de la lengua oastellana. Bema: Editorial Franck, 1954*195? • 4 vd s. Crenieux, M. B. Inquietude et reconstruction: Basal sur la litteratare d1 acres guerre. Paris: Editions R. H. CorrSa. 1931. Dur&i, Manuel (ed.). Lorca: A Collection

Espina, Antonio. "Sobre Goya,” Revista de Occidents. XXI (1925), 239- 2 4 2 . 151 Florlt, Eugenio, and Anderson, Imbert E. Literatura hlspanoamorlcana: Antologja. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc., 19&0. Frank, Waldo. Virgin Spain. New York: Boni & L iveright, 1928. Freud, Sigmund. Wit and I t s R elation to the Unconscious. Edited by A. A. B r ill. New Yorks Moffat Yard & Co., 1916.

Garcfa Lorca, Federico. Obras completes. Madrid: Aguilar, i960. Poems. Selections and introduction by R. M. Nadal. New York: Oxford U niversity Press* 1939* Garcia Prada, Carlos. Leva esnuma. Mexico: Ediciones de Andrea, 1957* Gomez de la Serna, Raaon. Autonorlbunflia. Buenos Aires: E d itorial Sudaoericana, 19h8. — ------Bjografjas completes. Madrid: A guilar, 1959* —. Eohantillons, Traduction de MatMlde Pomes e t V. Larbaud. Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1922. ------. Nuavas p&rinas de ad. vida. Valencia: Editorial Marfil, 3. A., 1957. ——— —, Obras ooanletas. Barcelona: Editorial A. H. R., 1956. — ------. Total de gregusrias. Madrid: Aguilar, 1955* G ranjd, Luis S. Rotrato de Ramon. Madrid: Ediciones Guadarrama, 19<>3* Henderson, Harold G. An Introduction to Haiku. New York: Doubleday & C o., I n c ., 1958*

Ibn Qotalha / S t i f l Mohammad 'AbdullSh b. Muslim b. Qutaiba al-Dlnarow^/ Introduction an Hvre de la ooesie et des nbetes. Traduction et oommentalre par M. Gaudefroy-Demonbynes* Paris: Sooiete d1 Editions “Los Belles Lettres," 19b2. Jard iel Pone d a , Enrique. M&jaas nrinlnas. M&deo: Editors Latino- Amerioana, S. A ., 1957* Lefeuvre, Federic. "Comentarlos sobre Ramon," reprinted in Obras com- nletas de Ramdn Gomez de la Serna. Barcelona: Editorial A. H. R ., i95&. Lida, Rosa, Richter, Ellse, Bally, Charles, and Alonso, Amado. El lm- presionlsmo en el lenguaie. Buenos Aires: Instituto de Filoso- fUa, 1995. 152 Marfas, Julian. Dicoionarlo de literatura ospanola. Madrid: Revista de Occidonte, 1956.

Mariohalar, A. "Sobre El Alba 7 otras cosas," Revlsta de Ocddente. m , No. h (1925), 119-125. Nippon Gakuijutso Shinkokai. Halkai and Haiku. Tokyo: Ueno Park, 1953. Oouna, Roberto V. Semfctioa esnanola. Chile: University of Chile, 19^9*

Ortega 7 Gasset, Joa 4 » Ta d»«fimnfln^gA

Vela, himself a poet, states that the Vanguard poetry is nothing more than nla conjunoion de greguerfas sin copla, sin aliteracian, sin repetl- cian, sin rltornelo.”^

In spite of the many articles and studies dealing -with aspects of the work of Gomez de la Serna, to our knowledge there is no detailed study which exactly parallels ours even though some of his critics and admirers have pointed in this direction.

Justification of criteria Our proposed study precludes the acceptance of the greguerfa as his basic unit of expression. Some critics mistakenly assume that he writes novels, essays, plays, etc., just as an excuse to stuff greguerfas into one given structure. While it is true that the greguerfa forms an integral part of Gomez de la Serna*s style, the statement that his novels

^Bstudios sobre poesfa esnanola contemporfnea (Madrid: Ediciones Guadarrama, S. L ., 1957),P» 175«

•^^Ibld. . p. 176. ^•^Teorfa literaria del Modernising (M&Lco: Ediciones Botas, 19^9) p . 313. ^Cardona, apologizing for not having undertaken the task, says: n The greguerfa remains a problem of linguistic expression. I t will be a study of this genre as a linguistic phenomenon that will disclose some­ thing about Gomez de la Serna*s style.” (O p . cit.. p. 144). And, in echoing the need for such an undertaking of the position of Gomez de la Serna among his contemporaries, Cardona adds: ”... a careful study of his style will undoubtedly reveal the debt which many of the most out­ standing writers of his time owe to Ramon.n (Ibid. p. 167). 153 Salaverrfa, Jos£ Marfa* Huovos retratoa. Madrid: Comanfa Ibero-America do Publloaoiones, 3* A., 1930* S alinas, Pedro* L iteratura esnanola del slglo XX. Mexico: Antigua Li- brerfa Robredai, 19** 7« — "Reglstro do J. C. Andrade," Reviata Iboroamerlcana. Nos. 9 y 10 (Mayo y Sept. de 1962), 285-29^. Sanchez, Luis Alberto* Panorama de la literatura actual. Santiago de Chile: Biblioteca America, 193»* Sohaack, Adolfo Federico de. Poesfa y a rte de lo s arabes en Banana y Sjollla. Traduccion del aleman por Don Juan Valera. Sevilla: Vol. I , 1881. Schwarts, Keasel, and Chandler, Richard. New History of Spanish Lit­ erature. Louisiana: L. S. U. Press, 1961. Sobejano, Gonzalo. SL epfteto en la lfrloa eapanola. Madrid: Editorial Credos, 1956. Solana, Rafael. "Mapa de afluentes en la obra poetloa de F. Garofa Lorca,n Lattom dm H&Aoo. No. 28 (1938), 5-8. Tagore, Rablndranas. Collected Poena and Plays. London: Macmillan St Co., 1936. Obras eacogidas. Traducdon de Zenobia de Jimenez y Juan R. JinuSnez. Madrid: Aguilar, 1955* Torre, Gulllemao de. "Ramon G&ez de la Serna: Medio slglo de literatura," Clavileno (enero-febrero, 1955)» 7-1^* Valbuena Prat, Angel. Historia de la literatura eapanola. Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo GUe, S. A ., 1953* Vela, Arqueles. Teorfa llte r a r la del modemismo. Mexico: Ediciones Bo- ta s , l W . Yasuda, Kenneth. The Japanese Halkai. Rutland, Vermont, & Tokyo, Japan: 1957. Zardoya, Concha. "La tecnica, metaforica en la poesfa eapanola oon- tcmq>er£tea," Cuaderaos Americanos (Mexico: May-June, 1961), 258 -281. Zum Felde, Alberto. Indice orftloo de la literature hiapanoamerlcana. Mexico: Editorial Guarania, 195^« AUTOBIOGRAPHY

I, Richard Lawson Jackson, was bom In Knoxville, Tennessee,- March 10, 1937* . I received ay seaondary-sohool edaoation at Austin High School, Knoxville, Tennessee, and ay undergraduate training at Knoxville College, which granted me the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1959* The same year I received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship which I used to attend graduate school at the Ohio State University, where I was granted the Master of Arts degree in I960. For the following academic year I was appointed University Fellow at the same university. With the exception of the summer of 1962 during which time 1 was awarded a University Graduate Summer Fellowship, I was a teaching assistant in the Department of Romance Languages at the (Mo State University from June 1961 to December 1962, while completing the course requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree. In January of 1963 I was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship for the remainder of ay graduate work. I have accepted a position as Lecturer in Spanish at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

15** essays, etc., are nothing but hypertrophic greguer£as seems to us—as i t appears to Cardona--inaccurate.^® The proper approach would be the one taken by Rafael Calleja who says that "a Ramon se le puede estudiar como ensayista, como nove­ lists, como poeta, como eonferenoiante, como prologuista, como biografo, como resucitador del tiempo viejo. Pero todas estas y las demas aotivi- dades suyas se condensan en greguer£as, not because of lack of artis­ tic purpose but precisely because his artistic intention is to convert everything into imagery, an ultimate result of his desire to "greguerl- zarlo todo," infiltrating every genre with his "Ramonismo," his own brand of humor and metaphor. We may assert, then, that Gomez de la Serna's books, in the words of Guillermo de Torre, "no son greguerfas propiamente dichas peros Jl ostan dominadas por el esp fritu gregueriesco l a mayor parte de la s obras." 20

18I b ld .. p. 1^5- ^•^Revista de Ocoidente. XVI (1927), p« 3SL» PO / ' * M* "Gomez de la Serna: Medio siglo de‘ literature," Clavileno. no. 31 (enero-febrero, 1955)» P» PART I

10 CHAPTER I

HISTORY OF THE WORD

Etymology Manor people will be surprised to learn that the etymology of the word greguarjfa is related to the well-known term gringo* Equally sur­ prising is the fact that gringo is a variation of griego—Greek—which, according to Juan Corominas, used to mean "lenguaje incomprensihle. Corominas points out th a t the word gringo not only refers to the term given to the Americans from the United S tates by the Mexican people but also "en to da America se generalize? la aplioacion a la s personas que hablaban un lenguaje incomprensible. ... en la Argentina es frecuente aplicarlo a los italienos* •••" Corominas fa rth e r informs us th a t the word grjego. used in the sense of "lenguaje incomprensible," is first found in the Qui.iote and $ - that its variation—gringo—which came to designate the person who spoke this "lenguaje incomprensible" made its first appearance in writ­ ten literature in the Dlccionarlo Castellano (1775) Esteban de Terre- ros. Since then, the term gringo has been found to be used in this same

•^Dlccionarlo cr£ti co atimologjco de la lengua ca a te ll ana. H (Berna: Editorial Francke,195^-1957) * P* 782. zSsSA- 1 1 Copyright by Richard Lawson Jackson

1964 1 2 sense in the eighteenth and nineteenth century works of Estebanez Calderon, Breton de los Herreros, and Pardo Baz&n.

Initial appearance In literature and evolution In meaning There are numerous other derivations and variations of this word grlego in the Spanish language, but the one which most concerns us—greguerfa—la first Included and defined in the 1734 edition of the

Diocionario de Autorldades. carrying the meaning of "algarabfa , 1 which at that time was a reference to the incomprehensible Arabic tongue. Roberto V. Ocuna explains the evolution of the meaning of th is word In the following way: "Algarahfa signdLfica de modo propio 'lengua arabe,' mas eomo la conversacion de los arabes suena a voces Inlntellglble, a oonfusa grlterfa, viene la dtada palabra a ser sinonimo de bulla, de griter£a."3 Looking up "algarabfa" we find: "A confused cry uttered Instinctively without self-consciousness, by human feeling." Another dictionary states: "A gabbling as when many voices speak at the same time about a variety of subjects." It is in this sense that the word greguer^a makes its Initial appearance In a literary work, used by Leandro Mbratfn In the eighteenth century.14’ Thus, significantly synonymous in one way or another with the term areeuerfa we find the following words: algarabfa, griterfa, confusion, alboroto, vodngLerfa, redamo, clamor, protesta, exclamacion, vocifera-

^Semant^ca esoanola (Chile: Universidad de Chile, 19**9), p. 21. 4 Corominas, op. o it. . p. 784. 13 cion, broma, inquietud, sobresalto, disputa, pandemonium, jaeara, des- orden, etc. Hence, this word which originally meant "lengua arabiga” has come to mean for Spain basically a confused cry, something arresting and not easily intelligible, a hubbub. Translators who render the word greguerifa into other languages find it difficult to ohoose the most appropriate word. Valery Larbaud, who officially introduced the greguerfa to France in the first French .translation, settled on the word criatlerle not only for its meaning but also because i t has the same number of syllables as gregueriTa and thus resembles it somewhat. He justifies his choice by this definition: "Rumour confuse et soudaine: la gregueriTa des enfants qui sortent de l'ecole; la greguerjfa des perroquets dans une foret tropicals. ... Le

mot frangais 'rumour1 tel qua le definit Littre 'bruit quo s'eleve tout- a-coup.' "-5 It has been suggested that it might be rendered in English as outcries, shouts, or murmurs, renditions which lean heavily toward Gomez de la Serna's observation that the greguerfas are Nlo que gritan los seres confusamente desde su lnconsclencia, lo que gritan las cosas."^

Reasons fo r selection of the word "gregueria” In his own words Gomez de la Serna tells us something revealing

about his choice: greguerla: "A1 encontrar el genero me dJt cuenta de que habfa que buscar una palabra que no fuese refleodva ni demasiado

^Eohantillons. traduction de Mathilde Pomes et V. Larbaud (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1923)* p. xvi. ^"Prologo," Total de gregueriLas (Aguilar: Madrid, 1955). p. x x iii. 1 4 usada, para bautlzarle bien."? This word struck his imagination not only because of its meaning—or lack of it—but also because of its onomatopoeia, thus stating at the outset its verbal nature: "Me quede con la palabra por lo eufonico y por los seoretos que tiene en su sexo.” He observes that "en los anteriores dlccionarios signiflcaba el grite- rfo de los eerditos cuandovan detras de su mama. To cambie su sentido, que la oonvertdf en lo que no era."® Explaining the actual moment of conception of the word he says that while looking out the window, "me salio del biombo cerebral 'esa' palabra que no sab£a bien lo que signiflcaba y fu£ al dlcdonario para ver lo que era."^ It is at this point that he discovers how appropriate th is word is , in sound and sense, fo r h is lite ra ry genre. In brief, then, the process of creation of the greeuer£a can be summarized thus: (1) He began cultivating this nameless genre; (2) he settled on a name for it—without knowing exactly what i t meant, but

having an intuitive insight as to its appropriateness--; 3 () he looked up the word in the dictionary and discovered that it represented ac­ curately what he had been cultivating. From this genesis we can infer th a t the eregueriCa can be many things, almost anything, because as Gromez de la Serna says, for the first time "el tfbulo no prejuzga el genero."^®

^Jbid., p. xxii. ®Ibld.,

^Ibid. . p. xxiv. 10Ib jd . , 15

Offr<*a^aoo»Ptwoq of word as The history of the -word greguer£a. then, represents what we might call a success story of a scarcely used term doomed to oblivion but finding new life with the baptism of a new literary genre. This story is highlighted by the proposed Inclusion of the word In the next edition of the dictionary of the Spanish Academy, as it is defined and cultivated by Gomes de la Serna, the official recognition coming ap­ proximately fifty years after its conception. In the September issue of Insula, in an article entitled "La greguerfa y la Academiawe read: "El seoretarlo de la R. A. E., don Julio CaSares, ha anunciado en la Prensa que la ereguerdCa en su acepdon de genero literario ere ado por Ramon Gomes de la Serna entrara en la nueva edlclan del Dicdonarlo de la Academia.This report includes also its officially sanctioned d efin itio n which w ill be: "Agudesa, imagen en prosa que presents una vision personal y sorprendente de algun aspecto de la realidad y que ha sido lansado y as£ dominado oaprichosamente hada 1912 por el esori- to r Ramon Gomes de la Serna. 1,12

•^In s u la . no. 166 (S ept., I960)

1 J3& d. CHAPTER I I

TOWARD A DEFINITIVE EXPLANATION

European setting Hany critics have tried to place the greguer£a in its proper historical and literary setting. We believe that a cross section of these attempts in the form of a survey of opinions and judgments con­ cerning the greguerfa will provide a stimulating introduction to this recently developed literary genre. To this end we propose to present some of the widely divergent and often overlapping general interpreta­ tions of this gregueristic vision of reality of Gomez de la Serna. It will be noticed that the majority of the critics associate it in one way or another with a tendency to evade, elude, disintegrate, trans­ form, eto., reality. We will approach these tendencies by considering the greguerfa as part of the European general "caravan"--using Samuel Putnam's term?’--and its Spanish manifestation in particular. As early as 1931 Gomez de la Serna and the greguerfa had found a place in the minds of anthologists such as Samuel Putnam who were seeking to make the English reader acquainted with the new world of young European writers who reflected the post-World War I spirit in

•^European Caravan, ed. Samuel Putnam (New fork: Brewer, Warren and Putnam, 1931)* 17 literature.. These writers were trying to grapple with the new reality of a world in which an "utter disorientation would appear to be the keynote."^ The new perspective required an equally novel language with which to convey i t . This modern attitu d e i s always a complex one and often—at least in appearance—an incoherent one. As reflected in the greguerfa, it shares the tendency to render that which might be called the collective soul of the epoch. The latter had been shaped by new sociological and scientific trends. Freud had brought the unconscious and the nonrational to focus in his psychological studies. The new mathematics and the new philosophy of time and space of Einstein and Bergson had exerted an incalculable influence over the young literateurs; even the atom and the molecule had been subjects of literary importance. Gomez de la Serna himself, aside from having written a book concerning the atom and its possibilities (El duelto del atomo), has a very personal view of the "atomic" structure of reality which we will take up in more 3 detail later.

Greguerfa as cult of the instant The artist who is distinctively of today lives and creates in the moment, which for this reason becomes eternity. This instant is the soul of reality, the new absolute, and art often becomes a cult of what the Italians term "instantaneita." Writers endeavor to give us the im­ pression of the moment, and it is this aim that accounts for their works' prevailing fragmentary nature. M. Hope Parker ascribes this tendency

^Ibid.. p. 4-.

^See p. 35 • 18 of the literary generation that survived the war and peace of 1918 a to its disillusionment t Society was disintegrating round about it, the pleasant fic­ tion of automatic progress had died on the battle field, in the peace conference, and in the workLess s tre e ts , and i t s other beliefs were not deeply rooted enough to stand the strain. It was left with life as a series of fragmentary im­ pressions and it is this sense of disintegration, of disillu­ sionment, of the entire lack of order and significance in human experience, which the work of the early modern poets attempted to express. On their style he points out the use of "broken and conversational rhythms and word order, its broken, elliptical colloquial style, its erratic line lengths, all express this impression of life as something fragmentary and meaningless, at once painful and ridiculous, but above all, odd. Its imagery also is an attempt to convey this. The frag­ ment, then, has seemed to be the expression of the instant, and Putnam says that an apotheosis of this tendency is possibly to be seen in Joyce's Work in Progress, and that in France Cocteau,whose predilec­ tion for the fragment is to be seen in his itemised (nose, ears, eyes, hands, etc.) photographs of himself, reveals the same predilection. Strangely, Putnam fails to point specifically to the greguerifa of Gomes de la Serna whose entire style is built around its fragmentary and brief nature, a good manifestation of this prevailing characteristic of the post-war decade.

^Language and R eality: A Course in Contemporary Criticism (London: Frederick Holler LTD., 19*f9)» p* 7* 19 Greeuerfa as new vision of reality Arriving at the core of the natter, in our estimation, Putnam uses Proust as the example of a writer who brought in a new vision of reality, thus satisfying the desire of the young European of that day. The very notion of reality undergoes a change and a new classi­ fication is needed. Into the established order of human beings creeps a so rt of renovated animism and a new black magic of things, of objects. Putnam makes reference to this when he says that what we have is not merely a new vision but an attempt at the creation of a novel and magic universe. And so it is, a spirit of grotesque play animates the young literature, a form of play which, with certain writers, is not untinged with irony, the faint and gentle irony of an adult looking back on his childhood dreams, in search of the curious, the strange. In this sense Gomez de la Serna stands in the forefront of his European contemporar­ ies with his renewed interest in the world of things. Putnam believes that out of this background has emerged the doctrines of Dadaism and Surrealism with "I1 esprit, oontre la raison.0 Thus, by way of sum­ mary, so far we have beheld Proust pointing the way to a new manner of viewing the world. In addition, we have witnessed the breakdown of re a lity , a ll inextricably linked up with the greguerJLa. Cremieux sees in the breakdown of re a lity the falseness of the old order: nSi on veut reduire a un denomLnateur commun, le s tendances s i diverses, le s evades, * * .■<, on peut dire, que tous prodament la faillite du monde exterieur. "u

inquietude et reconstruction, essai sur la litterature d»apres guerre (Paris: Editions R. A. Corr$a, 1931), P* «}. 20 Greguerfa as a game Another approach to the reality of the times is the aesthetic one represented by Paul Valery, in which art becomes a game, a game played by the intelligence, vith rules by which the players abide. Un­ like the other, it is a world controlled, in which the inteGLleot is pitted against the chaos of the visible world. This view of art as a game leads, with certain writers, to pure "fuoisterie.” To Valery's attitude we can compare the doctrine of "dehumanization of art" of Ortega y Gasset. According to Ortega's view there is something like a complete divorce between a r t on the one hand and l i f e and humanity on the other, an a ttitu d e which would represent in re a lity a disgust with l i f e and humanity, or rather, a satiety with and abhorrence of art itself. Out of these approaches, diverse in nature but uniform in pur­ pose, emerges the transcendent desire fo r a reconstruction of the uni­ verse with a new perfection to be strived for and a new absolute to be obtained, if only in the reality of the moment. Gomez de la Serna hopes that the greguer£a can point the way to the achievement of this end. There Is a continuation of the constant struggle with language, so much a concern with forward looking writers down through the course of time. At the root of the young writings there is a disgust with the cliche, with the worn out uses of words, a lack of confidence in present forms of expression, and a tendency was started toward a personal language and approach which led to hermeticism in art, so capably de­ fined and summarized in 19^3 by Ghfmsz de la Serna in his essay Las oalabras v lo indecible. a theoretical treatise which best describes his later style, but a style which had been developed and practiced in the greguerfr since 1910. The Dadaists started out with the determina­ tion to produce "strong works," works forever incomprehensible and in th is they were following in the footsteps of w riters lik e Mallarme and Verlaine—who in turn had admired Poe. Mallarme had defined a poem as a "mystery of which the reader is to seek the key." Their dissatisfac­ tion with the language—poetic and otherwise—leads to a "Revolution of the word," deriving its impulse partly from Joyce, partly from Surrealism, whose poets consider language as an ultra-realistic vision of an hallu­ cinatory world. There is as a result a breaking up of idiom, a tearing up of words from their looserooted and tottering meanings. The thing is not new, says Putnam. Rimbaud, with his theory of Palingenesis, as ap­ plied to the word and to poetry, had announced th is . Also, the French Decadents may be said to have broken down, though not in a systematic manner, the oonflnes of grammar and of punctuation. There is Cocteau's Le Potomac, with its declaration that literature is but the "dictionary of disorder." Immediately after the war, Marinetti published his Les mots en libarta futuristes. Apollinaire, in his Cai 1 -iprrajiynas reveals the influence coming from Cubism, adapting the graphic effect of words to poetry. The fact is, a justification for the "Revolution of the word" might be found as far back as Horace's Arts Poetica and Cicero's De Oratore. But the young writer feels that this process must be accelerated.

Spanish setting Jean Cassou pointedly places Gomes de la Serna in the European caravan by referring to him as "an inexhaustible fantaisiste, an in- THE GREGUERIA OF RAMON GOMEZ DE LA SERNA: A STUDY OF THE GENESIS, COMPOSITION, AND SIGNIFICANCE OF A NEW LITERARY GENRE

DISSERTATION Presented In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doetor of Philosophy in the Graduate Sohool of The Ohio State University

3 7 Richard Lawson Jackson, B. A ., M. A.

******

The Ohio State University 1963

Approved by

TiDc L 1 Adviser Department of Romance Languages carnation of the lyricism of modern life, a dazzlement In the presence of the fairy aspect of the world in which we live, . . . the creator of a new iqythology. And in reference to Gomez de la Serna and Spain In particular he says that "one could no more appropriately bring to a close this picture of the literary Spain of today than with the counte­ nance of Ramon* I t is he idiom I should like to take as a symbol of this Q young Spain, . . •" a young Spain which between the years of 1918 and 1930 saw the birth of the Advance Guard under the name of the Ultraism movement. Gomez de la Serna, because of his love for metaphor and im­ agery, had a great deal in common with the artistic ideals of the Dltra- ists whose basic principles advocated the synthesis of poetry into meta­ phor and imagery: a reduction of the lyric to these principal elements, in order to produce a new vision of some aspect of reality. E. Gimenez Caballero, one of the founders of this movement has this to say about it "Ultraism recognized as precursors various outstanding figures. First of all there was Gomez de la Serna, true and indefatigable, sire of all Spanish 'u ltr a s 1 whose genial and productive labors are bgyond oompar- ison with those of any other in the same field."7 Cassou concludes that Gomez de la Serna represents the modern spirit of play in literature, a play often and closely approaching the previously mentioned "fundstarie.n He adds that he may be taken as a

?0p. cit.. p. 300.

S2>id- ^Ibid. . p. 303. cultivator* of the momentary: "fantaisiste, fetichist, mystidst*

Greguerfa and the "disparate" In literature Luis A. S&iohez gives Gomez de la Serna and the "preoarlo ejem- plo de b u s greguerfas"-^ a place in the new literature linking the "fu- misterie" aspect of the greguerfa with the "disparate" in literature about whioh he makes the following statement: EL disparate empleza a llenar una funeion trasoendental en la literature como en la vlda. El disparate liberta y se liberta *•• Freud al estudiar "el chiste y lo inconsciente" y la inter- pretacion de los suenos da baLlgeranda dentjffica al disparate* EL disparate cumple una znislon social. 1 2 About the "atomizadon" of the literature he says: La atomisadon indivldualista alcanza un grado de paroxlsmo exhaustivo* La novela se angustia por llegar al atomo. ••• La intraseendenda del a rte nuevo *. • es un re fle jo de la beligeraneia de lo subeonsoiente que pa race disparatismo sin al canoes, siendo en verdad intento de hallar una nueva di­ mension de la re alidad. 3

Greeuerfa and its "drounstanda" Gomez de la Serna believes that in the greguerfa he has managed to "recoger algo del caos de nuestra epoca." Cardona believes that th is■ statement is related to the integrity of the poetic experience: "The poet Is the translator of his own truth, the truth of his vision, the

P* 327. •^•Parprama da la literatura actual (Santiago de Chile: Biblio- teca America, 193^)» P» 65*

1 J34 d ., p. 9. 13Ihld.. p. 173. 2k truth of his times. Thus In order to maintain himself faithful to the experience that his epoch has offered him, Gomez de la Serna has chosen 14 the chaotic style,n a style which reflects the course of events of his time, a reaction to tendencies and events of life expressed in the gregueria. The greguer£a reflects, then, the man and his circumstance. Pedro Salinas has seen in the greguerfa the need that is manifested by the modem spirit and modern art for joining together antithetical human activities of jest and profundity, of capers and grief. He thinks that for Gomez de la Serna "el trabajo literario es una espeeie de an- tioreacion;/ todo debe desajustarse, deshacerse, desamontonarse. ..." 15

Greguerfa and "diversion" In commenting on the belief of Gomez de la Serna that man lives on the margin of creation he says that "Al encontrarse Ramon con esta verdad de su espfritu, la no importancia del hombre, su situacion margi­ nal en el universo, la aotitud que toma es una actitud de desesperacion alegre, de lento y jocundo suicidio."1^ "IHay que divertirsel"^7 is the response of Gomez de la Serna to this realization, which forces him to seek a way out or a way around "la terrible realidad aniquiladora." The word "diversion" for him, says Salinas, w ill be tan solo una terrible forma evaslva del dolor y desprovlsta de toda frtvolidad y espuma de superflcie revelara en su

Cardona, op. c i t . . p. l64«. ^Literatura espanola del siglo XX (Mexico} Antigua Librerfa Robredo, 19^9), p* 1^2. l 6Ib id .

17Ib id. fondo el mas dramatioo oonflicto humane: la lucha del hombre solo e inerte por no estar al margen, por entrar su vidg, por oobrar vida, on sumat por ser.^8 Therefore, according to Salinas, the encounter of Gomez de la Serna with reality is resolved in the word "diversion." The greguerdfa, then, which is the "expresion mas pura del afan de diversion salvadora del arte de Ramon viene a ser ... una nueva forma de poetizacion de la re alidad de lo que nos rodea."^ The greguer£a in this sense, more than a new out­ look, becomes a poetic rendition of surrounding reality which includes man and things because, for Gomez de la Serna, everything becomes a sig­ nificant object of poetry.

GregaerdCa as reflectio n of a disintegrating realty

The reaction of Gomez de la Serna to surrounding reality as expressed in the greguerdfa i s one of the many v arie ties of s ty lis tic approaches used by writers of his time, intent on reflecting the dis­ integration of their universe. Amado Alonso, introducing Pablo Neruda —one of the poets of modern chaos—has the following to say about these times: "Nuestra epoca en sus mas altos c£rculos de culture, tiene un ahinco de desintegracion."^ As for philosophy, he continues: ese saber de la totalidad quiere hacerse cieneia ... quiere dejar de ser una concepeion entranable de la vida y del mundo desarrollado en pensamiento, para tratar su repertorio de asuntos eomo temas acadomicos, paroel&dolos y colocandolos alslados bajo la lente de sus inquisioiones y reduciendo asif la filosoffa a un daporte del intelecto.^-

180 p . c l t . . p. 163. 19i a d . ^Poosja y e s t i l o de Pablo; Neruda (Buenos Aires: E ditorial Sudamericana, 1951)» p» 21. ~~ This tendency, says Amado Alonso, represents on the one hand "desin- tegraoion del filosofo" and on the other "desintegradon de lo flloso- fado."22 Impressionistic painting, he continues, "al reproducir masas y colores, solo las sensaciones cromaticas del mundo, las que vienen de la superficie de las cosas, desentendiendose de las cosas mismas y evitando que su representacion nos provoque sensaciones tactiles de ob- jetos reales, desintegra."2-^ In addition, "desintegra cuando tan su- gestiva y artdisticamente reduce la representacion de un rostro a tres 2II rasgos impresionantemante expresivos•" This schematic representation leads to the Cubists "que nos da el esquema geometrico de las cosas 25 escamoteando las cosas mismas," and in so doing "desintegra." Ex­ pressionism, also, "con su membra, disjecta ... desintegra," as does el nuevo realismo o postexpresionismo al enfatlzar las sensa­ ciones tactiles especiales, de modo que no se contents con re- presentar el espado en profundidad, sino que ya lo prcyecta hacia fuera, y hay oabezas que se asoman entre los listones del marco oomo por una van tana, y hay miembros agrandados obe- samente, ojos donde se acumula todo el esp£ritu, enormes manos cuadradas y duras como bloques de piedra.*® This disintegrating technique applies not only to philosophy and painting but also to lite ra tu re . I t is present in James Joyce "cuando yuxtapone los ndLmios sucesos intemos de un dfa pero con la terrible indiferencia de una maqulna registradora, evitando una seleccion e hilvanamiento valo- rativos o por lo menos logicos, desintegra."2^ It appears also in

Marcel Proust, "deteniendo su ojo analizador sobre los mas fugitivos

^ I b id . 23Ib id . 2^Ibid.

26I ^ I b l d .. p. 22. 27 momentos de la vida psfquica, achioando el campo visual para escrutar 28 mejor, desintegra ..." In the poetry of Pablo Neruda disintegration is also apparent: "En sus poemas hay manos y pies cortados, trenzas, s pelos, maquinas y partes de maquinas, utensilios sueltos, tantas y tan- ta s cosas arranoadas de su s itio y navegando a tumbos por este tumul- tuoso rio de verso*"29 Amado Alonso explains th is approach of Neruda as nun desintegrar por despedazandento y violenda que se hace a la realidad. With his cultivation of the greguerfa, Gomez de la Serna "para quien el mundo es un inacabable bauL de cosas heterogeneas de las que, una a una, va extrayendo su ingeniosidad como a un devorador de cara- 31 coles •*. desintegra.” The greguerfa, then, viewed by Amado Alonso,, takes its place alongside other techniques as one more of the artistic expressions of our time, and in this sense it becomes the result of an awareness of the perpetual desintegration of all things. As witnessed in the survey of v arieties expounded by Amado Alonso th is tendency- reflected in the greguerfa—is "un rasgo fisionomioo de nuestra epoca.

Greguerfa and the new literary genres When artistic sensibilities react in new and different ways in an effort to express themselves as accurately and authentically as pos­ sible, new and original styles came into being. From time to time, as

2fW - 29Ib id .. p. 23. 3°Xbid. 31Ibid. . p. 22.

32Ib £ d ., p. 23* 28

In the ease of the greguerfa, we witness the birth of a new literary genre, a new manner of expression to coincide with a new outlook on reality and a corresponding name to describe it* Pedro Salinas has briefly commented on this tendency and has summarized in the following way this practice which dates back to the nineteenth century: "Varlos son los esoritores modemos desde ’el siglo XIX que se inventaron un nombre para apLicarlo a un cierto tipo de sus obr&s con intencion, a veces definitorla, a veces humorfstica." He begins with Ramon de Campoamor who "sports sus Doloras. Humoradas y Peouenos poemas. expli- cados en su Poetics como justas callficaciones para los que el consi­ ders nuevos generos menores.n3^" With the same Intention Gustavo Adolfo

Becquer: nal llamar a sus breves compos!clones W m b deseaba apartarse de la signiflcacion general de esta palabra, conflrlendola una acepcion propla para que desde entonces corriera con su cuno personal amparando a todas sus poss^as."33 And later on Clariji "bautiza a aqueiDos artfcu- los suyos de erotica, afllados, y que pencrfan como espadas de Damocles de su epoca todas las semanas sobre las atemorlzadas cabezas de los es- critores, con el nombre de Palicues. w3^ Among the cultivators of new literary genres in this century is Eugenio D'Ors "el bautista y oultivador incansable de la Glosa. genero epigramatico tan d\£ctil que lo mismo se ha acomodado a lo Catalan auto­ nomists que a lo oastallano oentralizador a las repviblicas que a las dictaduras. 1,37 The slightly less known Jose Moreno Villa "inicia en un

330p. d t .. p. 88. 33Ibld. 36Jbid. 37Ibld. 29 cierto instante de su poesjLa las Carambaa," and of course Valle Inclan OQ "... en este camino ... se alza el Esperpento."J As for Gomez de la Serna and his inventions, Salinas says that da primeramente con el Disparate y por ultimo se saca de la cabeza el gran invento de las Greguerfas. que por lo menudas, lo abundant es, lo moviles y lo aguzadas se presentan como la tropa mas reputada de insectos volantes literarios de avispe- rfa, o de mosquiter£a poetica de nueetras letras.™

Greguerdia and tendencies toward a neoconceptlsm The new look represented by some of these twentieth century s ty lis tic tendencies in Spain has been interpreted by Angel del Rfo as a turn toward a special kind of lyricism, not only in poetry, but also in prose, and especially in the essay, a tendency which finds in the greguer£a a most effective representative. He states that the most characteristic thing about this new generation "sera el intento de su- perar los elementos romanticos del 98 y del modernismo mediants la diso- ciacion de lo intelectual y lo emocional, del pensamiento y la sensibi- lidad unidos en el momento anterior por el individual!smo de los escri- s h r\ tores mas representatives." As a result of these efforts the subse­ quent style 11 se hara por un lado mas conceptual—Ortega y Gasset y Perez de Ayala son los jatelectuales puros; por otra mas sensitivo y mas pre- ocupado de los valores esteticos. He advises that the best way to

38Ib id . 3% &d. noncepto contamporaneo de Esoana; Antologjfa de ensavos. ed. Angel del Rfo y M. Benardete (Buenos Aires: E d ito rial Losada, S. A., 1958), p. 33. 30 understand the differences between the Generation of *98 and the subse­ quent one is confrontar las dos figuras inspiradoras de cada momento: Unamu­ no y Ortega y Gasset. ... Frente al predominio del "yo indivi­ dual11 que invade y matiza to do el pensaxniento de Unamuno y sus contemporaneos llenandolo de ecos emocionales, el nyo y micir- cunstanda* de Ortega, la vision objetiva ... del mundo que nos rodea.

In a more precise elaboration of these essential differences del ft£o writes that nFrente a la identificacion de la realidad presente o histories con la propia personalidad, la percepdon de esa realidad externa es una serie de perspectivas que, segrin Ortega sera el mecanismo necesario de todo conocimiento.Landscape itself is viewed different­ ly , becoming "no sspejo donde se re fie ja un estado de alma sino objeto extemo cuya contemplacion produce un goce estetico . And i t is from this significant change that nel paisaje lfrico sea substituido en la literatura per un paisajejiastico. Extending this parallel to other writers and aspects in order to show similar conclusions pertaining to th is important change in attitu d e and a r tis tic creation toward the reality of the world around us, he brings to a close this parallel by going from the novel of Baroja, "dinamica y pesimista,n to the novel of Perez de Ayala, "estatica, ironica, intelectual." And finally nel dolorldo sentir de Azor£n se convierte en la fruicion estetica de Miro."^

^Tbid.. p. 3h. ^Ibid. ^ I b ld . 45rbid.

^Ibid.. p. 3 5 . ^ I b id . 31 In short, the transformation represents in essence "toda sensacion pura tamizada por sutiles esencias inteleotuales."48 Because of these changes in the characteristics of the spirit, ideas, and attitudes of the writers of this period, it is to be expected that the styles too have undergone adjustments in order to reflect these new states of being. As a result, literature becomes more con­ ceptual and plastic: "la metafora pura sustituye a la met&fora emocional, y un rltmo de corte elegante y logico al vago rltmo musical lirlco o al tono profetico. Arriving at the essential core of his discussion he observes that the essay "tiende hacla la brevedad y la precision en un proceso que podrdta llamarse de atomizacion semejante al de la poesfa que del poema pasa a la breve impreaion lirica. It is precisely against this type of background development that new literary inventions with an emphasis on brevity make their appearance. Thus, at the end of this "proceso que va de lo general a lo concreto, de la elaboracion de un tema a la impresion rapid a "^.s the gregueria of Gomez de la Serna. With him, se cierra el ciclo Iniciado por la generacion del 93 y se en- tra en el perfodo de los "ismos" desintegradores que caracte- riza a la literatura llamada de la postguerra en todos los parses de Europa. En su vision del mundo, en su ideologia y estetica, se rompe, completamente el sentido de unidad y se llega a la maxima atomizacion.52 In the greguerdia, la literatura pasa a ser el arte de recoger impresiones, sensaciones, gestos, retazos de ideas, no de una manera directa o sensorial

^ b i d . 5°Ibid.. p. 36. 5lJbid. 52Ibid. . p.715. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I an deeply grateful to ny adviser, Professor Martha Morello Frosch for her helpful, scholarly guidance in the various stages of the preparation of the dissertation, for her invaluable direction in bringing i t to an acceptable form, and for her great assistance through­ out ay Ph.D. program* I am also indebted to Professor Elias Rivers for reading the manuscript at a primitive stage and for making many valuable suggestions; to Professor James Babcock for his perceptive criticism ; to Professor David Griffin for his careful reading of the dissertation; and to Pro­ fessor David Ecker for his enriching and stimulating participation as a member of my Examination Committee. Grateful acknowledgment i s also made to my good friend, Yolanda Gutierrez, for her generous giving of time to proofread the Spanish in the manuscript* Financial assistance was received from the Woodrow Wilson Fellow­ ship Foundation. I am sincerely grateful for this aid which freed me from all financial responsibilities, thereby allowing me more time to devote to research* Finally, i t i s with pleasure th a t I acknowledge an exceptional amount of gratitude to sy wife, Lillian, not only for typing the disser- i i 32 como en el impresionismo sino a traves de una espeeie de nuevo nominallano est& ico que se complace en e l juego de recrear el mundo exterior en forma arbitraria. Todo aparece asi desconeo- tado, fragmentario, sin prlnoipio ni fin, descompuesto en una serie interrumpida de momentos.53 In order to effect this attitude in the greguerfa the style of Gomez de la Serna "queda reducido a una agrupacion de metaforas de asocia- oiones insospechadas,"-^ a style based on "una exbraordinarla oapaoidad de observar lo fugitivo, momentaneo y disparatado de las cosas que vemos todos lo s crfas,"-*'* and which embodies an attitu d e of "intranscen- denoia y burla ante las cosas mas serlas,"^ leading to a type of humor which "dimana de una concepcion mucho mas se ria de lo que podamos pen- sar."**7 Thus, the gregueriTa becomes for del Rdn—in i t s broadest sense —nuno de los mas signifloativos refiejos de la anarqu£a espiritual y •* moral de nuestro tiempo ••• un reflejo de la crisis espiritual de la epoca contemporanea,"^ representing not only a new style but also, as Marichalar calls it, "un fruto del tiempo. *$9

Greguerfa and "lo trivial" In another vein, Marichalar believes that the greguerfa is un produeto natural del momento, de ese momento en que el es- pfrltu, desconfiando de las aflrmaeiones categoricas, se in­ cline hacia las posibilidades mas inauditas, tiempos de rela- tivismo, que serw en consecuencia tiempos de supersticion

33Ibid. % b i d . ^^Ibid.

*56 ~ Angel del Rfo, Historia de la literatura esnanola, II (New York: Dryden Press, 19^(6), p. 235* 57Ibid. ^Qlbid. ^"Ramon Gomes de la Serna: El Alba y otras cosas," Revista de Qccidente. XIII (1925), 123* 33 pues la c&rencia de fe concrete implica una distribucion de nuestra natural avidez de convlcciones en probabllldades eventuales y disperses. He bases his observation on the fact that no puede ignorar la c rftic a hasta que punto hoy e l arte esta prenado de supersticion ... ni la aotualidad que los temas en boga dan a creenoias tales como la interpretacion de los suenos, augurios,^pres agios, presentimientos, etc. 7 en tanto de esa revision se desprendan los trozos de verdad que se van arrancando a la patrana, bastenos acusar el sfntoma que caracteriza en parte, a la produccion en que hoy nos movemos.®^ He concludes that "hoy, como sienpre, lo unico que puede interesamos es aquello que consiga despertar nuestra ansiedad y conductrnos a un lugar ndsterloso—llenenos con un tono solemne, o bien lo haga de mane- ra frivola y jovial.The greguerdCa, he fe e ls, is tim ely in the latter sense since for Gomez de la Serna "lo importante es lo trivial. "^3

Greguerfa as return to things According to some critics such as G. Torrente Ballester, Gomez de la Serna's reaction to the reality of the world expressed in the greguer£a can be explained almost solely through his unique attitude toward and relationship with things. He supports his approach by af­ firming that Gomez de la Serna "culturalmente pertenece a ese movimiento de vuaLta a los objetos que caracterizo ciertas escuelas filosoficas despues* de Brentano." 6h

ranorama ae xa xiuerauura espanoxa com>eniporanea (Madrid: Ediciones Guadarrama, 19&.)» I , p« 276. Azorfn, well known for his tenderness toward "cosas pequenas," echoes this purpose of the greguerfa: "Bamon trafa al arte una nueva congruencia ... descubre nuevas reladones de las cosas,11 relationships which at first seem to be strange, arbitrary, absurd, but little by- little "vamos viendo la verdad profunda, fntima de la vision del crea- dor.And this vision of the world, as pointed out by Borges, is based on the "ansiosa descripcion de cada una de las cosas cuyo agrupamieftto es el mundo.This "literatura al detalle ... literatura al menudo"^7 to which the greguer£a is dedicated according to Salaverrfa "viene a ser, en uLtimo caso, ... reflexiones u ocurrencias de clown.” 68 He thus links the greguerfa to what he terms a clownish tendency in modern literature: "Es verdad que toda la literatura modema tiene eso mismo acento de down ... desde que se propone deshonrar y quebrar la perfec- cion y la arquitectura armonica que eran el proposito de las viejas literatures."^9 in order to accomplish this objective, he says that -he modern writer "deshace la construccion tradicional, rompe el ritmo antiguo de la retorica, amotina a las metaforas y concede a la pirueta el rango de honor."?® As a result, in modern literature

en la que todo lo sentimental esta suprimido como el peor adversaxio, el down recupera su exacto sentido de animal

^"Comentarios sob re Ramon," Obras comdetas de Ramon Gomez de la Serna, p. 11.

66Ibid.. p. 3 0 . 67Jose Marfa Salaverrfa, op. cit., p. 102. 68Ibid.. p. 125. 69Ibid. 7QIbid.. p. 126. 35 groteseo y alegre que practice, el sano y util oficio de despertar en el publico la santa hilaridad. La vuelta a la iugenuidad. La reintegracion al alma pura e inexperta del nimo y el salvaje. Este es uno de los esenciales pro- positos que constan en el programs oficial del nuevo arte.71 And the greguerifa, he asserts, is one of its principal, if not the principal, exponents.

Greguerfa and atomism A survey which brings together the variety of concepts and approaches which have been taken in previous efforts to understand the greguerfa would be incomplete without including some timely comments of Gomez de la Serna himself, which at times expound insights similar to those that critics have mentioned after objective study of the gre- guerfa. Gomez de la Serna considers the greguerfas as nlas insinua- ciones de nuestro tiempo, sus pequenos asombros, sus sospechas, sus cos- quillas, su estado molecular, sus maticesj"72 since ntodo resuitaba en borrador de borradores"^3 he must call attention to the "vivir in tenso , 74 de los atomos que nos forman y componen en d e fin itiv e ." To his way of thinking life, then, is made up of these atondc minutiae whose instanta- neous expression results in a surprising revelation of an aspect of reality. It is the expressed desire of Gomez de la Serna to: "abrir nuevas cajas de s o r p r e s a s ,sharing thus a tendency of the literature

71 Ibid.

720bras comoletas I (Barcelona: Editorial A. H. R., 1956), 10. ^Automoribundla (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamerlcana, 1948), p. 250 . ?4Ibid. 7%4d., p. 382. of his time, as stated by Juan £. Cirlot in his study on Surrealism: "La sorpresa es el mayor resorte nuevo. "7^ Gomez de la Serna feels that because life is fleeting and full of surprises, in order to ex­ press its true aspects in literature "hay que dar la breve perlodici- dad de la vida, su instantaneidad, su simple autenticidad, y esa for­ mula e spiritual que tranquiliza, que a tempera, que cumple una necesidad r respiratoria y gozosa del espfritu, es la greguerfa"^ which is for him "la flor de todo lo que queda, lo que vivet lo qua resiste mas al des- creimiento;in short, the key to the expression of "lo inesperado."79 And it is with these firm convictions in mind that he turns to "la trivialidad, lo atomico, lo instantaneo, la descomposidon, lo fragmen- tario, lo sutil, la disolucion, el desorden, la descomposi&on;" in 80 short, what he calls "el barroquismo sincero," which fulfills "el mayor deseo que hay en la vida . . . y en lo profundo de la composicion literarla: el deseo de disolver.Elaborating on the "labor del ob- servador de lo £nfimo y de lo instantaneo"®^ he says that "la litera­ ture se vuelve atoinica por la misma razon por la que to da la curio sidad de la vida oient^fioa palpita alrededor del atomo, abandonadas mas araplias abstracciones, buscando el secreto de la creacion en al misterio

76 Introduccion al Surrealismo (Madrid: Revista de Occidents, 1953), p. 88. 77npraLogo," Total de greguerifas. p. xxL. ^®Ibid. ^^Ibid.. p. xxv. 80Ib id . . p. x l i i i . “ W ®^Ebid. . p. xlv. del atomo."^ In literature, then, as in science, "las cosas pequenas tienen valor de cosas grandes y merecen la fijeza del escritor, que no * m puede rechazar lo atomico para dedicarse a lo supuesto o a lo abstracto." To summarize and to bring to a close his theoretical justifies- p tion of the greguer£a, he categorically states that "reaccionar contra lo fragmentario es absurdo, porque la constitucion dal mundo es fragmen- taria, su fondo es atomica, su verdad es disolvencia. As a sug­ gestive afterthought, he adds that life itself is made up of these "futesas" and that "si desapareciese lo trivial, desaparecerifa todo, como Q/ si desapareciesen los atomos, desaparecerfa el mundo." To prevent this he cultivates the greguerifa. With these introductory observations in mind we can consider the greguerfa as a mode of expression which is, in a variety of ways, a true product of several tendencies and developments of the times.

83lbid. ^bid.

^Ibid. ^Ibid., p. lxix. CHAPTER H I

ANTECEDENTS

Greguerfa written by previous authors Gomez de la Serna, a , literary innovator driven by an "impulso miaionarlon^ has written at one time: "Soy el primer ereaoionista natural"2 and for that reason "ignorrf anteoedentes."3 Echoing the same thought, P£rez Mlnlk writes about G&iez de la Serna: "Busoarle anteoedentes es una tarea muy diffcil porque en todo momento furf el oreador valioso de s i raismo. This statement, as well as the former one by Gomez de la Serna, are both justifiable praise of his original­ ity. Without detracting from it we can discover nevertheless, as Gomez de la Serna himself has done, antecedents to the greguerfa, es­ pecially in the form of greguerlstio language in the works of writers from earlier times down to the present day. Following the same trend described in his name choice—first he creates the genre, then the name —Gomez de la Serna sets out to find the literary ancestry of his "newly born" genre. Thus, in the .prologue to his Total de grettuerifas he in­ cludes some selected ones by authors from the past. We find a

•^Automorlbundia (Buenos Aires: E ditorial Sudamerlcano, 19**8), p. 255. 2Ib ld . 3ibid. ^Noyelistas esnanoles de los sielos XU y XX (Madrid: Guadarrama, S. L ., 195?T, p. 205. 39 greguerfa by Lucian: ”Cuando graniza en la tierra, es que tiemblan las ▼ides de la luna. By Euripides: NLa miel es el trabajo ptfblioo de las abejas"; or Horaoe when he calls "saleros a los ojos"; or Charles- magne when he asks: "iCuaL es el sueno de los que estan despiertos? y "se oontesta: 'la esperanza.1n Shakespeare also makes greguerfas when he Introduces ”al ave del alba" and when he says: "Los ojos son locos del oorazon*n Pascal adds that "los rfos son casinos que andan"; and Quevedo when he says that "los ojos pequenos tienen ninas, y los grandes, mozas"; and Gongora: "Erizo es el zurron de la oastana." Victor Hugo defines "el munnullo oomo el humo de la conversacion,* and adds: "El claro de luna( esa luz de luto." And Hebbel: "El perfuiae es la muerte de las flores; Las pulgas son los xinicos anima3.es que no tienen pulgas; El hombre xlnieamente esta en eactasis cuando reza y ouando se a fe ita ." Among others written closer to our time we have the following by Jose Zorrilla: "E3. gallo, con su paso orgulloso * va seobrando es- trellas por el suelo.” By Paul Verlaine: "Dalia, oortesana de duro seno*" Gomez de la Serna has included in his collection many examples by writers "mas en lo modemo" but he is quick to defend his originality by refusing to consider any of them as immediate or direct precursors, with the possible exception of St* Pol-Roux, idiom he acknowledges as being "un poco precursor en todo." By this author we find the following greguerlstlo definitions: "Comadrona de la luz: el gallo; Cementerio con alas: vuelo de cuervos; Hojas de ensalada viva: las ranas;" and

-*A11 subsequent examples of greguerfas written by authors in the past are taken from pp. xxxvii-odiii of Total de greguerfas* Gomez de la Serna has collected many from Garefa Lores wttLeh we w ill not in­ clude, sinoe a considerable portion of Chapter VH will be devoted to the relation of the poetic language of these two writers. 40 finally, "Los arboles Gambian entre sf pajaros, como palabras.” Among these relatively modem examples are included some of Apollinaire: "Los recuerdos son oueraos de caza.cuyos sonidos uueren en el viento"; and: "Tu lengua, pez rojo en el bocal de tuvoz." Paul Valery defines the wind as "mil panuelltos verdes." Bernard Shaw writes that "En el delo un angel no debe tener nada de extraordinario." Finally Cocteau .has written that "el diamante es un hijo enrlquecido del carbon." In short, practically all of the selected examples am definitions embodying meta- A phor.

Refutation of suggested French influence • • Gomes de la Serna not only denies emphatically any influence upon the greguerfa from modem writers, but he rejects categorically the implication of a French influence in general and of Jules Renard and Max Jacob in particular. Nevertheless, the Spanish writer adds to his collection some greguerias of the former: "Cuando llueve se le pone la oarae de gallina al estanque; El caraool ha davado en su cabeza dos agujas de tejer." In dismissing the precursor claim of Renard he says that his reputation "fuera del ambiente minorlsta francos data soLo de hace algunos alios, y en su obra esos cuantos pensamientos sueltos que se repiten en todas las oitas no son mas que un episodio, como sucede con muchos escritores de los que se pueden sacar algunas 1 greguerizadones' eventuales."^ The metaphors of J. Renard, he adds, are generally "ob- servaciones aforfstlcas y rusticanas, en las que no se evita la

6Total de greguerias. p. xl. 41 altlaonanda....n? And In presenting more ooncrete evidence he says: Los que se ampararon de Jules Renard para atrinoherarse con­ tra la greguerfa y disimular su verdadera prooedenda, no saben que las oontadas y rusticanas imagenes de Renard, fuera de sus Histories naturales—el socorrido bestlario con demasia- dos animales en fila obligatorla—no apareoen sino m£a a lia de la posguerra, despues de publicar otras obras in^ditas de 41* Pudiendose decir que hasta la edicion de su Diario en 192?no se vulgarizan esos pensaxaientos cortos que estwien al corazon de ese libro; y mis greguerfas comienzan en 1 9 1 0 ; In short, Gomez de la Serna 'writes that J. Renard "solo hasta haoe may pocos anos no consigue infiltracion oas to ll ana y amerlcana. ... Concerning his relationship with Max Jacob he says: lo me sonrefa . . . cuando a voces me comparaban a M. Jacob y hasta orefan ver influenoia de el en ml. ... Muchos anos des­ pues de mis primeras greguerfas en Tauices. Picasso me dijo en su casa que habfa un escritor hermetico, oasi desconocido, solo lefdo por los inioiados, que se llamaba M. Jaoob y que quiza nos parecfamos algo en el decir. Algunos anos despues conocf al down de la luna, que fue Max Jaoob, y nos refamos de la noche juntos y diferentes porque el era un mejillon cerrado y yo un hipooampo desbocado.10

Greguerfa and " Gomez de la Serna accepts two antecedents and he qualifies his indebtedness very carefully by saying: nSi la greguerfa puede toner algo de algo es de haikai. pero es haikai en prosa, asf como es una kasida me nos amorosa que la kasida."^- Thus with the possible ancestry of the haikai. the greguerfa has a Spanish antecedent in the Arablo- Andalusian kasidas "provenientes de Al-Andalus. como se Hamaba a aquella

7 Ibid. ^Ibid. %bld. 10Ibid.. pp. xlii-xLiii. ■^Ibid. , p. xxxv. i l l tation under great pressure, but also for repeatedly reading the manu­ script, polishing the dlotlon, and for countless other acts of assistance and encouragement. 4-2 Andalucfa quo afino lo oriental."^2 This affinity of the greguerfa with two literary genres oriental In source explains his statement* "El

Orient© y e l Oooldente se abrazan en la greguerfa. n^3 There has been some oonfusion in terminology and content be­ tween the Japanese haikai and haiku that we must clarify before estab­ lishing the relationship of the haikai to the greguerfa. The haiku—as it is called today—is one of the shortest and definite poetic forms known.^ I t i s a poem, and not a dribble of p ro s e .^ Sometimes w ritten In more than one line, haiku is always treated as a one-line poem, having three parts of 5* 7, 5. syllables each. This brevity results from the conoept that each emotion is a single indivisible perfect whole, whose momentary essence can only be expressed by a few significant words.^ One might suggest that haiku is often a written picture, just as Indian ink drawings are picture poems.^ But more than a Japanese art, Ruth Blyth^*® says that the haiku is the final flower of all Eastern culture.

In her four-volume study of the haiku she has traoed its beginning—to pre-Buddistio Indian thought—and its development as one of those aspects of Oriental culture which express simple directness and instantaneous

•*~^Ibid.. p. xxxvii. ^^ibld.. p. xxxv. ^*Haikai and Haiku (Tokyo: Nippon Gakuijutso ShinkOkai, 1958), p. ix . 1%enneth Xasuda, The Japanese Haiku (Vermont and Tokyo: 1957)* p. xvi. •^^Haikal and Haiku, p. ix.

. X (Japan: Hokus.ldo) , p. iii. 43 perception rendering in poetry a speaking vibrant image. Haiku, ac­

cording to Kenneth Y a s u d a , ^ i s a vehicle fo r a clearly realized image just as it appears at the moment of aesthetic conception, with its in­ sight and meaning, a picture which speaks for itself, needing no meta­ phor or simile to make it clear. Haiku originally was a part of haikai, a form invented at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The first line of such poetical

compositions, consisting of 36, 5 0 , or 100 lin e s , was o rig in ally called hokku (opening verse) and later became Independent and developed to haiku. 20

In the sixteenth century haikai grew out of tendencies toward freedom of expression and subject matter, as well as emancipation from formal technical restrictions on a realistic attitude toward life. To this end it turned to jest and caricature, deliberately choosing humor­ ous themes and expressing them in a realistic manner. The satirical spirit of these haikai differs greatly from those of the following cen­ tury, because a too frivolous attitude restricted the possibility of pathos in them. BashB—in the seventeenth century—composed witty poems at first but later evolved and perfected the genre by replacing the satirical element of conventional haikai with tender humor and

Infinite pity for human frailty. Because he was deeply imbued with natural sensibility he perceived the essential beauty of a blade of

^Qp. pit. , p. xvi and p. 31. ^Haikai and Haiku, p. ix. 23-Ibid. , p. x. grass, the cry of a wild, goose, etc. He Immersed himself in nature and became one with it, and as a result, he had no less love for the hum­ blest things of nature than for humanity, believing that every form of existence—plants, stones, or utensils—has its individual feeling, sim­ ilar to those of men.^ This essential "return to things" ^3 present in the haiku, especially in Basho, parallels one of Gomez de la Serna1 s basic artistic intentions in the greguerfa. The brevity of the haiku and haikai forms, their luoid and fragmentary nature, is not unlike that of the greguerfa, both genres being concerned with the ordinary, even the minute. The name "haikai" is written with two Japanese characters, both gJi of which mean "sporting," or "pleasantry" and in this sense, probably, i t attracted Gomez de la Serna. It was during the lifetime of Shiki (1868-1912) that haikai was discarded—hokku were written and the term "haiku" was used only for such compositions.^ Thus, like the greguerfa, the term "haiku" came into being only in the twentieth oentury, though such poetic compositions have been cultivated for centuries. We may conclude then that the aesthetic pleasure and diversion combined in haiku whioh seizes and expresses the essential nature of things in this brief, simple form, is not very unlike the greguerfa, since both rely on the creation and expression of an image. But the image as such in the haikai and haiku does not rely on metaphor or simile. There are

^Ebld.. p. xvii. 23giyth, op. cit.. p. ii. gifHaikai and Haiku, p. xxiv. 25lbid. *5 greguerfas which are pure imagery, but most of them rely on metaphor. To demonstrate this essential difference, we think that the following haiku of Sokan would make a perfect greguerfa: If to the moon one puts a handle, what a splendid fan, because of the Immediately conceivable element of analogy, of meta­ phorical association. Henderson, an authority on the haiku, says of this particular example that "it is hardly a real haiku, or real poetry . . . even though it does suggest the perfect fullness of the moon, the pleasure of looking at it so that it seems attached to a tree branoh and the cool of a summer night after a hot day." He does not mention, however, the element of visual resemblance between the moon with a handle attached, and a fan. This, and an underlying element of humor relying on this similarity, places this haiku Into the realm of haikai, the kind Gomez de la Serna had In mind when he considered i t a suitable ante­ cedent of the greguerfa. Henderson praises the following haiku of BashH: On a withered branoh a crow has settled—autumn night fall. He says there are at least two points of technique which make i t a model. First, the overall mood or emotion is produced by a simple des­ cription, a plain statement of fact vhioh makes a picture. Secondly, the two parts that make up the whole are compared to each other not In simile or metaphor but as true phenomena, each of which exists in its own right. He significantly adds:

This may be called the "principle of eternal comparison,"

^H arold G. Henderson, An Introduction to Haiku (New Xork: Double­ day & Co., Inc.), p. 11. in which the differences are just as important as the like­ nesses. Here it is not simply that "over the withered land­ scape the autumn nightfall settles like a crow." It is also the contrast of the small black body of the crow with the vast amorphous darkness of the nightfall . . . .^7 In the first example we have a metaphorical analogy. In the second we find a mood, an emotion, a picture. It is this one essential difference, we believe, that causes Gomez de la Serna to write: N... aun siendo tan otro grfnero que la greguerfa, lo s plagiarios prefieren decir que son influfdos por los haikais, sin que les sirva eso mucho porque la metafora que copia es la metafora castellana desnuda y fuerte." He poetioally concludes: nEL haikai es solo rocfo de greguerfa, seda de una oruga que se nutrfa oomo de hojas de greguerfa,"^ thus implying that there are some threads connecting the two genres but not enough to warrant the influence of one on the other.

Greguerfa and the "kasida1* Since the greguerfas are basically metaphorical, the influence or ancestry of the kasida is more acceptable because, as Gomez de la Serna has indicated, the Andalusian ones being closer to home, contain, to a certain extent, "la metafora castellana, desnuda y fuerte."3® The similarity is more striking, in the light of some opinions to the con­ trary, which state that the kasida ha& no direct influence on Spanish poetry nor does i t have any direct decendants in the Spanish language.

^Ibid.. p. 18. Total de greguerfas. p. xxxvi. 29Ib ld . . p. xxxvi. 3<>rbid. I t is generally conceded that its influence might have been exerted in­ directly on the Provencal and from it back to Spanish.31 Nevertheless, some writers, Garcia Lorca, for example, have attempted the exotic kasida, and others—like Gomez de la Serna—have captured and practiced the use of the daring metaphor, not in the usual fulfillment of a love theme, as it happens in most kasidas, but for a different purpose: to surprise the reader with as many unsuspected analogies as can be dis­ covered in the world around us. Before the Arabs invaded Spain in 711 tjjey had cultivated poetry for centuries. The kasida was their most widely used poetic form and was distinguished by the fact that it always treated the same subject— love—although it could vary as to meter and length. Frederick de ^ Schaok in his three-volume study of Arabic poetry and a rt in Spain and Sioily says that this form whose parts, though diverse, make up a com­ plete poem, are "por lo comrfn descripciones, panegfrioos y narraclones 1 • •**. breves ..."3^ and ihat "el arabe gentil se llmita a la descripcion de

' 33 la realidad que le rodea y a la expresion, de sus sentlnd.entos,"'7*' an at- 4 titude which necessitates the contemplatiCn and observation of nature "bajo mil diversos puntos de vista. The poets must know how to give "novedad aun a los objetos"33 which are frequently described.

31Kessel Schwartz and Richard Chandler, New History of Spanish L iterature (Baton Rouge: L. S. U. Press, 19&L), p. 270. 3%>oesfa v arte de los arabes en Espana r Sicilia, traduccion del aleman por DonJuan Valera (Sevilla, 1881), I, l

33Ibid.. p. 1 5 . 3\ b i d . 35Ibld. 48 * i EL dederto, asf on la temorosa oscurldad de la noche, como durante el anoendido resplandor del medio, cuando lo s rayos del sol pintan en las leves y vagorosas exhalaciones de la tierra magioas iWgenes ofreee al poeta a oada momento diver- sos cuadros. El ha observado oada uno de los mementos de su fial oamello ••• y ha ofdo oada relincho de su valeroso corcel oomo la voz de a n d g o . 36 The poet tries to "prestar duraoion con graficas palabras a la instanta- nea y loadable fas de las cosas,"37 and this is done primarily through use of metaphor designed tq give a kind of re a lity th a t would express con­ cretely the abstract sentiments of the poet. Such a practice led to an extreme richness of comparisons. The tendency was to petrify the image and to treat the metaphor according to definite analogies based on the hierarchy found in nature: man is compared with animals, animals with flowers, flowers with precious stones, etc. M. Gaudefroy Damombynes writes th a t "les charmes de l'h ero in e absente rappellent la grace des gazelles et des antilopes ... enfln a falre 1'eLoge de sa monture, chamelle ou jument et la description du desert, de ses plantes, de ses animaux, de son d el. ..."3® This creates a lyricism which puts the poet in an "emouvante intim ite avec la nature."3^ Though some are quite long, the* fragmentary character of parts of the kasida, lik e‘the haikai, the haiku, and the greguerfa, makes it quite favorable to lyricism. The extreme to which the poets went in search of the daring metaphor is the subject of some concern by Ibn Qot&Iba (ninth century) who in his work La poesie et des noetes reflects this interest taken toward such description. His

36Ibld. . p. 16. 37Ib id . 3®Ibn Qotalba, Introduction au Livre de la poesie et des noetes. traduction e t oommentaire par M. Gaudefroy Demombynes (Paris: S o dete d'editions "Les Belles Lettres," 1942), p. xvi. 39Ib id . 49 translator M. Gaudefroy Demombynes points out that nle philologue arabe est pres de juger un poete suivant le talent quf 11 montre a assembler et a developper ses descriptions, and they are "tres attentifs a kl discuter 1* exactitude des descriptions et des couparaisons,"™’ going so far as to criticize the inaccuracies found in them. Averroes , it is noted, "commentant la poetique d'Aristote s'inquiete de 1'usage abusif que les Arabes ont fait de la oomparaison. II insists sur la necessite de ne comparer que des ohoses qu'il soit naturel de rapprocher, il faut eviter les oomparaisons lointaines."^ Nevertheless, this poetic taste for striking comparisons led to un enorme arsenal de cliohes, ou tout le monde s'arms, et de- vant la preference d'Xbn Qotafba pour l'improvisateur, qu'il ssable oonfondre avec le "poete spontane,” on se demands si 1'habile improviseteur n1est pas precisraent le poete sature de cliohes et prSt ainsi a adopter a toute ciroonstanoe une v ie ille f o rmule.^3 This "poete spontane" who cultivated the kasida in Spain as he had done in his country with his "afan de emplear metaforas y oamparaciones trafdas de muy lejos, antftesis extravagantes y expresiones hiperboli- oas"^ and whose lyric productions are generally noted for "el brlllo y atrevimiento de las imagenes ... que nacen de la emoeion del momento"^ is, then, a valid "antecedents espanolesco" of the greguerfa. Our review of possible Oriental antecedents of the greguerfa

^°Ibid»» p. xxxii. ^Tbid. ^^Ibid.. p. xxii. ^Ibld.. p. xl. ^Federick de Schack, op. clt. , p. 103. 45Ibid., p. 117. lad us into a research of other possible similar!tiea to Eastern writers. We discovered in the collected works of Rabindranaz Tagore^ under the title "Pajaros perdidos,n or Stray Birds, "la quinta esencia de su genio poetico," as Agustfn Caballero^ calls it, concentrated in a col­ lection of aphorisms written with the brevity of the haikai, the haiku, the kasida and the greguerfa. In fact manor of the "pfjaros perdidos" are gregueristio in tone, capturing some aspect of reality, and sharing the principle of the unexpected, surprising and humorous observation. For example: Toes are fingers that have forsaken their past. The infan t flower opens i t s bud and cries "Dear world, please do not fade." Trees, like the longing of the earth, stand a-tiptoe to peep at the heaven. Hills are like shouts of children who raise their arms trying to catch stars. These "stray birds" were written during Tagore's trip to the United States in 1916 and were published shortly th ereafter. I t i s possible that Gomez de la Serna met Tagore—who is famous in the Hispanic world --on one of his many trips to Europe, possibly in Italy where both went at the same time.

^Rabindranaz Tagore, Collected Poems and Plays (London: Macmillan & Co., 1936). ^Rabindranaz Tagore, Obras escoeidas. traduccion de Zenobia de Jimenez y Juan Ramon Jimenez (Madrid: Aguilar, 1955)» P* W . Prolog© de A. Caballero. 5L . Refutation of other suggested influences Some critics erroneously Insist that the greguerfas are off­ shoots of the doloras and humoradas of Campoamor or of the diansalmata of Kierkegaard. A brief look at the humoradas. the doloras or the jig diapaalrnata_ Cardona assures us, will immediately dispel any suspicion of their influence on the greguerfa. Campoamor* s humoradas are aphoristic and epigrammatic^ two char­ acteristics which the greguerfa avoids. The following cynical, satirical, and proverb-like commentaries on life and human behavior have nothing in common with Gomez de la Serna*s attempts to define the indefinable: En guerra y en amor es lo primero el dinero, el dinero, y el dinero. Se van dos a casar de gozo Uenos: realizar su ideal: lun sueno menost iTe casaste? Pues bien, ya has conquistado frfo hogar, mesa muda y lecho h el ado. Oyo la historla de Eva, y la inocente entro en ganas de ver una serpiente. The diaosalmata which appear in Soren Kierkegaard's Enten- Eller (Either-or. 18^3) are principally ethical and aesthetic ideas on life, suocintly expressed in the form of aphorisms. The humor found in them i s based mostly on irony and paradox; the themes are basically philosophical, having nothing to do with direct expression of reality— the main concern of the greguerfa—as the following examples reveal: There are, as one knows, in sects th a t die in the moment of

h8 Roldolfo Cardona, Ramont A study of Gomez de la Serna and His Works (New fork: Eliseo Torres, 1957), PP* 139-4Q* TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pago ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... 11 INTRODUCTION...... 1

PART I Chapter I . HISTORX OF THE WORD...... 11 Etymology Initial Appearance in Literature and Evolution In Meaning Reasons for Selection of the Word "Greguerfa" Official Acceptance of Word as New Literary Genre I I . TOWARD A DEFINITIVE EXPLANATION...... 16 European Setting Greguerfa as Cult of the Instant Greguerfa as Nev Vision of Reality Greguerfa as a Game Spanish Setting Greguerfa and 'Disparate” in Literature Greguerfa and Its "Circunstanda" Greguerfa and “Diversion" Greguerfa as Reflection of a. Disintegrating Reality Greguerfa and Tendencies toward a Neoconceptlsm Greguerfa and “Lo Trivial" Greguerfa as Return to Things Greguerfa and Atomism H I . ANTECEDENTS...... 38 Greguerfa Written by Previous Authors Refutation of Suggested French Influence Greguerfa and the “Haikai" Greguerfa and the "Kasida"

iv fertilization; the same way- i t is with all pleasure, the highest moments of enjoyment in life are followed by death. Life has beoome for me a bitter drink. Yet it has to be taken in drops, slowly, counting. No one returns from the dead, no one comes into the world without a cry; one is never asked when one wants to arrive or when one wants to depart. The best way to prove the misery of existence is to consider the joy. The irony of these thoughts is reminiscent of some of Gomez de la Serna1 s greguerfas which deal with philosophical subjects. The basic difference between the dlapsalrnata and the greguerfa is. fou^l in the enormous thematic variety of the latter, which led Perez Minik to write: "Formar un cat&Logo de e ll as J±aAge£J pudiera servir de tarea para un gran es- hq pecialiata. ■ Kierkegaard was limited by his specific interest in ethical and aesthetic ideas, whereas Gomez de la Serna is bound only to his visionary faculties, which are almost endless. Aside from the alleged relationship to the humoradas and doloras of Campoamor and to the n^-fcn of Kierkegaard, Cansinos-Assens asserts that the greguerfa ngenealrfgicamente se incorpora a la progenie de aquellas oomposioiones breves—Hafagas. Al vuelo. Alfilerazos. Volan- deras—que reflejaban en los perlodlcos de antano la inquietud del momento ... tamhien guardan su parentesoo con los trozos epigramaticos y con los leves cuadros de los impresionistas ... y aun ciertos poemas

^Novelist as esnanoles de los sielos XIX v XX (Madrid: Guadarrama, S. L., 1957;, p. ZL7 53 humoristas de Tristan Kingsor."^ He says that the greguerfa never­ theless "se distingue de todos estos consangufneos, se distingue tarn- bien del salmo patetioo, toma su sello especffico de su absoluto des- interes del patos y de una oierta travesura desenfadada y ruidosa que hay en eUa.n^ And furthermore, the greguerfa "guarda asf estreeha reladon eon su significado lebdeo y parece haber sldo insplrada y querer similar las armonfas truneadas de esos organos de ferla y de ver­ bena, que vibran ante las barracas y los carrousels y pareeen contagia- dos de la loca alegrfa de los payasos. He substantiates this as­ sumption by saying that the word "greguerfa" "perteneoe al lexico de los costuabrlstas madrllenos y es freeuente sobre todo en Eamfrez Angel. He brings to a close the discussion of these relationships by reminding us that there is "una suerte de fraternidad juvenll que une los acres comLenzos de Gomez con las Ingenuldades de estos costumbrlstas"-^’ be­ cause at that time Gomez de la Serna "compartio con los jovenes del momento una cierta oomunldad de motivos lfrlcos, y las greguerfas de

esos organos de verbena pudieron inspirarle mas Inmedlatamente la in- ten cion de sus greguerfas literarlas. The "progenie visual"^ of the greguerfa which led Cansinos-Assens to consider it solely as caricature leads him to state that the greguerfa "parece nacida del arte del di- bujo."*^ When we consider that Gomez de la Serna has always been fond

^Poetas v oroslstas del, novec^entos (Madrid: Editorial America, 1919), p. W. ^Ibid. ^^Ibid. 53Ibld.

%bld. 55lbld. ^ I b ld . . p. 267. 57$ W . 54 of drawing and has often made illustrations for many of his greguerfas, it is quite possible that his interest in graphic representation has sharpened his observation to give us the limited aspect which he is able to abstract from a living subject, a situation, or an Inanimate object. There is always the verbal sketch of reality in the greguerfa.

The greguerfa and Gova The imagination displayed by Gomez de la Serna on these occa­ sions is very much like Goya's in the letter's etchings and drawings which accompany his Provertalos and Disparates. Gomez de la Serna says that Goya is the only person who has truly influenced him: "No he su- frldo mas que una influenoia, la del mis espanol que hay en Espana, la eg de Goya."-^ He has written a biography of Goya and it behooves us to summarize h is thoughts on him because they c la rify the nature of his own work. The verbal caricature aspect of the greguerfa has a parallel in the graphic caricature of the "Caprlohoa" that Goya has created. This affinity is further substantiated by Antonio Espina: "De Goya no hay literato modern© que est© mas cere a, por semejanza de anima este- CO tica y, sobre todo, de 'humor' que Gomez de la S e rn a .T h is common aesthetic point of view finds at its base similarities toward humor in general and Spanish humor in particular. Speaking of the humorist in general, Gomez de la Serna has written: El humorists vive entre la contradicoion de los opuestos, con una ndsion que ha de hermanar colores dispares, y tiene que

^ Bioeraffas comaLetas (Madrid: Aguilar, 1959), p. 42. ^Revista de Occidents. XXI (1925), p. 242. aguantar la contradiooion de lo s pvfblicos, que cobijan en su seno lo mtTs humorfstlco de lo humorfstico, que es el contraste de lo s contrarios, la yuxtaposicion de lo s que han comprendido la burl a y l a de lo s que creen que l a burla es macabra.^O Thus for Gomez de la Serna the humorist and the greguerfa must live with the contradiction of opposites and to this purpose the metaphorical struc­ ture of the greguerfa is dedicated. According to Gomez de la Serna, Goya Introduced a "nuevo genero de c o n tra s ts ." ^ Before him, there were "lo plcaresco, lo epigramatico, lo canico, lo sat£rlco, hasta lo caustico ... pero aun estaba por hallar la primera leccion de contrasts, que ha de ser base del humorlsmo espanol." Specifically in relation to Goya as a representative of Spanish humor, he writes that the painter is the primer humorlsta espanol o sea dominador del contraste que eGL la base de ese nuestro humorlsmo en que triunfa la contra- poslcion de lo bianco y de lo negro, de lo positivo y de lo ne- gativo, de la muerte y de la vida, aoerto como nadie con la carnacion vital del verdadero r e t rato.°3 For Gomez de la Serna then humor ism is "aquello en que se mezda la credulidad y la incredulidad, lo tragico y lo comico, la vida y la muerte, es decir, todos los polos contradictories."^* And it was Goya "sin recalcar el heoho, puesto que es el primer genio tfpico del genero, con breves frases, con tftulos lmpacientes, con palabras suspensivas, llega a senalar~ el camino," 65 because the humor of Goya "contiene en la

Automoribundia (Barcelona: A. H. H., 19^3), p* 157• ^Biograffas comhletas: "Gova" (Madrid: Aguilar, 1959), P» 560. 6zm&- 63 lb id . ^Ibid. 6slbld. prensada sfntesis de la semilla todo el genlo de oontraste del humorlsmo espanol. En los breves tftulos de sus aguafuertes esta por prlmera vez lo modemo."^ In his sketches, then, Goya, very much like Gomes de la Serna In the greguerfa, "comprende que para que la realidad sea mas pintoresca y singular hay que hacerla desvarlar y dlversiflcarla fuera de sus lfmites. ... As he has done in the greguerfa he says that Goya "intents una interpretaoion de lo que hay detras de lo aparente, de lo que esta su- mergido en lagunas de clarldad, lo que quiere haoer mas noveleoa la vida y darle mas* libertad." 68 He concludes his interpretation of Goya's sketches by saying: "Para mf, donde Goya adquiere su mayor grandeza es en sus Disparates . •. un formidable Ubro que solo ha oamenzado por la prlmera letra de los capftulos que han deesorlbir las nuevas genera- ciones,"^ and he considers himself to be a genuine propagator of this new generation of artists who look "detras de lo aparente" in search of another reality, a reality which, after having been discovered, needed a new way of expression. To this end Gomez de la Serna created the greguerfa, to fulfill an artistic and aesthetic purpose, similar to the one started by Goya, who to Gomez de la Serna remains "el primer damina- 550 dor de los oontrastes.Let us remember that contrast in the form of humorous metaphor is the basic characteristic of the greguerfa.

66Ibid.. p. 562 . 6? Ib id .. p . 5 9 2 . 68£bld., p. 597. 6% bld. 7° Ib id .. p. 560. PART II

57 CHAPTER IV

ASPECTS OF THE GREGUERIA

Essentially, the greguerfa is an ingenius concept, an image that conveys a strange comparison, an attempt to redefine facets of reality metaphorically through unexpected, novel and surprising asso­ ciations. The following discussions contribute to a fundamental unity found throughout the greguer£a.

Brevity One of the most characteristic features of the greguerfa is its brevity! its ideal length is a sentence, never exceeding two or three lines. This, however, was not the original nature of the gregue- r£a. Some of the very first ones were almost a page long, but its brevity grew out of a condensation of essential elements, of eliminating unnecessary wordiness.

Gomez de la Serna states that the greguerfa should not be laboriously toiled over since a flash of insight based on intuition serves best to. capture the fleeting, momentary impressions which are the core of the greguerjfa. Thus, the latter would spring forth spon­ taneously, inspired by sharp but rapid observation of a wide variety of 59 stimuli that set in motion the w riter's imagination* The immediate language response is poetic*

For Gomez de la Seraay the greguerfa is an attempt to capture "lo quo gritan los seres oonfusamente desde su inconsdencia, lo que gxitan las cosas,"^ a statement which indicates that these cries are illogical utterances and thus metaphor, rather than structured language, would be th e ir best expression. But the greguer^a seldom goes beyond the limits of comprehensibility as does the surrealistic image such as th is : To llamo tabaco a lo que es oreja. About th is p articu lar one Gomez de la Serna points out th a t i t would be just as easy to say that tobacco is marmalade or liver or a bicycle or anything in the dictionary, while in the true greguer£a there must be some d e ta il, or feature, which w ill ju s tify comparison* Thus, even a good greguer£a such as the following anonymous one: El subterraneo es un asoensor horizontal is made more explicit by Gomez de la Serna as he rewrites it into: El subterraneo es un ascensor que se arrastra relating not only the subway to an elevator moving in a horizontal direction but, in addition, the actual manner of motion is taken into consideration as expressed by the verb "arrastrarse.n This additional

*4iamon Gomez de la Serna, Total de greguer£as (Madrid: Aguilar, 1955). P* aowii. 60 feature modifies the differences of the two elements of comparison keeping the uncommon feature of each element of the analogy, rendering it quite intelligible.

Poetic expression in prose Because of its metaphorical nature, the greguerfa has been ex­ plained in terms of its relationship to poetry. Some critics have 2 justified the explanation by pointing to Herbert Read's statement that poetry contains an original and transforming type of expression that distinguishes it from prose. This same characteristic in the greguerfa actually recreates by transforming everything. Because of his heavy dependence on elements characteristic to poetry Perez Minik has considered Gomez de la Serna nuno de los ultimos imaginarios espanoles."'* To Rafael Sanchez he is "el jefe multindllona- rlo del Trust de las imagenes."^ Cansino s-Assens—trying to explain the greguerfa in terms of caricature—admits that in addition "se complace trazando flnas imagenes que ya no tienen in te n d on satifrica. He c ite s the example of the swallow: Parece una flecha que busoa un corazon, una fleeha ndistica.

E n g lish Prose Style (New Tork: Henry Holt & Co., 1928), p. x. ^Novelistas espanoles de los si gins CTX xr XX (Madrid: Guadarrama, S. L., 1957), p. ZL7.I R eprinted in Automoribundia (Buenos Aires: E ditorial Sudamerl- cana, 19^8), p. 457* ^Poetas v nrosistas del novecientos (Madrid: Editorial-America, 1919), p. 212. 61

And the following: Aquella estrella es una nine desnuda que se columpia en un columpio oolgado del delo y cuyo trapecio se ve sobre el olelo oscuro. Guillermo de Torre adds that In the greguerfa of Gomez de la Serna nse express ... su rlqueza de lmaglnlsta y metaforlzador taumattfrgicot" the baslo attitude of the creator of the greguerfa being "una actitud puramente poetica, intuitiva ya que tiende a oaptar lo indefinible , a retener lo fugitivo, a aoertar lo que nadie haya visto," an objective to be accomplished through "la simple intuidon porftica," leading from "la descrlpdon anatomloa a la transflguracion metaforica,a process of metamorphosis out of which the greguerfa is bom* Thus there are very few greguerfas without metaphor and imagery and for that reason they can be conddered poetic expressions. We can agree with Salinas that the greguerfa is a "nueva forma de poetizacion de la realidad de lo que nos rodea*The greguer£a i s poetic because i t embodies the creative imagination of its author who sets out to recreate a new world in which everything is mingled and blended* In some of this "poetic babbling," as i t has been oailed, the image and metaphor play the main parts and find th d r inspiration in a childlike awareness and interpre­ tation of such traditional poetic elements of nature as snow and clouds. En algunos cielos muy lfmpidos queda solo una pompa de jabon ang&Lico.

^"Ramon Gomez de la Serna: medio siglo de literature," Clavileno. No* 31 (enero-febrero, 1955)# P* H* ^literature espancia del ** (Meodoo: Antigua Libreraa Robredo, 19**9)» P* 163* V

Refutation of Other Suggested Influences Greguerifa and Goya

PART H

IV. ASPECTS OF THE GREGUERIA...... 58 Brevity Instantanelty Intelligibility Poetic Expression in Prose Humorous Image In Prose Impressionism and Expressionism Choioe of Vocabulary Intuition Directed Toward Things Caricature Metaphor Free Association Paradox and Irony Arbitrariness Philosophical Aspects Morbid Humor Aspects Surrealistic Aspects V. METAPHORICAL TECHNIQUE...... 78 Synesthesia Live Nature Doctrine Personification and Humanisation Reversal of Roles s Non-Humans Observing Humans De-emphAsis of Man in the Greguerfa VI. VERBAL TECHNIQUE...... 92 A lteration Inferenoe Visual E ffect of Typography Parenthesis L etters and numbers 62

Hay nubes que aotxian eomo hamacas de la luna. De la nieve ca£da en los lagos naoen los dsnes. La nieve dota de papel de eseribir a todo el paisaje. In all four of the greguerias we see the tendency to take something ephemeral and poetic in nature—snow and clouds—and relate them to something useful and concrete—soap, hammock, and w riting paper—thus bringing substances from a variety of spheres to a common level* In this same way, even the frog has been converted into a poetic object: Las ranas son como pajaritos sin alas que se cayeron del nido para sieuxpre. La rana se zambulle en el agua como una gota verde que ha oafdo del oielo.

Humorous i n prose The greguer£a, then, is a poetic expression, but in prose, characterized by a system of relationships between dissimilar elements which are so unlikely related that pairing them produces a humorous twist, placing the so-called "poetic babbling11 into the realm of humor. Gomez de la Serna refuses to interpret reality as it has been accepted to be but rather as it humorously appears to him. Thus he can say: La palmera anola la tierra al cielo. Fasan los patos: la laguna se traslada. In the first example, the earth does not offer firm anchorage, but the sky does. The traditional image is reversed. In the seoond, the usual view of ducks swimming by on a pond is transposed by Gomez de la Serna: the ducks are immobile and i t i s the pond which swims or passes by. The surprise in the associations may be brought about by establishing an analogy which involves the separation of an element from one plane and transferred to another. For example: El hipopotamo jjaega a ssr submarino. El oolchon esta lleno de ombligos. In the f i r s t the two elements have d issim ilar features which would cause them to clash, but the one obvious relationship—the fact that both submerge--brings together in this one detail two seemingly remote objects of comparison. It should be kept in mind that in the greguerfa the similarity of objects brought into an analogy is usually accompanied by a feeling of great disparity. The elements compared in the gregue- rfa often belong to different categories and they can be paired on the basis of one feature metaphorically related. As a result of this dis­ parity, 1here is a distension of logic in the greguerfa in spite of the one likeness on which i t is based. We sh all see how th is works in some examples. In the second example quoted above, the metaphor is justifiable because there is an external resemblance between the so- called navels on the mattress and real ones. The visual likeness belies the to ta l d isp arity of the two elements compared. Appropriately the concept is immediately conceivable and humorous, mainly because the unlikeness of the distant objects is more obvious than the not so ob­ vious likeness. This personal view of reality transforms everything by finding resemblances based on fresh observation of details. The greguerfas are, then, an effort to render a reality hidden from the person whose imagination has been enslaved by narrow categories. 6k Impressionism and expressionism Using the terms Impressionism and expressionism as defined by Q Charles Bally and Elise Richter in their respective articles, Rodolfo Cardona^ has .analysed some of the gregueriLas from the point of view of "impression" made by the subject on Gomez de la Serna and from the point of view of fche "expression1* suggested to the poet: Pasan los patos: la laguna se traslada. Las algas que apareoen en la s playas son los pelos que se arrancan las sirenas al peinarse. Using the above examples, he says th a t the impression or expression of the greguerfa will depend on whether or not the impression received is candidly- reported or subjectively investigated* He comes to. the eonelu- •i ' ' • sion that in many of the greguerfas of Ramon Gomez de la Serna one finds combinations of expressionism and Impressionism. In the following: La mosca se posa sobre lo escrito, lo lee y se va, como des- preoiando lo que ha lefdo. IEs el poor orftico literarioJ we have the use of impressionism in the first part: the fly moving along the page of an open book, giving the impression that it is reading* However, when the writer states afterwards that the fly Is "the worst literary critic" he is interpreting the impression received, thus stepping into the realm of expressionism. We can accept this careful analysis; yet we prefer not to differentiate the two processes which * seem to coexist without excluding each other so that it is often almost

^Charles Bally, Elise Richter, Amado Alonso, and Ralmundo Lida, 121 jtwpresionismo en el lengua.le (Buenos Aires: Instituto de Filosoffa, 1936). ^Ramon: A Study of Gomez de 3a Serna and His Works (New Tork: Eliseo Torres, 1957), P- M3* impossible to separate them. Even when reporting candidly the impression, the reporting itself has undergone a subjective evaluation and the - result is not the stimulus as it existed in the eyes of the writer, but rather its effect. So the greguerfa is an expression of his manner of seeing, of transforming and transmitting these impressions. We could accept the concept of impressionism in the greguer£a if we share Richter's definition of impressionism as the reproduction of the im­ pression of things "como se parecen al ojo del observador. We can very well apply this to the technique of Gomes de la Serna who captures the momentary impression and expresses i t in accordance with his vision. The essence of the greguer£a, then, consists in this transference of impressions into expressions.

\ Choice of vocabulary In his effort to present a new vision of reality Gone* de la Serna has emphasized that the door to this awareness is the discovery of the key to the understanding of the universe. Such a key is to be found in the world of things which hold the secrets. To leave no doubt about the importance of these things he says of than: El eslabon perdido que tanto buscaron los sabios debe de estar en el Rastro since the Rastro is to him representative of such a world. His language, then, is largely taken from this world of things whose real order has been rejected, so that the unlimited possibilities of the isolated ob­ jects can be revealed in contact with each other, substituting one for

^Bally, et al.. op. oit.. p, 53 66 the other* Things dominate his greguer£as so that many of them are no more than redefinitions of old objects based on his Interpretation of what their visual characteristics have suggested to him: El oacto es el ohurro monstruo. Flatanos: parentssis frutales. Ascensor: prision momentanea.* Justus medievales: dos picadorea y ningi£n toro. Glrasoles: espejos de boslllo del sol* In this way he reveals his powers of assooiation touching practically everything in the world to which he tries to give "otro traje" and with it another life. Gomez de la Serna carries out his motto ntodo hay que greguerizarlo," establishing new analogies in search of all the possible variations in a world of limitless possibilities* The result of his encompassing of a multitude of subjects enlarges the scope of the greguerfa which, as P. Paft Rojas states, is one of the very basic artistic intentions of the greguerfa and its true significance: Ante todo conviehe verificar el valor de la palabra* Y sobre todo, el dibujo de la idea artifstica. ... Mucho se ha pretendldo decir respecto del verdadero sentido de la greguerfa; pero en ningun momento se la ha advertido como una forma inesperada de la poesjfa de los pequenos episodios, de las pequenas icosas.H More specifically he writes: Hay una enorme cantidad de oosas que la vanidad de los poetas ha ido dejando fuera de la poesfa; pequenos hallazgos, detail es inadvertidos. • • • Ya es gran trabajo este de agrandar el terri- torio poetico con todos estos pequenos temas que forman la greguerfa. Esta actividad espiritual que tiene mucho de des- cubrimiento no haftfa si do utilizado como elemento poetico hasta la llegada de Gomez de la Serna, ... el hombre de la observe- cion oportuna.1 2

•^■"Las greguerfas y su estetico," Azul, II, No. 11 (Buenos Aires: agosto,1931)t 205.

1 % b id . According to Paz Rojas, then, Gomez de la Serna should be called "des- cubridor ... de lo cotidiano.n

Intuition directed toward things The above-mentioned artistic intention of the gregueria leads ns to consider it as a poetic intuition directed toward things, and it serves as an expression of them through means of a humorous and sur­ prising comparison. Host critics come to agreement on this point. To cite some examples, Torrents Ballester says: La gregueria es el resultado de una intuioion que adivina la singularidad absolute de los objetos. ... La intuicion ramo- niana se dirige exduslvamente a los objetos humanizadioS ... a los objetos vividos. Lo mas asoabroso del arte de Ramon consiste predsamente en su capaddad de desoubrir humanidad en las oosas tenidas por menos humanas.-L3 Jean Cassou writes that "Ramon practique et enseigne cette pi tie des choses qui est une vertu aussi delicate que la pitie* des betes.n I k Jose Maria de Salaverria writes that "estamos en presenoia de una fan­ ta s ia que se emplea en la s cosas pequenas, que describe la s habita- ciones, que personalize los muebles y los objetos mas olvidados yacentes."

Jorge Luis Borges states that "Ramon ha inventariado el mundo, induyendo en sus paglnas no los sucesos ejemplares de la aventura humana, segtCn es uso de poesia sino la ansiosa descripcion de oada una de las cosas

cuyo agrupamiento es el mundo.Antonio Porras adds: "Con la invencion

^•^Panorama de la llteratura esnanola contemporinea (Hadrid: Edidones Guadarrama, 19&L), I , 277* ^Panorama de la litterature espanole oontmaporaine (Paris: Kra, 1929), P. 156.

-^"Camentarlos aobre Ramon," reprinted in Automoribundla. p. 791* 68 de l a greguerfa hemos ganado amigos In d u so en e l mundo de lo in e rte .

...E l mundo de las cosas se puebla de voces, verdadera 7 milagrosa algarabfa en que cada oosa quiere decimos lo que es."^ Finally, Julian Marfas adds that the greguerfa "signifies un cambio de perspeo- tiva al mirar las cosas, una inclusion de dlas en un nuevo contexto, un obligarlas a asumir una funcion que de por s£ no tienen y ese choque con la otra hace que brote una especial iluminacion sobre ellas."^-? In short, as Gomez de la Serna says, the greguexfa is "el nombre m£s apro- piado de la s cosas.

Caricature Cansinos-Assens tries to explain the greguerfa almost wholly in terms of its caricature features, an explanation which, though not altogether correct, deserves some attention because, in general, "toda manifests cion del arte es en cierta medida desfiguraoion y transposi- oion de la realidad.Generally speaking, art is, according to Arturo Berenguer Carismo, "una ficcion que induye un 'pareddo* in- manente" but at the same time it is a "trascendenda de aquella seme- janza."^ In particular, "cuando lo trascendido estf muy lejos del

"Sobre greguerfas," Revista de Occidente. No. lh-1 (1935)* P* 3^9• •^Dicoionarlo de literatura espanola (Madrid: Revista de Occidente), p. 315. 18Total de greguerfas. p. lxxi. ^^Arturo Berenguer Carismo, "Apuntes sobre la carloatura lite - raria," Cuaderaos hispanoamericanos.Nos. 91-96 (Madrid: julio-dec., 1957), p. 269* 20Jbid. modelo ••• estamos muy oerca de la o arlcatu ra," which i s nothing more than "una realidad llevada a sus uLtimos extremes de trasposioion," and this transposition of reality is one of the intentions of the greguer£a. Ortega y Gasset agrees that the literature around 1928, that of the vanguardia,contains a considerable amount of caricature* He says: "Dudo mucho que a un joven de hoy le pueda interesar un verso, una p in c e la d a , un sonido que no 11 eve dentro de s i un reflejo irortLco. But the writers of that time—Gomez de la Serna among them—were not deforming reality just for the sake of doing so, but rather: lo que hacfa era partir de una concepoion de la realidad tensa- mente subjetiva y darla jpor vaLido esquema del mundo. No era pues, desfigurar a proposito; era crear aquella realidad desde una m&iaa y previa descomposicion mimciosamente elaborada.*^ Cansinos-AsSens insists that the greguerfa does have its carica­ ture aspects, inspired by graphic stimuli: Esta caricature lo logra Gomes ouando circunscribe su inten­ sion a un solo objeto que no ha de evoluoionar a nuestros ojos rapidamente siguiendo ese proceso de transformismos en que el escrltor se oomjxLaoe y que parace copiado de la logics absurda de los suenos.^3 And he illustrates this with the following example: Grillo: cucaracha fanfarrona y descocada commenting: "He aqu£ la oarlcatura moderna . However, we must remem­

ber that in the greguer£a the transposition of the realities in question

^ ~La deshumanizacion del arte (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1928) , p. ^Berenguer Carismo, on* cit*. p. 281* ^Cansinos-Assens, op* c i t *. p. 258. 70 into caricature does not involve an exaggerated physical distortion of them as they exist separately, but rather it is the juxtaposition of two normal ones whose analogical contact gives birth to a third reality which usually represents an ultimate extreme of comparison. In other words, the caricature aspect does not lie in the disfiguration of a known reality but rather it comes about in the unexpected birth of a new one, whose characteristics are unlike anything previously conceived.

Metaphor Without a doubt the metaphor is the most important and pre­ dominant figure of speech used in the greguerfa. We will discuss the metaphorical technique of the greguer£a in detail in the following chapter, but we want to state at this point that metaphor is one of its most obvious aspects.

Free association Free association is the basis of the novelty of the greguer£a. The free association of things or ideas at times inspired by visual or auditory stimuli, verbal or word associations, pairing of objects, of V kindred sounds prevail. By free association we mean the combination of two things which apparently have something in common—usually a physical resemblance—-but which have never before been linked.

Paradox and irony The paradoxical nature of the greguerfa contributes to a great extent to the element of surprise, another of its basic aspects. The use of irony and paradox is a manifestation of the great role that 71 contrast plays in the greguer£a. Since the humor in the greguerfa for the most part relies on the contradiction of opposites, many of the examples are nothing more than paradoxical statementsi

Lo bias important* de la vida es no haber mnerto. EL escrltor quiere esoribir su mentira y escribe su verdad. Titulo de una novela que escribire: El recuerdo del futuro.

Arbitrariness The dictionary defines "arbitrary” as: "subject to individual •will and judgment." The gregaerik is precisely subjected to the in­ dividual w ill and judgment of Ramon Gomez de la Serna in whose hands the world itself takes on a different character, to such an extent that in the greguerfa "seres y cosas se confunden ... sin l£nea divisorla.

..."2^ tpierden su configuracion real y ofrecen perspectivas inespera- d a s ." ^

PV|-i f ow^p^lc a l aspects,

A survey of themes in the gregueriLa reveals a recurrence of ideas evolving around the human condition and concurrently, death. Typical of this kind would be the following; Lo unico que esta ™al on la muerte es que nuestro esqueleto podra confundirse con otro. Cuando reoogemos e l guante cafdo, damos la mano a la muerte. El sale del cuerpo como si fuese la camisa interior a la que le Uego el dia del lavado.

^Angal del Rfo# Historia de la literature espandla (New York; The Dryden Press, 1 9 ^ ) . H» 23o» 25 Guillermo de Torre, o p . c i t . , p. 11. v i

Word Play Phonetic (pun) Phonetic-conceptual Phonetic-conceptual: repetition of identical word Word division Mixed word formation

PART I I I

VH. INFLUENCE OF THE GHEGUERXA 103 Spanish American Gregueristas Spanish Peninsular Gregueristas Gregueriatic Language in Spanish American Poetry Gregueristio Language in Spanish Peninsular Poetry On Spanish Peninsular Poetry On Spanish Peninsular Prose CONCLUSION 130 APPENDIX 133 BIBLIOGRAPHY 149 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 154 72 In' the above examples we find varying tones of the theme of death, re­ flecting traditional ideas such as the anonymity of the skeleton and the empty piece of clothing* When he jokes about death there is a serious underlying tone in the greguer&u Gomez de la Serna has accepted the fact that death is our constant companion and this preoccupation is evident throughout his works. In Los muertos. las muertas y otras fantasmaflnyfas he conceives of the inevitability of death on the one hand as an agonizing reminder that life is fleeting and on the other, he accepts this presence of death, adjusting to its reality and being humorous about i t when possible* That death is one of the predominant themes of the greguerfa and one of the principal concerns of Goioez de la Serna is clearly indicated by the very title of his autobiography: Automoribundia which reduces life to an account of the way a person gradually goes about dying. His preoccupation with death is part of his more universal in­ quiry about the nature of creation and its secrets; mostly he delves in that zone between life and death where everything can become something else. Si supiese traducir lo que quiere decir el gallo con su qui- quiriqui del.alba, sabriamos el secreto de la creacion. Al pasear por la playa en inviemo se nota lo que tiene de margen entre la vida y la muerte.

Morbid humor aspects The following morbid subject greguerjLas stand in contrast to those which contain beautiful images, creating a greater range for Gomez de la Serna1s imaginative genius because these, too, rely on the re­ semblances in reality for their subject matter, resemblances based on 73 visual, functional, and olfactory stimuli: Las serpientes de las venas nos comen el corazon. EL queso Roquefort tiene gangrene. La c o liflo r es un cerebro vegetal que nos comemos. El grito mas agudo de la noohe es el del gato que se queja de una indigestion de ratones. La orqududea tiene boca de serpiente. La luna se esta gangreando. No se puede negar que la cabeza del pez guisado tiene la expresion triste de la muerte. Cuando un automovil aplasta un gato se ve rodar a la ouneta dos ojos luminosos como dos gamelos escapados de unos punos. Some of them are made up of the association of tangible, visible things such as the ncabeza del pez guisado" and some of an imagined figure such as the "triste expresion de la muerte." Unlike the lofty, charming one which creates a world of total beauty, some of these bring into an analogy a beautiful object which is subsequently negated as a result of contact with something not noted for its desirability. The intention is not to idealize one in favor of the debasement of another through the comparison. Rather, it is simply to present everything of this world on the same level without qualitative evaluation. Thus, we may be able to group together certain types of greguerias which demonstrate similar tendencies, but basically there are no categories to which its

components 9an be definitely assigned, because everything functions on the same aesthetic plane. As a result, the beautiful and the ugly in­ termingle, undifferentiated.

Surrealistic aspects. El caballo azul sa lta por encima del a rc o -iris. Hay arboles que dan grltos verdes. Las violetas son lagrimas violetas. The greguer£as which Gomez de la Serna began publishing in 1910 7k were written long before any official surrealist manifestos had ap­ peared—Andre Breton* s dates from 192fl—but the new genre contains some shocking analogies In which the Imagination has been stretched and strained to the limits, along similar lines as those followed by the surrealists* Though some of the grogueries reveal these Illogical tendencies, these are not typical qualities, and in the examples noted above there is always some visual similarity that, taken at face value, justifies the analogy (arbol-verde, violeta-ligrlma). In the prologue to Total Gomes de la Serna admits that he was writing surrealist gregueria around 1910, and he gives the following as examples: I Que hennosa la g a rtija espera el sile n d o de ml ombllgo para tomar el soli IQuo trlstes son las narlces de las mulasJ J. E* Cirlot2^ in discussing Surrealism, mentions the "multitud de trivi&Lidades y ... divertimientosn such as the following: Si las perlas pudleran llorar, la nleve se venderia a peso de oro* Si la 08curldad mas com p lete reinara sobre la tierra, los pavos rodarian sobre su raeda. These attempts to deduce in a brief humorous prose statement a reinter­ pretation of existing objects, though not as pointed as the good gregue- rias, nevertheless share an affinity to the literary genre of Gomes de la Serna. The imnediate precursors of Surrealism such as Dadaism and Fu­ turism were well-known to Gomes de la Serna. Eugenio de Nora comments

^^Introduooion al surreal!smo (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1953), p. 1W* 75 on h is relationship to Dadaism: "No oreo qua eso rito r alguno . . . con lndependencla del movimiento dadaista haya llegado mas caroa y manta- nldo mas perseverantemente postulados y aotltud tan en la linea da aqualla radical marejada da negaoion de la postguarra." But Dada, ha p o in ts1out9 "duro solo unos anos; Ramon lleva ascrlbiendo medio slglo sobre supuestos planamante dadaistas."2^ His early aocaptanoa of the Futurist creed led him to publish In 1909 an article in praise of M arinetti*s principles. Through h is edition in Prometeo In 1910 of the "Proclama futurist* a los espanoles" of Marinetti, Gomes de la Serna "abre la puerta de la llteratura espanola al prlmero de los 1 tamos* que pocos anos despu^s alcanaaran vlda y ganaran adeptos en el convulsionado retablo cultural de la vlda europea de entreguerras." 28 But since these movements were mainly Interested In a cynical "anar- qulsmo U terarlo " and In the influence of the power of the engine and of machineries In modem life , Gomez de la Serna remained outside such a circumscribed aesthetic circle because by definition the gregue- rfa is limitless. It is also interesting to note the similarity of the gre- guerfa to some of the definitions given in the Diction rial re abrege du surrealisme edited in 1933 by Breton and Eluard. Commenting on th is particular book, Cirlot writes that it oontains "numerosas ilustr&ciones y reduciendo a alfabetizaoion los termlnos mas usualmente empleados por

^Reprinted in Luis S. Granjel, Retrato de Ramon (Madrid: Edi- ciones Guadarrama, 1963)# p* 117* 28Ibld. . p. U6. lo s escritores su rrealistas; domina on esa obra ol sentido humorista lo cual aoaso sea de lamentar por lo que hublera podido serf de crear- se eon otra intone ion." ^ One of the definitions included is by Shakespeare and is also among the selected favorites of Gomez de la soma's collection of greguerfas written by authors of the past: Los ojos son lo s locos del corazon* In this book of Surrealist definitions published in 1938 there are to be found some humorous prose statements, very much in the manner of the greguerfa: Undoubtedly Gomez de la Serna and the surrealists share common theory in their approach to their art* In fact the following statement by Breton could well apply to the greguer£a: "Es en la sor- presa creada por una nueva imagen o por una nueva asociacion de ima- genes, donde es necesarlo ver el elemento mas importante del progreso

‘h de la s ciencias f£sicas, puesto que e l asombro es el que exoita la logica, frifa de ordinario, y la obliga a establecer nuevas coordina- ciones."^0 One of the most perfect statements of surrealist poetics is the following which can also be considered as gregueristic or poetic theory: "La imagen es una creacion pura del espfritu. No puede nacer de una comparacion t sino de la aproximacion de dos realidades mas o menos alejadas. Cuanto mas lejanas y justas sean las relaciones de las

dos realidades acercadas, mas fuerte sera la imagen y poseera mas

29juan Eduardo C irlo t, op* d t . f p. 189* ^Reprinted in Introduccion al surrealismo. p. 335* 77 potenoia emotiva y realidad poetica.n3^ Even the statement of Breton i s applicable: nLa imagen mas fuerte es la que presents mayor grado de arbitrarledad ... con ell a traspasa los unbrales de la asociadon de ideas de la psicologjfa normal y de la psicolog^a profunda, para entrar en un dominio de puro creaoionismo inventive."32 Basically the greguerfa deviates from Surrealism in that the latter was primarily interested in releasing the subconscious and not in the ordering and fashioning of the unleashed material. Ionesco, in defending his disassooiation with Surrealism, writes that a writer must possess a mixture of spontaneity, of subconscious impulses and of lucidity; a lucidity which is unafraid of what­ ever the spontaneous imagination may give birth to . . . • The waters must be allowed to come flooding out; but afterwards comes the sorting, the controlling, the understanding, the selecting.-^ The gregueria, like Surrealism, achieved the spontaneity which is essen­ tial to art but in the final analysis it seems to have achieved a balance between this necessary spontaneity and the final degree of lucidity of which Ionesco speaks. In other words, the greguerfa, we believe, re­ lies less on dream-like analogies and more on the capturing of resem­ blances which exist in external reality yet hidden to the ordinary eye, or to everyday logic. The gregueristic effect is brought about pre­ cisely through the creation of the probable image, humorously credible, hardly ever unbelievable.

31Ibid.. p. 262.

3%bid.. p. 276. 33Reprlnted in Eugene Ionesco by Richard Col (New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1961), p. 6. . CHAPTER V

METAPHORICAL TECHNIQUE

The importance of the metaphor in the greguerfa cannot be overestimated. Gomez de la Serna has written that entre los tropos la metafora es lo esencial. ... La metafora es despues de todo, la expresioh de la relatividad. El horn- bre moderno es mas os oil ante que d. de ningtin otro siglo y por 080 mas metaforlco. Debe poner una cosa bajo la luz de otra. Lo ve todo reunido, yuxtapuesto, asooiado.-*- The author proceeds in terms that echo Ortega y Gasset's essay La des- hmnanizacion del arte (1925), stating that the writer of today "con­ trapose la lmportancia de lo magn£floo0 de lo pobre oon otra oosa mas

. o 1 grande o mas desastrosa." Ortega y Gasset-' had speculated as to whether metaphor and imagery in the new artistic inspiration—where they fu lfill a substantive and not merely a decorative function—have not acquired a curious derogatory quality and instead of ennobling and enhancing, they belittle and disparage poor reality. In order to be more specific he recalls reading a book of modern poetry in which a flash of lightning was compared to a carpenter's ru le and the le afless

^Ramon Gomez de la Senna, Total de greguerifas (Madrid: Aguilar, 1955), P* aowi. ^Ebid. 3 Jose Ortega y Gasset, The Dehumanization of Art (New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1956), P* 32.

78 79 trees of winter to brooms sweeping the sky. The weapon of poetry* be says, has turned against natural things and wounds or murders them. From the standpoint of ordinary human life in which things appear in a natural order* a definite hierarchy, this change of perspective * as Ortega calls it, upsets the value pattern and produces art in which the small events of life appear in the foreground with monumental di­ mensions. This change of focus is precisely what the greguerfa strives to accomplish through the uncategorized association of all tilings be- cause "todo lo material y lo inmaterlal puede ser objeto de metafora*" which "multiplica el mundo, no h&ciendo caso al retorico que prohibe enlazar cosas solo porque i l es impotante para lograrlo."'* We have seen in the majority of the greguerfas already discussed the constant presence of associations of a wide variety of objects in many different ways, creating images by the two most common poetic de­ vices: metaphor and simile. Gomez de la Serna makes the comparison obvious by expressions such as "parece," "como si," "como," suggesting likenesses,* but in general the. greguerfas— which are mostly redefinitions — embody pure metaphor, transferring completely a word or concept from one thing to something else* the transference being on grounds of the analogy of one simple characteristic, generally not an obvious one. Gomez de la Serna's poetic and imaginative strength seems to lie then in his ability to present one thing as something else and not just in

l± , , Ramon Gomez de la Serna, on. cit., p. xxxiv. 5Xbjd. 80 his use of simile, in his skill at suggesting likenesses as it appears in the following examples: El toro U e n o de banderillas tiene algo de ciervo con gallar- detes. Un sillon que se sale es como un caballo de toros bien cor­ ns ado. In the first simile likeness is between very dissimilar animals with the exception that both are homed. let in spite of the presence of this one similar feature, Gomez de la Serna has established the simi­ larity on a new plane: ngallardetesn on the deer to parallel the pres­ ence of the "banderillas" on the bull producing a novel and unpredic­ table similitude between the two. Gomez de la Serna often progresses from simile to complete metaphor in several greguerfas on the same theme as the following: Los broches de sus medias las sostenfan como las pinzas sostienen los periodicos galantes en el pentagrams de los qnioscos. In this greguerfa the author makes an association using the word "como" between the clasps.which hold women's stockings and the pins that hold magazines from the wires (pentagramss) in the newstands. An excellent example of his transition from a suggested similarity to a pure meta­ phor is the following one based on the same visual stimuli: Los broches del corse sosten£an las revistas ilustradas de sus medias. In this example the associative process becomes more synthesized, creat­ ing the pure metaphor "illustrated magazines of her stockings" which are held up by the clasps of her corset. Thus, the transference of one known reality to another is completely effected, not just suggested. 81

Synesthesia Among the surprising analogies of metaphorical technique, Gomez de la Serna often resorts to synesthetic associations of sounds, colors and odors* Characteristic of this group are the following: EL perfume es el eco de las flores. El papal carbonico retlene el eco de lo escrito* El agua suena a dolor. Las flo res quo no huelen son flo res mudas. EL frJLO huele a marmol. The interplay of sensory perception in the f i r s t example has produced the translation of the olfactory characteristics of perfume into another sehse: sound; y et perfume—lik e the echo—repeats or re fle c ts the es­ sence of the flower, which is its scent. The same idea is true in the second example in which the carbon paper retains the reflection of the written word. In both instances the choioe of the word lbchon is valid in spite of the obvious synesthesia—since perfume and carbon paper reflect or repeat and are in that sense echoes. The function of the echo as a process of reflection is widely used in the gregueria, in which the reflection is not always of sound: Las trompetas i&timas son ecos de los ecos de los ecos re- petldos de las trompetas prlmeras. En los hielos lejanos hay un eco de los espejos rotos. EL bostezo es un eco de los abismos. El apuntador es el eco antes que la palabra. Carta: eco de una voz que llega tarde. Eco: ventrlloqufa de las montanas. T. V .: e l eco de la imagen. The important point is the disassociation of the formal idea and purpose of the echo as solely a reflector of sound. In the associative process of the greguerfa, concrete substances become the carriers of the echo in an interplay of sensory perception which goes beyond the ordinary concept usually limited to sound. r

INTRODUCTION

Perspective Most of us are familiar with the great Ramons of twentieth century Spanish literature suoh as Ramon Marfa del Valle-Indan, Ramon Perez de Ayala, and of course Juan Ramon Jimenez. But there is another Ramon who is probably just as important and significant but who is undoubtedly the least known in the United States: Ramon Gomez de la Serna, or simply "Ramon," as some critics refer to him and as he prefers to be called. He has been considered as one of the most representative Spanish authors of the period between 191h- and 1936, but few North American c ritic s have recognized his significance as an innovator in literary creation. He has written a book on the major "isms" which came into being between the two world wars, and his own ideas, style, and name have been associated with many of them: Ultraism, Cubism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. Some c ritic s accept him as a precursor of all of them as well as a major molder of the forms and direction his Spanish literary contemporaries were to follow.

Works His literary output is massive. As early as 1-931 c ritic s such as Jean Cassou were already calling him the new "monstruo de la

jRodolfo Cardona, Ramon: A Study of Gomez de la Serna and His Works (New York: KLiseo Torres, 195?), PP* 3-27. 1 Live nature doctrine The role of the metaphor Is of such Importance that I t behooves us at this point to elaborate more fully on Gomez de la Serna's choice of language for his metaphorical expression. As ve have said before, the world of things—which includes inert objects and natural elements— provides the basic inspiration. Relying on his faith in it, he has put into practice the ideas contained in his philosophical essay Las cosas v el ello. Cardona** has made a study of Gomez de la Serna's philosophy of things as he expresses i t in th is important essay, and has compared i t with A. N. Whitehead's Nature and Life, also published in 193^* Whitehead's basic thesis is that one can understand neither nature nor life unless one fuses them together as essential factors in the compo­ sition of what he calls "really real" things whose inter-connections and individual characters constitute the universe. This same idea re- expressed in different words appears throughout Gomez de la Serna's essay: "Hay que convencerse que la vida ... es las mil cosas que se ven y que dan destellos de circunstancia." He further explains his point of view concerning things themselves and not as symbols. He deals with the "flesh and blood" of things, in a world in which every­ thing takes part and is related. The author has consequently developed a system in which all nature is considered alive in an attempt to fuse life and matter together, believing there is life in matter and thus the only way to discover the authentic reality is to conceive of such a relationship.

^Ramon: A Study of Gomez de l a Serna and His Works (New Xork: Eliseo Torres, 1957;* PP* 1 1 7 -1 2 5 . 83 Personification and humanization I t i s obvious from the Appendix th a t a division of greguer£as according to subject matter Is practically an Impossible task* At this point, we will present the following selections which demonstrate more specifically Gomes de la Serna at his best In the application of his live nature theory in which things—like humans—partake of feeling* In the following selections which touch on much of the subject matter of the Total de greguerfas we will note the personification, animation, and humanization of Inanimate objeots as well as the humanization.of non-human living beings such as animals, plants, Insects, and the like. A1 oepillamos el cepillo nos dice algo an voz baja* Los corales son las venas del mar* A1 corazon se abrazan todas las venas. Bn la espuma de la ola esta la saliva del mar. Los dolares le mor&fan con sus dientes de oro* El bosque es un guardaropa de arboles. No me gustan esas s3i.llas de tubo metal,ico que parecen arrodillados* El mar no tiene sed pero tiene mucha hambre. A1 caballo le humanizan la s venas de la cara. El aguila lleva unos pantalones que le van oortos. A1 oir la notlda se desmayo el sofa. Hay unos fosforos que se encienden un poco despues de haberlos rase ado, como si hubiesen perdido la memoria de su deber. La luna y la arena se aman con frenesju Los dos almohadones de seda sobre la cama se aman mas que sus duenos. En los cenlceros hay colillas que se aman, pues reunen sus fue^os en un beso ardlente. Lo unico que comen las puertas son las nueces que les damos a p a rtir. La gallina blanca parece como si fuera a perder los calzonclllos. La guillotina fue la maqulna de afeitar que Invento la Revolucion francesa. Frase elegante: e l quito e l zapato a l platano y se lo comlo. Cuando el domingo caiga en lunes, la vida habra perdido la cabeza. Las puertas se enfadan con el viento. La mariposa vuela sobre el estanque para ndrarse en eL. Si l a luna no estuviese debajo de la s nubes en vez de enoima, gastarfa paraguas. La luna y el sol no tienen mas que una sola cama para descansar, y por eso l a una trab aja cuando e l otro duerme. 84

La rosa ab ierta oye y entiende. Los ojales cerrados ni von, ni oyon, ni entienden. Haofa ta l t r i o que e l faro l se apago de pulmoniTa. En el tarjetero las tarjetas se saludan, conversan y se cuentan chistes. Dejo de fumar, pero reinicio, porque la segufan por la casa los cenioeros hambrlentos. En las maquinas de escrlblr sonrfe la dentadura postiza del alfabeto. La guitarra es la maja desnuda y sonora. Pasan los tramrfas oon su fusil al hombro. Que hermoso cutis tienen lo s violines. Los arboles corren ladrando detras del tren. La pLanoha electrics parece servir cafe a las candsas. La lima es el eepillo de dientes de los me tales. Las ohimeneas se sienten tan patrioticas que esperan ser canones antidteros el dfa del bombadero. Lo mas humano que tiene la calle es e l recodo* Las hojas cajfdas, sobre todo las que son polidfgitas, tienen una vida de manos humanas que son arrastradas por el viento. Circulan volanderas por la tierra, abiertas, como demandando una limosna. La nuca del mar esta en la ola. Las orqududeas tienen sierapre la lengua sue la. El alefante es el dnico animal que tiene pipa propia. La oruga es la mariposa en traje de- bano. Los acordeones tienen el pelo ondulado. Los cangrejos bailan la jota en el fondo del mar* En las maquinas de esoribir el alfabeto baila la jota. El gusano baila la dansa del vientre al arrastrarse. Solo el sol puede dar vacaciones a las nubes. La zanahoria es toda cuello* —IQuien le conto a Ud. eso? —Una fuente de jard£n. EL tren se vuelve humano cuando en lo d if ic il de l a cuesta le ponen otra maquina para ayudarle. Hay unos polios de patas torcidas que se parecen a Carlito Chaplin. Una de las mayores maldades de la vida es tirar la cerilla en- cendida al agua. Los autos adoran a la s esbeltas columnas del alumbrado. EL paisaje adora al molino." El perol es el marldo de la cacerola. EL agua de colonia es el whiskey para la ropa. XL desnudar el platano nos saoa la lengua* Lo malo del tocino es que apareoe sin afeitar. EL pino peina el sol bajo sus ramas. IQue hacen las golondrlnas? Bordan. El farol quiere aotuar como si fuese un guardia ... es una autori- dad paralitica. Lo mas grave es que el burro tiene dentadura de hombre. Aquel burro se condo un sombrero de paja y se volvio in te le c tu a l. Lo que mas le asombra a l burro es pasar por un puente colgante. 85 La llama es e l burro que se ha eredTdo nnijer. Los paces pasan en fila de turlsta. Los golondrinas se oncogen de hombros en medio de su vuelo. Los serplentes de las venas nos comen el corazon. Lo quo mas duerme en l a noohe son la s to rres. El deseo del rayo es plantar en el suelo un arbol electrico. EL reloj nos va afeitando la vida. El ventilador afelta al calor. A la estrella llena de sueno se la ve cerr&r los ojos. Noes la esfera de los ralojes, es la cornea de los relojes. Las plumas estilo g raftcas son desobedientes como ninos que no saben o no quleren esorlblr. A las olas no les importa la lluvia, como si tuvlesen impermeable. Se oye de pronto tin dlsparo que quiere declr que se ha suicldado un neumatico. La rana se tlra al agua como si quisiera suioidarse. SI el armarlo esta abierto toda la casa bosteza. Los reaaos son las pestanas de los barcos. Las violetas se retuercen ocult&ndo su ombligo. Gomez de la Serna has once proclaimed that things have revealed their secrets to him and he in turn has passed them on to us In the form of the greguerfa; hence the definition or description of the things comes from within as a revelation of things and not just an ex­ pression about them. It is evident from this selective representation that two noticeable elements prevalent in the greguer^as are the de­ vices of personification and humanization. In order to comment ef­ fectively on these tendencies two major approaches must be used. We must first take into consideration what is affected and then how the subject matter is imbued with life. The poet has personified and hu­ manized inanimate things—both man-made and natural elements—the enu­ meration of which would necessitate page after page of listing, like­ wise, he has humanized p ractically a ll the categories of non-human living beings such as mammals other then man, plants, insects, foul, fish, reptiles, amphibians, worms. In addition to these two categories Gomez de la Serna has personified abstract qualities such as thought. 86 feelings, and concepts. In other words, he touches on practically everything in his process of animation and expression of a nature alive with feelings. Personification in the metaphorical process is most effectively executed through the verb. Since the greguerfa is above all an ex­ pression of things, it is appropriate that the verb, the word which expresses action or feeling, should determine the personification, re­ gardless of the nature of the subject. Random examples reveal that the moon dreams, worms dance, stars wink, and so forth. The author has taken us out of the realm of the description of still things, refusing to treat them as lifeless. To this end Gomez de la Serna has given to his world of things its own process of life , its own human body, and as a result he has transcended the barrier which previously denied the inanimate this self expression. This concern to revitalize things dead reveals a greater interest in life as man knows it to be, through feeling. The metaphorical technique in the greguerfa involves a complete process of metamorphosis so that the "thing" is not only described with human characteristics but has become a human thing expressing its own life and personality, and above all, its innermost being—the maximum degree to which the humanization of things can be exalted.

Reversal of roles: non-humans observing humans In some of the greguerfas the upsetting of the hierarchy of values leads to a complete reversal of roles: inanimate, inert things as well as non-human living beings, observing man, reversing the 87 traditional role of man as observer of the universe. The following are some examples: El animal nos mira con mlrada de mudo disfrazado. IComo nos mira una tienda de objetos de qpticosj Asomados al puente, miramos al agua que pasa, y el agua nos mira a nosotros. Idoble despedidaJ El gato nos ve la intenoion. El pesoado nos mira con sus ojos fijos y abiertos para recordarse a nosotros. Hay perros de caza que se pasan la vida mirando a sus duenos para ver si al fin se deciden a ser cazadores. A las once y cinco y a la una menos cinco es cuando el reloj nos mira con sus impertinentes, estudiando a traves de sus binoculares manillas, porque el tiempo quiere saber tambien como somos. Thus, man no longer looks at creation— his world— but is an undistin­ guished part of it and can be looked at by any other creature with the same gaze he had used to watch his universe.

De-emphasis of man in the greguerfa We have noted that Gomez de la Serna discovers not only humor but humanity in things, giving them an existence and identity entirely their own and reminiscent of the human condition, creating a poetry of the ordinary object taken from the immediate material world around us. We see how he anthropomorphizes a watch attributing human characteris­ tics to this piece of machinery: Con una mano invisible el reloj se atusa los bigotes. In another example of anthropomorphism the typewriter suggests the sm il i n g face of the alphabet's false teeth: En las maquinas de escrlbir sonrfe la dentadura postiza del alfabeto. In trying to establish relationships between animate and inanimate 88 objects the ordinarily dehumanized onesbecome humanized. This tendency is exemplified in the following greguerifa: Lo que mas humaniza a la s illa es poner en su respaldo nuestra americana. In view of these aspects—humanization, anthropomorphism, per­ sonification—of the greguerfas we can assert that on the one hand the absolute dehumanization of art, predicted by Ortega y Gasset cannot be applied to this aspect of the technique of the greguerfa as has been done, simply because Gomez de la Serna turns away from man toward the micro-structure of life, toward its trivial elements which usually escape notice and literary treatment, in order to let them perform the main roles in the greguerfa. True, the importance of man and his su­ perior place in the hierarchy of values is minimized to the point where everything appears on the same aesthetic plane, deserving equal poetic attention. Yet, instead of dehumanization—since humanization is one of the principal techniques in the greguerdfa—we choose to c a ll 1his process "de-emphasization" of man in literature rather than Ortega's term: "the dehumanization of art." When Gomez de la Serna does turn his attention toward man the resulting greguerdua is usually a humorous interpretation of some of his common functions involving things, usually taken for granted. This technique is a corollary of seeing things in a new light. Man too is seen from a different angle: SI que juega a los dados parece tirar al aire los huesos que le sobran. EL que afila un cuchillo con otro cuchillo se desaf£a consigo. Tocar la trompeta es como beber musica empinando el oodo. All these observations find their inspiration in human actions but the objects of the analogies: dice, knives, trumpet, all demand equal at­ ten tio n , overshadowing the humor. 89 I t should be pointed out, however, that since metaphors always work in both directions, when a greguerifa humanises an object, the prime significance is that "lo humano," our primary area of interest, is reduced to the status of an object, i.e ., dehumanised. If plants, minerals, animals, etc., are frequently personified, then people are simultaneously being "mineralised," "vegetablized," and "aniraalised." In this sense we do have dehumanisation as interpreted by Ortega y Gasset. Cesar Barja’s commentaries on Ortega's observation of the so- called "dehumanised art" are pertinent to the change of human perspec­ tive in the greguerfa: Bajo el ti/tulo Nuevos sjtntomas destaea ya Ortega SI texaa de nuestro tienmo el fenomeno del arte nuevo o "arte joven" como un ejemplo mas de la "nueva sensibllidad" en que el dioho Tema de nuestro tiampo se supone arraigar. Como particular caraeteristiea de ese arte nuevo nota un cambio radical de la actitud subjetiva frente el fenomeno artdfstico en general, actitud que se manifiesta en el hecho de que dice "el arte ha sido desalojado de la sona serla de la vida, ha dejado de ser un centre de gravitacion vital.' This is true to a certain extent but only in form and not in content. The philosophical reflections in the greguar£a show them to be mixtures of fun and profundity. Frivolity is the keynote of his wit because what others take seriously he deals with humorously and what they con­ sider trivial he treats with great solemnity. Thus, the greguerfas can be as profound as they are humorous. Art has become a diversion but not to detract from seriousness of art but to supplement this awareness

^Llbros y autores contemnoraneos (New York: G. E. Steohert & Co.), p . 228. 90 with a new approach—through honor which requires a change of perspec­ tive—which necessitates looking away from the human being as a source of philosophical awareness. We have tried to disprove that art tries to ndescartar de el

Q todo el contenido humano ..." Pertinent is the following statement by Barja, his most significant comment concerning the real nature of the dehumanizing process: "lo humano, sin embargo, no es en s i ndsmo mas que un modo, una manifestation de la realidad; y el arte nuevo, que tiende a Blind, nar lo humano, es porque de hecho tiende a elindnar la realidad, toda realidad, y ante todo lo humano, precisamente como lo mas real. Dehumanization, then, becomes actually an evasion of reality: "Vemos ese arte como la hufida de la realidad de la vida que es, como el prodncto del eoctranamiento del hombre frente al mundo en que vive, y que lo rodea; como la axpresion de una radical desilusion y una radical disolucion cultural y vital.And out of this context the greguerfa emerges with i t s change of perspective toward re a lity , humanizing things and paradoxically de-emphasizing man. These thoughts lead to the conclusion that the basic meta­ phorical technique of the greguerfa reflects two contrasting procedures: the humanization coupled with an emphasis on things, and the inclusion but de-emphasis of the human being. As a result, man appears in the greguer&i, like the world of inanimate objects, primarily as a humorous subject, rather than in his traditional central role, while on the

8lb id . 9Ib id . . p. 230. 10Ib id . . p. 256. 91 other hand things appear on the same level as man in a world without categories. In short, the greguerdfa i s a d efin itio n , and,more than th at, a redefinition, implicitly or explicitly expressed, of some aspect of a reality in which all things are related. Its major reason for being is to capture relationships in this reality which is its central ref­ erence. Thus, an understanding and an acceptance of the presence of resemblances is a necessary prerequisite to an intelligent comprehen­ sion and judgment of the constant use of metaphor in the greguerfa. With this in mind, we can view a dollar sign as nothing more than the letter S on crutches, or the letter U as the horseshoe of the alphabet, or a picador as a fat Don Quixote, since these are still metaphorical redefinitions based on resemblances. So any definitive explanation of the greguerfa would in s is t upon the fact th a t the greguerfa s a tis fie s a desire for resemblances. And. in that sense each one represents an imaginative discovery of a not too obvious facet of reality.