The Gregueria of Ramon Gomez De La Serna: a Study of the Genesis, Composition, and Significance of a New Literary Genre
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This dissertation has been 64—6917 microfilmed exactly as received 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 .