Approaches to Teaching the Works of Miguel De Unamuno
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Approaches to Teaching the Works of Miguel de Unamuno Edited by Luis Álvarez-Castro The Modern Language Association of America New York 2020 © 2020 by The Modern Language Association of America All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America MLA and the MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION are trademarks owned by the Modern Language Association of America. For information about obtaining permission to reprint material from MLA book publications, send your request by mail (see address below) or e-mail ([email protected]). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Álvarez-Castro, Luis, editor. Title: Approaches to teaching the works of Miguel de Unamuno / edited by Luis Álvarez-Castro. Description: New York : The Modern Language Association of America, 2020. | Series: Approaches to teaching world literature, 1059-1133 ; 164 | Includes bibliographical references. Summary: “Offers pedagogical techniques for teaching the fiction, poetry, plays, and philosophical works of Miguel de Unamuno in college Spanish and comparative literature classrooms, including considerations of Romanticism, modernity, Catholicism, existentialism, autofiction, and metafiction. Includes information on reference works and online resources. Gives syllabus suggestions for undergraduate and graduate courses” — Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019049223 | ISBN 9781603294713 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781603294423 (paperback) | ISBN 9781603294430 (EPUB) | ISBN 9781603294447 (Kindle) Subjects: LCSH: Unamuno, Miguel de, 1864–1936 — Study and teaching. | Unamuno, Miguel de, 1864–1936 — Criticism and interpretation. | Unamuno, Miguel de, 1864–1936 — Outlines, syllabi, etc. | Spanish literature — Study and teaching (Higher) Classification: LCC PQ6639.N3 Z5466 2020 | DDC 868/.6209 — dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019049223 Approaches to Teaching World Literature 164 ISSN 1059-1133 Cover illustration of the print and electronic editions: Darío de Regoyos, Vendredi Saint en Castille (Viernes Santo en Castilla), 1904. © Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa / Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Published by The Modern Language Association of America 85 Broad Street, suite 500, New York, New York 10004-2434 www.mla.org CONTENTS Preface ix PART ONE: MATERIALS Overview 3 Editions 3 Translations and Bilingual Editions 7 The Instructor’s Library 9 Internet and Audiovisual Resources 15 PART TWO: APPROACHES Introduction 19 Luis Álvarez-Castro Teaching Unamuno Unamuno for the Twenty-First Century 29 Gonzalo Navajas Teaching Unamuno in Seven Contexts 36 Nelson R. Orringer Teaching the Multifaceted Unamuno in a Semester-Long Undergraduate Course 42 Leslie J. Harkema Literary and Historical Milieu Toward a Twentieth-Century Modernity: Unamuno’s Paz en la guerra 49 Salvador Oropesa Dressing Up Unamuno’s Naked Theater: Contextualizing Unamuno’s Drama in the Classroom 57 Tracie Amend Teaching Unamuno’s Poetry: Romanticism and Modernity 65 Stephen J. Summerhill Unamuno, an Iberian Thinker: Portuguese Culture and Travel Literature in Por tierras de Portugal y España 74 Juan Francisco Maura Unamuno’s Niebla: A Lesson in Paradox, Adaptation, and Innovation 80 Edward H. Friedman The Perversion of Genius: Unamuno’s Exile and the Censors 87 Ana Urrutia-Jordana vi contents Unamuno’s Press Articles: The Badge of Identity of the Unamunian Intellectual 93 Stephen G. H. Roberts Critical and Theoretical Approaches The Pathos of the Hero in Unamuno 99 Francisco LaRubia-Prado Of Love and Power: Teaching Unamuno’s Amor y pedagogía to Undergraduates outside the Literary Major 107 Mark J. Mascia Trains, Time, and Technology: Teaching “Mecanópolis” through Mobility and Science Fiction Studies 112 Benjamin Fraser Unamuno’s Metafiction: Niebla as a Deviation from Convention 119 Craig N. Bergeson Teaching Unamuno’s Novels: Confrontation and Existence 125 Juan Herrero-Senés Abel Sánchez; or, The Reader’s Personality as Textual Assemblage 132 Thomas R. Franz Teaching Cómo se hace una novela and Its Legacy in Contemporary Spanish Autofictions 137 Cristina Carrasco San Manuel Bueno, mártir as Literary Artifact 143 Brian Cope Teaching Miguel Picazo’s La tía Tula to College Students in the United States 151 Diana Roxana Jorza Comparative Literature, Philosophy, and Religion Classrooms Belief and Modernity in Del sentimiento trágico de la vida 159 C. A. Longhurst Mist in a Comparative Literature Classroom: Unamuno, Dostoyevsky, and Dialogue 171 Tom Dolack “My Imitators Are Better Than I Am”: Clarice Lispector, Unamuno, and the Agony of Creation 177 Adam Morris Unamuno in the Context of Jean-Paul Sartre and Modern Existentialist Literature 183 Robert Richmond Ellis contents vii Teaching Abel Sánchez to Undergraduates 191 Jan E. Evans Unamuno and the “Protestant Left” 197 Nelson R. Orringer San Manuel Bueno, mártir in an Integrated Spanish Major Unamuno’s San Manuel Bueno, mártir: An Integrated Performance Assessment Approach 206 Dawn Smith-Sherwood Discovery Learning and Unamuno’s San Manuel Bueno, mártir 213 Emily Joy Clark Notes on Contributors 219 Survey Participants 223 Works Cited 225 Overview The following pages provide a comprehensive overview of pedagogical resources available to instructors wishing to teach Unamuno’s works in their courses, be they in literature, philosophy, religion, or related fields. First, brief descriptions are given of the most relevant editions of Unamuno’s works in the original Span- ish, followed by descriptions of the English translations and bilingual editions. Next, “The Instructor’s Library” introduces the most significant book-length studies on Unamuno’s life, literature, and thought, as well as monographs pro- viding background on his literary and intellectual contexts. (Readers will ad- ditionally find information regarding journal articles on Unamuno in the essays in part 2.) While a good deal of this critical bibliography is written in Spanish, instructors will also find ample references to the rather extensive Unamuno scholarship published in English. The fourth section presents the growing cata- log of online editions of Unamuno’s works, both in Spanish and English, along with audiovisual resources for the teaching of his literature and thought, includ- ing film adaptations of some of his fictional works. Given the lack of an authoritative edition of Unamuno’s complete works, contributors to this volume use different editions according to their respective teaching practices. In cases where English translations are not available, they have provided their own. A note at the end of each essay will inform the reader of the specific texts employed, and full bibliographical information for those texts may be found in the works-cited list. Editions Despite Unamuno’s undisputable relevance both in Spanish culture and the field of hispanism, there is no canonical edition of his complete works. Owing to the monumental size of Unamuno’s epistolary and journalistic essay produc- tion, there is not even a truly comprehensive edition of his writings. There ex- ist, however, three incomplete collections of Unamuno’s works — nevertheless called obras completas ‘complete works.’ The first was initially published by Afrodisio Aguado between 1950 and 1958 and reprinted by Vergara between 1958 and 1964, ultimately containing sixteen volumes. Its initial editor, Manuel Sanmiguel, unapologetically explained in the opening volume that censorship had been applied to any “frase hiriente” ‘offensive statement’ (Sanmiguel 15). The second collection, edited by Manuel García Blanco — who had prepared several volumes of the Afrodisio Aguado / Vergara series — and published by Escelicer in nine volumes between 1966 and 1971, was similarly affected by the ideological constraints of the Francoist dictatorship, resulting in redactions of 4 editions Unamuno’s political writings.1 This edition is the most widely quoted in Una- muno scholarship and, arguably, the most readily available in college libraries in the United States. It covers the following topics and genres: travel literature and essays (vol. 1), novels (2), new essays (3), race and language (4), drama (5), poetry (6), spiritual essays (7), autobiographical writings (8), and speeches and press articles (9). A third compilation of Unamuno’s works was edited by Ricardo Senabre and published by Turner in ten volumes between 1995 and 2009. It shares with its precursors the omission of most of Unamuno’s journal- istic writings as well as the author’s complete correspondence. From a scholarly standpoint, the introductions by Senabre to each volume are notably less in- formative than those prepared by García Blanco for the Escelicer series. The contents of the ten volumes are as follows: novels (vol. 1), novellas and short fiction (2), drama (3), poetry (4–5), travel literature and autobiographical writ- ing (6–7), and essays (8–10). In addition to these collections, there are genre-based anthologies such as Novelas completas (“Complete Novels”), a 1,340-page volume edited by Juan Antonio Garrido Ardila and featuring a 150-page introduction; the two-volume Ensayos (“Essays”), published by Aguilar, with prologues by Fernando G. Can- damo; Teatro completo (“Complete Theater”), edited by García Blanco; and the four-volume Poesía completa (“Complete Poetry”), published by Alianza Edi- torial, with prologues by Ana Suárez Miramón. Those interested in Unamuno’s short fiction can make use of the two-volume Cuentos (“Short Stories”), pre- pared by Eleanor K. Paucker, or the more recent Cuentos completos (“Com- plete Short Stories”), edited