JOSE MARIA GABRIEL Y GALAN AND HIS POETRY Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Stadt, Bessie Winifred Stanford, 1914- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 08/10/2021 23:40:02 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/288116 This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 69-19,887 STADT, Bessie W. Stanford, 1914- JOSE MARiA GABRIEL Y GALAN AND HIS POETRY. [Portions of Text in Spanish], University of Arizona, Ph.D., 1969 Language and Literature, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan ©COPYRIGHTED BY BESSIE W. STANFORD STADT 1969 iii • • / JOSE MARIA GABRIEL Y GALAN AND HIS POETRY by Bessie W. Stanford Stadt A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN SPANISH In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1969 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by Bessie W. Stanford Stadt entitled Jose* Maria Gabriel y Galan and his Poetry be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy • L-- Jt mn Dissertation Director After inspection of the final copy of the dissertation, the following members of the Final Examination Committee concur in its approval and recommend its acceptance:" dn>H/ tiLJ m AT 3 Q / d f 3 f. * This approval and acceptance is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the final oral examination. The inclusion of this sheet bound into the library copy of the dissertation is evidence of satisfactory performance at the final examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to bor­ rowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNEDhi. SU/Jf PREFACE The decision to study Jos6 Maria Gabriel y Galan and his poetry brought with it the problem of evaluating a "regional" poet. In order to resolve this problem and to arrive at a fuller comprehension of Gabriel y Galan1s poetry, a trip to Spain and the areas in which he lived was undertaken in the summer of 1966. I should like at this time to express my deep appreciation of the courtesy and help granted me in Spain. I am most grateful to Jose Canal Rosado of Caceres and Jesus Delgado Valhondo of Badajoz who were most generous with their assistance in furthering my research. - I am likewise indebted to the Provincial Deputations of Salamanca, Caceres, and Badajoz which not only presented me with copies of journals from their archives but also opened their libraries to me when they were officially closed. I cannot fail to mention Miss Margaret Hussman, United States Consul in Madrid, whose gracious letter of introduction opened many doors on which I would otherwise have knocked in vain. My thanks are extended also to the grandson of the poet, Jose Maria Gabriel y Galan Gabriel for his interesting com­ ments on his grandfather as well as for the opportunity to examine the autograph of "El Cristu Benditu.11 iv V I am very thankful to Professor Charles Olstad and Professor Robert Anderson for their reading of the manuscript and their valuable suggestions as well as to Professor Renato Rosaldo, Head of the Department of Romance Languages at The University of Arizona, for his encouragement of my scholastic endeavor. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT viii 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. BIOGRAPHICAL DATA ... 3 3. A SURVEY OF THE CRITICISM OF THE POETRY OF GABRIEL Y GALAN 10 Contemporary Appraisals of Gabriel y Gal&n 10 Interim Criticism 24 Commemorative Studies Honoring the Fiftieth \ Anniversary of Galin's Death 41 Recent Appraisals of the Poetry of Gabriel y Galan 52 4. AN ANALYSIS OF GALAN'S IDEOLOGY 59 His Spiritual Naturalism 60 The Countryside as a Setting for the People 65 The People as Inhabitants of the Countryside 90 His Attitude toward Solitude, Death, the Past, and his own Environment 122 Loneliness, Nothingness, and Death 122 Ubi ierunt? 140 The Country in Contrast to the City 148 His Use of Dialecticisms 160 5. AN ANALYSIS OF LITERARY INFLUENCES AND RELATIONSHIPS 169 His Poetry as an Expression of his Literary and Environmental Heritage 171 His Poetry as an Expression of Contemporary Ideas and Techniques 209 vi vii TABLE OF CONTENTS- - Continued Page 6. CONCLUSIONS 261 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 268 ABSTRACT A review of the biographical material concerning Jos6 Maria Gabriel y Galan (1870-1905) and a comparison of the criticism cover­ ing his literary production with the poems themselves invalidates many of the opinions held by previous critics and opens the way for a broader interpretation of his poetry. During the poet's lifetime and on the occasion of his death, the majority of the critics praised him, stressing his regionalistic quali­ ties and the beauty of his descriptions of nature and accepting the dialect of the Extremefias as Extremaduran. Pardo Bazan classified him as apart from the other poets of his period. For the next fifty years, this type of broad spectrum criticism was repeated. Modern­ istic qualities were found in his poetry by M. Henriquez Urefia and the poet's association with the Generation of 1898 was also mentioned by A. Valbuena Prat during this period. In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of his death, previous eulogies were recapitulated and the critics still favored the theme of nature in their studies. A romanti­ cized biography by V. Gutierrez Macias, a quite objective analysis by C. Heal de la Riva, and journalistic studies by Emilio Salcedo are outstanding. Recently critics from outside his area have become in­ terested in Galan's poetry. viii ix An investigation of his poetry reveals that Galan's descriptions of the countryside and his- socio-psychological vignettes carry the underlying philosophy of Spiritual Naturalism which was predominant during the latter part of the nineteenth century. This visualization of nature's organic constitution transcends the exteriority of nature to find an association with God. The theme of love, the expression of the poet's interest in the less fortunate, the brotherhood of mankind, and the regeneration of Spain pertain to this concept. Even in his attitude toward loneliness, death, nothingness, ubi ierunt, as well as in his contrasting of city and country life is seen his basic philosophy. Linguistically speaking, the Extremefias are poems of a region and are not in the Extremaduran dialect but the vulgar speech of Salamanca. Galan's literary and environmental heritage includes Biblical and folk themes as well as influences from Fray Luis de Leon, Mel6ndez Vaides, and Espronceda. Analysis of his poems negates many of the prejudiced opinions of early critics. For example, sev­ eral thematic and stylistic influences of Modernism found in his poetry illustrate his expression of contemporaneous ideas and his use of in- novational techniques. His relationship with Unamuno and his connection with the Generation of 1898 are seen in his realistic descriptions of the coun­ tryside, his analysis of the ills of Spain, and his participation in the Unamunian concept of intrahistoria. Basically, however, Galan's thought more closely approximates that of Gald6s as a comparative analysis of Marianela, El amigo Manso, and Fortunata y Jacinta with representative poems shows. The Spiritual Naturalism of Gald<5s finds its poetic representative-in the poetry of Gabriel y Galdn. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The attitude of the critics toward Jos6 Maria Gabriel y Galan has ranged from little more than a cursory dismissal to the warm eulogies of his contemporaries and those participating wholeheartedly in the revindication of his poetic ability fifty and more years after his death. Between these two extremes there are a few objective analyses of his work. His themes have been broadly classified on an obvious basis, but in few instances have his poems been examined in depth for underlying motifs. The purpose of this study is to attempt to place Jose Maria Gabriel y Galan in the proper perspective in his epoch, by evaluating the validity of the critical material that has sprung up around his poetry and by reappraising the more representative examples of his poems. The continuity of this critical material will be examined to determine to what extent it is based on the personal prejudices and regional bias of the critics and to what extent it reflects the literary standards and atmosphere of the time in which it was written. The poems will be scrutinized in the light of this criticism and their constituent thematic, stylistic and linguistic elements investigated. 1 i 2 Influences, sources and similarities revealed by a comparison of Galan's poetry with that of preceding and contemporary writers will be noted. His participation in the Modernist Movement and his re­ lationship to the Generation of 1898 will be discussed from today's viewpoint in an endeavor to show the correlative implications. The theme of Nature, stressed by the majority of the critics, will be demonstrated to have greater significance than previous discussions of its exterior aspect indicate, and the existence of the theme of spiritual naturalism, common to both Galan and Gald6s, will be proven.