Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2011-12-07 Thawing the Frozen Heart: Turning to Antonio Machado to Overcome the Silence in El corazón helado by Almudena Grandes Richard A. Henricksen Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Henricksen, Richard A., "Thawing the Frozen Heart: Turning to Antonio Machado to Overcome the Silence in El corazón helado by Almudena Grandes" (2011). Theses and Dissertations. 2849. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2849 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Thawing the Frozen Heart: Turning to Antonio Machado to Overcome the Silence in El corazón helado by Almudena Grandes Richard A. Henricksen A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Gregory C. Stallings, Chair John R. Rosenberg Alvin F. Sherman Jr. Department of Spanish and Portuguese Brigham Young University December 2011 Copyright © 2011 Richard A. Henricksen All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Thawing the Frozen Heart: Turning to Antonio Machado to Overcome the Silence in El corazón helado by Almudena Grandes Richard A. Henricksen Department of Spanish and Portuguese, BYU Master of Arts In an attempt to demonstrate Spain´s obligation to recover its ignored historic memory, Almudena Grandes evokes the poetry of a man whose past itself has been manipulated, misused and partially forgotten: the great poet Antonio Machado. In this study I examine the use of the famous “two Spain” imagery from Machado´s “Españolito” as a tool for subverting many erroneous concepts about the war that, according to Grandes, are still prevalent in Spanish society. I also examine how this “two Spain” conflict demonstrates the crossroads that faces the third generation of Spaniards after the Civil War: that of collectively remaining in silence or turning openly to the past. To capture this conflict Grandes uses images of water and ice as symbols of the fluidity (or lack of fluidity) of time, images similarly used by Machado throughout much of his poetry. As Álvaro, the protagonist, progressively discovers the past his father had so desperately tried to hide, his heart breaks free of the ice that had surrounded his life. His example demonstrates the actions that Grandes desires for a society that still suffers from the effects of the prevailing historic ignorance: that of turning to the past for a foundation on which to build. By evoking Machado´s name and exploring similar imageries, Grandes not only strengthens him as a defender of the Republic but suggests that the only way for Spain to become normal again is to turn to the Republic and its ideals and build upon what they started and what has been overlooked since the Civil War. Keywords: Almudena Grandes, Antonio Machado, Henri Bergson, historic memory, El corazón helado, “Españolito,” fluidity of time, recovery of memory, “two Spains” ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank my thesis chair, Dr. Gregory C. Stallings, for his friendship and support. Without him and his thought-provoking classes on contemporary Spanish literature and Spanish poets of the twentieth century I would never had made the connection between Grandes and Machado. I thank Dr. John R. Rosenberg for his inspirational classes and, even with being the Dean of Humanities, he always found the time to meet with me to discuss my goals and aspirations. I thank Dr. Alvin F. Sherman Jr. for his enthusiasm for El corazón helado and other contemporary novels which convinced me of the merits of this project. I thank Dr. Douglas J. Weatherford for always encouraging me to do what I love and love what I do. I thank my daughter Kaylee for still calling me dad regardless of the lack of time we spent together during this project. Most importantly I thank my wife Kelli, for editing my chapters, listening patiently to my ideas and challenges, and always encouraging me to aspire higher. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Machado Caught Between Two Spains .................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Two Spains, Two families: Challenging the Official History ..................................... 13 Chapter 2: Breaking Free of the Ice: Overcoming the Silence ..................................................... 43 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 82 Appendix: Machado´s Poems Cited.............................................................................................. 86 Works Cited .................................................................................................................................. 98 iv Introduction: Machado Caught Between Two Spains El gran poeta de España, el que mejor había retratado el espíritu de la vieja Castilla, sus paisajes, el carácter de sus pueblos y gentes, murió en circunstancias trágicas, que engrandecieron aún más su figura y la elevaron a la categoría de mito. Su muerte se convirtió en una metáfora de la división de las dos Españas que él había contado en versos ya famosos. -Muñoz and García, “Poeta rescatado” En el caso de Machado ha habido un intento constante de manipularlo. -Almudena Grandes, “Machado es el dechado” 1 Poeta rescatado Only two months after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Francisco Franco, leader of the rebellious fascist army, began a supplementary yet equally important battle against the Republicans: a battle for Spanish culture. Organizations such as the “Oficina de Prensa y Propaganda,” organized in September 1936, became the frontline in defending the Fascist movement as well as Fascist literature and propaganda against the ideological attacks of Republicans (Santonja 429). Although this particular organization was short-lived , its principles and objectives continued to manifest themselves in other official organizations established by the regime (429-33).1 One such was the newspaper Escorial, organized in 1940, whose mission was to “ampliar las perspectivas intelectuales de los vencedores y recuperar para el régimen a un brillante puñado de personalidades aisladas” (433). The regime was led by director Dionisio Ridruejo who was intent on preserving for the victorious Spain those aspects of culture that demonstrated true Spanish value and traditions (431-37). He therefore set out to recuperate through Escorial and other means, many poets, writers, artists, and philosophers that in his view had been slandered or deceived by the politics of the war (431-37). At the top of the list resided the recently deceased Antonio Machado. The staff of Escorial felt that Machado “resultaba, por multitudes de razones, del máximo interés para los escritores orgánicos de Falange” (436) and his “recuperación” to the nation became a priority and was set into motion. Along with his committee at Escorial, Ridruejo “se dispuso a rescatar la imagen perdida” (437) of the great Spanish poet, declaring him “el único fragmento verdadero de la cultura universal de que los enemigos habían dispuesto” (qtd. in 1 For more information regarding the organizations established by the Nationalists to protect the culture see Gonzalo Santonja, "Antonio Machado y ´su recuperación´ durante los primeros tiempos del franquismo," Antonio Machado hoy (1939-1989): Actas del Congreso Internacional conmemorativo del cincuentenario de la muerte de Antonio Machado. May 11-13, 1989, ed. Pauls Aubert (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 1994) 429-440. 2 Santonja 437). Describing Machado in this manner allowed the Fascist regime to place him and his poetry as universally worthy of admiration and study, while at the same time completely rejecting the other philosopher or artist sympathizing with the Republic (437). However, Ridruejo recognized that not all of Machado’s works and ideas were considered worthy of a Fascist Spain. Despite the fact that his later works were written in defense of the people, and by extension for the Republic (González 88), Machado´s earlier poetry from his first collections, Soledades. Galerías. Otros Poemas, and Campos de Castilla, were approved by the regime for their introspective nature as well as for their beautiful descriptions of the Spanish country (Rubio 421). In November of 1940 Ridruejo published an issue of Escorial dedicated completely to Machado’s poetry. His earlier works were highlighted yet his latter works, those that have been described as his “más simples y más hondas y de sus más ´verdaderos´ apócrifos” (Valente 104) had been purposefully left out. Ridruejo argued in the prologue titled “Antonio Machado, poeta rescatado” that the poet had been “moralmente secuestrado” (qtd. in Santonja 437) by the Republicans; in other words, he had been deceived by the cunningness of the enemy. His late works were simply those of a man confused by his surroundings and the circumstances in which he found himself. Machado’s life and poetry had become another example of the spoils seized the victors. His story was rewritten in order for him to stand with the victors and therefore, further justify and ennoble their cause. His involvement with the