UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Finding Life in the Corpus: Fiction as Existential History in Miguel de Unamuno, Ignacio Martínez de Pisón, and Javier Marías DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Spanish by Emily Ann Jackson Dissertation Committee: Professor Gonzalo Navajas, Chair Professor Jacobo Sefamí Professor Santiago Morales-Rivera 2017 © 2017 Emily Ann Jackson DEDICATION To Daniel, in hope that this is one of many trees we will remember hand in hand, years from now, and say in wonder, “It’s a gift!” This was the first thing Mark had been asked to do which he himself, before he did it, clearly knew to be criminal. But the moment of his consent almost escaped his notice; certainly, there was no struggle, no sense of turning a corner. There may have been a time in the world’s history when such moments fully revealed their gravity, with witches prophesying on a blasted heath or visible Rubicons to be crossed. But, for him, it all slipped past in a chatter of laughter, of that intimate laughter between fellow professionals, which of all earthly powers is strongest to make men do very bad things before they are yet, individually, bad men. —C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength (1945) Should the starting-point for the understanding of history be ideology, or politics, or religion, or economics? Should we try to understand a doctrine from its overt content, or from the psychological make-up and the biography of its author? We must seek an understanding from all these angles simultaneously, everything has meaning, and we shall find this same structure of being underlying all relationships. All these views are true provided that they are not isolated, that we delve deeply into history and reach the unique core of existential meaning which emerges in each perspective. —Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (1945) If this was history it did not feel like it. —George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia (1955) ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..............................................................................................................iii CURRICULUM VITAE..................................................................................................................v ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION.............................................................................................viii I. INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1 II. CHAPTER 1: Personality as Historical Truth in Miguel de Unamuno ............................14 III. CHAPTER 2: Ethical Implications of Fiction’s Potential Spaces in Ignacio Martínez de Pisón’s Enterrar a los muertos and El día de mañana......................................................64 IV. CHAPTER 3: Embodied Experience at the Intersection of Inheritance and Legacy: Family Memory and History in Corazón tan blanco, Dientes de leche, and El tiempo de las mujeres..................................................................................................................119 V. CONCLUSION................................................................................................................176 WORKS CITED..........................................................................................................................180 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My journey to this point began in utero, when my mom was a grad student in the Spanish Department at UC Irvine during the 1982-1983 school year. My gestation and the school year coincided almost exactly, and while her colleagues began summer vacations, my mom was embarking on a much longer and life-altering adventure: motherhood. Six daughters and almost thirty-five years later, my mom’s master’s degree remains to be finished. But by Summer 2018 the six daughters will have accumulated five bachelor’s degrees, four master’s degrees, one J.D., and two Ph.D.s. Somehow, the four grandbabies are still the greater triumph. Together, my mom and dad have spent their lives ensuring that their daughters had every opportunity and expecting the best from us. Thank you to my mom, Cuqui Younger, for passing on a love for learning through long mornings spent teaching me to sound out the letters and late nights spent discussing San Manuel, Bueno. I love you. Thank you to my dad, Terry Younger, for your humble servanthood in always being the guy behind the scenes, making our opportunities possible with long hours, days, months, and years of hard, hard work. I love you. Gracias a mi Bito, Eladio Short, y a mi Bita, Elda Short, ahora fallecida, por enseñarme con su ejemplo el amor a la poesía y el cuento. Me mostraron que estos son tesoros de deleite y sabiduría para la vida cotidiana, no sólo artefactos vigilados por los académicos. Los amo. My dissertation advisor, Professor Gonzalo Navajas, has provided invaluable guidance and encouragement at every step in this process. He has been a model of a professor who truly cares about his students and their work. His direction as my advisor has been intellectually invigorating and—at times—painfully pragmatic. I will miss our conversations. Thank you to my committee members, Professor Jacobo Sefamí and Professor Santiago Morales-Rivera, for your generous willingness to participate in my dissertation project and for all that you invest in me and the rest of your students through your dedication to teaching and mentoring. Readings and seminar interactions with all of the other outstanding faculty in the Spanish Department (and several in other departments—especially Jane Newman in Comparative Literature) have shaped my intellectual landscape and furnished me with a long list of Things to Read Next. Thank you for sharing not just your knowledge but your enthusiasm for the material. This project would not have been possible without the financial support of the Dean’s Fellowship from the UC Irvine School of Humanities and the GAANN Fellowship. I am grateful for all of the opportunities provided by UC Irvine and for the guidance and support of the administrative staff in the Spanish Department. Thank you to my colleagues in the Spanish Department, especially Jared White for his mentorship and Manuel del Alto for demonstrating genuine care that has inspired me to keep going when I knew I was in over my head. My friends at Sovereign Grace Church of Orange and my dear friend Emily Milnes have prayed for me and cheered me on during the many highs and lows of grad school. You have loved me, fed me, laughed and cried with me, cared for my family, and most of all reminded me to look to “Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2, NKJV). There is no better reminder. Thank you. Daniel and Eva have made more sacrifices for this project than anyone. I love you both more than any collection of words could tell. Now on to the next adventure! iv CURRICULUM VITAE Emily Ann Jackson EDUCATION Ph.D. Spanish Language and Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2017. M.A. Spanish Language and Literature, University of California, Irvine, June 2012. B.A. Spanish, California State University, Fullerton, summa cum laude, May 2009. Minor Speech Communication, California State University, Fullerton, May 2009. Certificate Arabic, California State University, San Bernardino, September 2009. J.D. Oak Brook College of Law, summa cum laude, October 2003. DISTINCTIONS GAANN Fellowship recipient, 2016-2017. Completion of Ph.D. qualifying examinations and advancement with honors, June 2015. Dean’s Fellowship. University of California, Irvine, 2010-2016. Strategic Language Initiative Grant. CSU Consortium for the Strategic Language Initiative Program, 2008-2009. Academic Distinction in Spanish. California State University, Fullerton, 2009. Dean’s List. California State University, Fullerton, 2007-2009. Member, State Bar of California, 2004-2017. PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS “History and Autopsy in Unamuno’s San Manuel Bueno, mártir.” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, University of Kentucky, April 2017. v “The Ethics of History-making in Martínez de Pisón’s El día de mañana,” UC Davis Tenth Annual Colloquium in Latin American and Peninsular Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, October 2014. “Elusive Corpse, Evasive Corpus: Grasping for Truth in Martínez de Pisón’s Enterrar a los muertos,” UC Irvine Graduate Student Colloquium, May 2014. Panel participant, UCI Film Forum, Women Directors Series: Katmandú, 2014. Panel participant, UCI Film Forum: La voz dormida, 2012. “Earth on the Other Side: Studying Arabic Language and Culture in Jordan,” CSU Fullerton Fourth Annual Conference on Literature, Culture and Languages, 2010. “¿Ángel endemoniado?: La narradora de San Manuel Bueno, mártir,” CSU Fullerton Third Annual Conference on Literature, Culture and Languages, 2009. PUBLICATIONS “Finding Life in Corpse and Corpus,” UCI School of Humanities Magazine: Body & Wellness, September 2016. TEACHING EXPERIENCE University of California, Irvine: Teaching Assistant Introductory Spanish courses • Spanish 1A (Fall 2011, Winter 2014, Spring 2014) • Spanish 1B (Winter 2012, Spring 2015) • Spanish 1C (Spring 2012) • Spanish 1AB (Summer 2014) Intermediate Spanish courses • Spanish 2A (Fall 2012) • Spanish 2B (Winter 2014, Winter 2015) • Spanish 2C (Fall 2014) Teaching Practicum (under supervision of Dr. Gonzalo Navajas) • Spanish 123 (Winter