Spain, philosophy in

Historians have argued about precisely when to date the commencement of Spanish history proper, rendering dubious any reference to Spain as such in the period prior to the official constitution of nationality. If this is the case, one can not really speak of philosophy in Spain before 1474, although it remains a fact that philosophy had been practised on the Iberian Peninsula from the earliest times. During the period of the Roman Empire, distinguished philosophical figures included Lucius Annqeus Seneca; under Visigothic rule, Saint Isidore of Seville came to the fore; and the Islamic Empire featured some of the most eminent philosophers of the Arabic and Judaic traditions, such as Ibn Hazm, Averroes, Ibn Gabirol, Yehuda Ha-Levi and Maimonides. There is no doubt that the centre of philosophical activity within the peninsula during the Middle Ages was the so-called School of Translators of Toledo, where numerous thinkers from many countries gathered. Together with Spanish scholars such as Domingo Gundisalvo and Juan Hispano, they collaborated in making Greek philosophy available to the countries of Europe; instrumental in this process were Gerard of Cremona, Daniel of Morlay, Alexander Neckham and Michael Scot. After Spanish nationality was constituted under the Catholic Monarchs (1474–1516) on the basis of a single, unified faith, philosophy was destined to become closely linked with religion. During the sixteenth century, this gave rise to a burgeoning of philosophy of the very highest order, which followed two separate paths: that of the Erasmian-style Renaissance, featuring Luis Vives, which developed in line with the vanguard of the European Renaissance; and that of Spanish Scholasticism, which was fuelled by the thrust of the Counter-Reformation on the one hand, and by the discovery of America on the other. After the reigns of Charles I and Philip II (the chief protagonists in the creation of the empire ‘in which the sun never set’), the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries witnessed a relentless decline which, towards the beginning of the twentieth, seemed to come to an end. The Generation of 1898, with its revolutionary secular theories, provided the catalyst for a philosophical recovery whose greatest protagonists were Miguel de Unamuno, José Ortega y Gasset and Xavier Zubir. These thinkers were succeeded by the philosophers who went into exile after the Civil War of 1936–9: José Ferrater Mora, José Gaos, María Zambrano, Joaquín Xirau, and Juan David García Bacca.

Valle-Inclán, Ramón María Del (1866–1936)

The Spanish dramatist, novelist, and poet Ramón del Valle-Inclán was a major figure of the Generation of 1898, a group of writers that reinvigorated Spanish letters in the wake of the Spanish-American War of 1898, which marked the end of Spain’s colonial empire. Valle-Inclán was one of the most radical dramatists of the early twentieth century and worked to subvert the traditionalism of Spanish drama. Influenced by French modernism and Symbolism, he later moved to more experimental styles and is known for the creation of the ‘esperento,’ an absurd and grotesquely satirical mix of comedy and tragedy. This style expresses the tragic meaning of Spanish life, which Valle considered to be a ‘grotesque deformation’ of European civilization. He held several administrative and teaching appointments, which allowed him to dedicate his life to writing while providing for his wife and five children.

Unamuno y Jugo, Miguel de (1864–1936)

Miguel de Unamuno is a Spanish writer and philosopher whose work includes essays, novels, poetry, drama, and journalism. He is considered to be one of the leading members of the Generation of 1898, a group of canonical writers championing the political and cultural regeneration of Spain in the early twentieth century. Recurrent themes in his oeuvre are the struggle between reason and faith, the question of mortality, and the search for identity (of both individuals and nations). His narrative oeuvre breaks away from the model of nineteenth-century realism by focusing on the inner life of the protagonist and introducing metafictional devices. Born in the Basque city of Bilbao, Unamuno studied at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of the University of Madrid. In 1891, he obtained the chair of Greek Philology at the University of Salamanca, of which he was appointed rector ten years later. In 1924 Unamuno was banished for six years due to his opposition to the dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera. On his return to Spain in 1930, he welcomed the Second Republic but soon was disappointed by it. After the outbreak of the Civil War, he first supported the Francoist rebellion but ended up condemning it publicly shortly before his death in 1936.

The Case for Teaching Culture through Neglected Authors: Carmen de Burgos and the Generation of '98

Teóricos del campo de la lingüística aplicada sostienen que para estudiantes de segunda lengua, la adquisición de la competencia cultural mejora por el uso de obras literarias. Aquí se propone que al integrar en la clase autores olvidados o marginados se ponen de relieve las ambigüedades, diferencias y contrastes presentes en la cultura predominante. Se ilustra cómo, en dos cuentos cortos de Carmen de Burgos, se plantea el problema de la mujer con todo lo complejo del tema, asunto casi pasado por alto por los autores incluidos en la Generación del '98. Applied linguistics theorists maintain that the acquisition of cultural competence by second-Ianguage students is enhanced through the use of literary works. The proposition of the present article is that by incorporating neglected or marginal authors i n the classroom, the ambiguities, differences and contrasts present in the predominant culture are highlighted. Through the study of two short stories by Carmen de Burgos, the woman question, a subject largely ignored by the Generation of 1898 writers, is set out in all of its complexity.