Clowning and tragic clowning: Miguel de Unamuno as a funny writer

ABSTRACT

The present study considers the role and function that humor has in Unamuno's intellectual and literary universe. It traces Unamuno's attitude toward humor to his reading of the Spanish character in En torno al casticismo (1895) and to his dialogue with the figure of Don Quixote, as found in Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho (1905) and Del sentimiento trágico de la vida (1912). Finally, it looks at the theory of humor offered in the novel Niebla (1914) and also at the role that humor played in Unamuno's later political writings, especially those of exile (1924–1930).

KEYWORDS:

• Humor
• nimbus
• Unamuno

Notes

1. For more detailed analyses of En torno al casticismo, see Ramsden; Shaw; Fox 112–23; Berchem and Laitenberger; Juaristi; Rabaté, Crise intellectuelle; Rabaté, Guerra de ideas 87–121; Hoyle; Ardila 33–65.

2. For an overview of Unamuno's concept of nimbo, see Álvarez Castro, La palabra y el ser, 133–36.

3. For an analysis of Unamuno's Quixotism, see Ferrater Mora 81–99; Close; Cerezo Galán 311–71; Storm 212–18 and 289–309; Britt Arredondo 75–89 and 131–43.

4. Unamuno will return to this idea in his major exile work Cómo se hace una novela (1927): see Unamuno, Cómo se hace 169–80.

5. See Vauthier, Niebla de Miguel de Unamuno and Arte de escribir. Other critics who have touched on this idea include Batchelor, Unamuno Novelist 150–89; Olson, Niebla; Vilanova, “La teoría nivolesca”; Øveraas, Nivola contra novela; Longhurst, Unamuno's Theory of the Novel.

6. On the many Shakespearean echoes in Niebla, see Roberts, “Oyéndose casualmente.”