Sobre el autor y la obra
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Unamuno
o
1864-1936
o
Generation of ’98
o
Essayist,
novelist, poet, playwright, and philosopher
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This
was Unamuno’s third novel
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Influence of existential themes
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Influence of modernism
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Dehumanized
novel – no knowledge of setting or timeframe
-
Unamuno
called this book a “nivola” in a desire to distinguish it from traditional
realist/naturalist novel of previous century
Comps ideas to consider
-
Generation of 98
-
Existentialism
-
Metafiction
Secondary
Sources – Cambridge Companion to Spanish
Novel: Chapter 10 (pg. 157)
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Unamuno’s
third novel
-
Novel
stripped of external descriptions and depictions of social ills and
institutions
-
Introduced
a metafictional element – characters discuss the process of novel-writing,
specifically the kind of novel we are reading
o
“Victor
Goti, friend of the main character Augusto Pérez, is writing a nivola, which he defines as having a
great deal of dialogue and no plot or a plot that makes itself up as it goes
along, just as life is lived” – idea of spontaneous novel
-
More
metafiction – author himself appears as a character who engages in an important
conversation with Augusto
o
“The
wealthy August has fallen in love with Eugenia, who already has a boyfriend
named Mauricio. Eugenia, disgusted with Mauricio’s suggestion that she marry
Augusto but continue their relationship on the side, breaks with him and
finally agrees to marry Augusto. At the last minute, however, she elopes with
Mauricio and writes Augusto a devastating farewell letter. In despair Augusto
decides to commit suicide, but before doing so, he travels to Salamanca to
consult with Unamuno, who tells him that he cannot kill himself because he is a
fictional entity. Augusto, up to this point a passive character, begins to
assert himself. He determines to prove his existence by committing suicide; he
eats too much for dinner and dies, leaving the reader to decide whether it was
Unamuno who killed him or if he killed himself.”
Secondary Source: Notes from Catedra "Comentario de
Niebla"
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"Niebla es un juego de
espejos, un laberinto de apariencias y simulacro."
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5 concentric circles:
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1. La realidad textual de quien escribe
(prólogo y post-prólogo)
o
es de suponer que Niebla es
una biografía que narra la misteriosa muerte de un hombre conocido por ambos,
Unamuno y Víctor Gotí
o
múltiples juegos de palabras.
o
Víctor nos informa que él y Unamuno han
decidido invertir la costumbre de pedir a un autor conocido escribir un prólogo
para un desconocido...in this case, Víctor is the desconocido and Unamuno, el
conocido.
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2. La realidad textual del protagonista
en la narrativa (ch. 1-7)
o
ambiguity of the textual reality of the
protagonist from three "distinctive existential situations" that are
similar to a symbolic "desarrollo embriogénico" ---"second
birth" of Augusto al salir del ensimismamiento radical en que se
encuentra al principio de la obra. (Basically, we go from an almost entirely interior monologue
to increasingly frequent interactions with others).
o
*Debemos tener en cuenta que el
monólogo interior es el complemento necesario del diálogo.
o
Augusto
is introvert (and impotent, apparently)
o
in
chapter 5, he meets a dog, Orfeo and his interior monologues become
"monodialogues" with the dog.
o
at
the end of ch. 7, there are two versions of Augusto: la del narrador-esteta
ridículo, la de Augusto-ensimismado introvertido
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3. La realidad textual de los
personajes como entes de ficción (ch. 8-30)
o
el central y más extenso
o
La Celestina y Don
Quijote se enlazan en una parodia extensa que establece la textualidad
de Augusto (***Like in La Regenta, there seems to be a turn-of-the-century
resurgence in interest in Quijote...)
o
p.ej: Tanto Calixto como Augusto entran
en la casa de la amada debido a un pájaro.
o
Calixto: impulsado por la belleza de
Melibea a contratar los servicios de Celestina...Augusto intenta ganarse el
apoyo de la portera, Margarita, para la conquista de Eugenia.
o
Calixto: galán apuesto y del
mundo//Augusto: esteta perdido en su propia niebla de inacción, impotente
o
Día por día, Aug. lucha por descubrir
su yo/el sentido de su existencia...Don Quijote salió de su casa en viajes
largos buscando imitar las aventuras de sus modelos textuales, pero lo que
encuentra es que su imitación se ha convertido en un texto original
o
Chapter 25: la duplicación interior
modelada en el Quijote ya ha tenido su efecto subversivo de hinchar la
realidad textual a expensas de la realidad inverosímil...otro recurso
cervantino, el de la intervención directa del narrador
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4. La realidad textual del protagonista
ante el que escribe (31-33)
o
Narrative
voice shifts to first person, the author of the story speaking
o
"El autor es el medio que produce
el texto inicialmente, pero esta producción es parcial, inacabada, y
deficiente. El autor rinde todo control sobre su creación al entregársela al
lector."
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5. La realidad textual del protagonista
y el que escribe ante el lector (epílogo)
Characters
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Augusto
Pérez – protagonist, very pensive and passive rather than active
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Eugenia
– woman that Augusto falls in love with
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Mauricio
– Eugenia’s boyfriend
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Rosario
– another woman that Augusto gets involved with
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Unamuno
– author of novel, who appears within text (metafiction, yo)
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Victor
Goti – Augusto’s friend, a fictional character who is treated like a real
person
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Orfeo
– Augusto’s dog
Summary
(Wikipedia)
The plot revolves around the character of Augusto, a
wealthy, intellectual and introverted young man. He falls in love with a young
woman named Eugenia as she walks past him on the street, and he sets about
trying to court her. He is aided in his efforts by the other members of
Eugenia's household. Her aunt is particularly keen for a relationship to
evolve, so that Augusto might help with her niece's financial troubles.
Nevertheless, Eugenia rejects his advances, since she is already in a
relationship with the down-and-out Mauricio. Augusto pays off Eugenia's
mortgage as a goodwill gesture without her knowing, but this only serves to
insult Eugenia, rather than endear her to him. In the meantime, Augusto becomes
involved with another girl, Rosario, and he begins to question if he is really in
love with Eugenia at all. After talking with various friends and acquaintances,
Augusto decides he will propose to Eugenia in any case. To his surprise,
Eugenia accepts the engagement. A few days before the marriage is to occur,
Augusto receives a letter from Eugenia. The letter explained that she was
leaving him for Mauricio. Augusto, heartbroken, decides to kill himself.
However, because everything he does involves a lengthy thought process, he
decides that he needs to consult Unamuno himself (the author of the novel), who
had written an article on suicide which Augusto had read. When Augusto speaks
with Unamuno, the truth is revealed that Augusto is actually a fictional
character whom Unamuno has created. Augusto is not real, Unamuno explains, and
for that reason cannot kill himself. Augusto asserts that he exists, even
though he acknowledges internally that he doesn't, and threatens Unamuno by
telling him that he is not the ultimate author. Augusto reminds Unamuno that he
might be just a character in one of God's dreams. Augusto returns to his home
and dies (although whether or not he is killed by Unamuno or commits suicide is
a subject of debate and is mostly down to the reader's opinion). The book ends
with the author himself debating himself about bringing back the character of
Augusto. He establishes, however, that this would not be feasible. The eulogy
is given by Augusto's dog.
The title, Spanish for 'fog', is a reference to how Augusto
sees his life. Augusto describes his world as full of small and almost
imperceptible occurrences, some of them good some of them bad, that all serve
to obscure his vision. (This occurs in Chapter 7)
Somewhat more
detailed summary
Begins
with a prologue that describes the work as a “nivola” and describes Unamuno as
someone who doesn’t believe that anything has any sense if the soul is not
immortal. The protagonist, Augusto Pérez, is kind of a head-in-the-clouds type
who thinks long and hard about every little thing. He thinks that life is a fog
(hence the title) through which we stumble. Augusto is captivated by a woman
named Eugenia, a working woman who pays for her own house by teaching piano
lessons and lives with her aunt and uncle, but she turns him down because she’s
all into this deadbeat named Mauricio (who doesn’t really respect her). So,
Augusto is captured by seemingly every woman that comes his way for awhile,
including one of his servants, Rosario. He realizes his feelings for Eugenia
are more platonic, spiritual and so he tries to prove his friendship by buying
her house for her but she thinks that he’s just trying to buy her affections so
she gives him the deed and swears to work even harder. Eventually though, they
decide to become buddies.
Every so often,
Augusto will have a philosophical conversation about either the nature of life
itself or the nature of marriage. Things like that. Víctor Goti, one of his
friends, is the man who coins the term nivola
to describe a book that he’s writing (creating a new type of work in order that
he not be restrained by the conventions of the standard novel). It becomes a
meta-novel as Víctor and Augusto discuss the features of the nivola (composed
of lots of dialogue and very little narration. The characters create
themselves. Pleasure of conversation for the sake of conversation). This all
comes after Víctor has bemoaned the fact that his wife is pregnant after 12
years of being barren because it messes up the routine that they’ve
established. Once his son is born though, he loves him big time.
Augusto, in
trying to experiment with the psychology of women, becomes engaged to Eugenia
and abandons Rosario.
However, after Augusto finds a far-off job for Mauricio, Eugenia leaves Augusto
to be with her old flame. After that, Augusto resolves to kill himself. He goes
to meet with the author Miguel Unamuno because he has read some of Unamuno’s
writing on the subject of suicide. Unamuno tells Augusto that he is nothing more
than a character in one of his novels/nivolas and that he is neither alive nor
dead. After they argue, and Augusto threatens to kill Unamuno rather than kill
himself, Unamuno swears that he will kill Augusto. So, when Augusto returns
home rambling about all this stuff, he eats a ton and then dies in bed. Then,
his dog Orfeo dies as well (after narrating most of the last part of the
novel).
Temas / ideas
importantes
-
Generation
of 98
o
Rejection
of realism, attempt to write something different/distinct/new (“nivola”)
-
Metafiction
o
Metanovel
– novel about a novel
o
Author
(Unamuno)’s presence within work as admitted author
o
Unamuno’s
interaction with Augusto – in which he tells him that he, Unamuno, is the
author and created Augusto, and that
Augusto is just a fictional character
o
Unamuno’s
debate with himself (at end of text) whether or not to bring back the character
of Augusto
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Existentialism
-
Religious
questioning
o
Doesn’t
explicitly deny God, but rather questions His existence
o
Some
preoccupation about what occurs after death (especially if God doesn’t exist)
-
Nature
of life
o
Augusto
compares it to mist, dream-like
The Book: General Notes
Prólogo
by Víctor Goti: "relata la tan lamentable historia de mi buen amigo,
Augusto" -Unamuno asked me to write this...calls it a novela or nivola.
Critiques some Spanish writing, e.g. for making juegos de
palabras too obvious; the only real humorist we've has was Cervantes,
etc.
Announces
Augusto will die "cumpliendo el propósito de suicidarse, que me comunicó
en la última entrevista que con él tuve, se suicidó realmente y de hecho,
y no sólo idealmente y de deseo."
Post-prólogo
Responds to Goti, (total confusion about who's a real
character and who's not)
I.
Augusto: ¡No, yo no soy vago! Mi imaginación no descansa. Later, he meets
portera, Margarita.
II. Augusto gives a card to Margarita for Eugenia.
III. Augusto talks to Víctor: I'm in love (they're playing
chess)
IV.
Augusto's criado's wife: "casarse es muy fácil; pero no es tan fácil ser
casado." Life is boring sometimes..."La niebla de la vida
rezuma un dulce aburrimiento, licor agridulce."
V. Augusto goes on about love, "amar es vivir".
His mom had died some time ago (she was his doting servant). Finds Orfeo (dog), asks it for advice. "El padre de Eugenia se suicidó
después de una operación bursátil desgraciadísima."
VI. Woman is upset about her canary that just died, Augusto
just wants to talk to her about Eugenia.
VII. Talks with dog about love.
VIII. Eugenia and Augusto meet by-way-of Doña Ermelinda.
He's super happ
IX. Eugenia tells Mauricio (otro pretendiente) what happened
with Augusto. She's mad at Mauricio for not getting a job (threatens: or
else!)
X. Augusto goes to talk to Víctor in casino. Víctor: "Tú estabas enamorado, sin saberlo, de la mujer, del
abstracto...al ver a Eugenia, ese abstracto se concretó y te enamoraste de
ella."
XI. Aug. goes to see E again. E: "Tengo novio".
She tells him she loves the novio (not exactly true). Don
Fermín: "estoy convencido de que las cercas y tapias de las propiedades
privadas no son más que incentivos para los que llamamos ladrones, cuando los ladrones
son los otros, los propietarios. El hombre nace bueno; la sociedad le
malea."
XII.
Augusto moaning over unrequited love to Rosario.
XIII. Liduvina tells Augusto Eugenia is here to see him. E
is mad because Aug paid her debts; You wanted to buy me! Don Avito tells him:
sólo se aprende a vivir viviendo, marry someone who loves you.
XIV.Víctor, his friend, says he got married really young
"because of a false alarm". Later, can't have kids & blames wife
for sterility (and she blames him). 5-6 years later, they're happy they don't
have kids. For him it's like a "concubinato legal". Now, somehow, she
got preggers-feels like a bad joke to Víctor. She, Elena, feels embarassed.
Augusto is looking forward to having a wife like his "replacement
mom"- he's more interested in alma than cuerpo.
XV. Tía Ermelinda tells E. to get with the program and get
married even if she doesn't love A. (because he's too good of a guy, too
"marica"). E.'s still upset about being "bought", Tía calls
that 'Femenismo'. A. comes by and apologizes-oh! what a sweet young man, thinks
Tía.
XVI. E. gets mad at Mauricio. She seems increasingly enticed
by the offer to recobrar her finca. Mauricio said he's scared of getting
married, doesn't like to work (but doesn't want to live off of a WOMAN's
salary, allah forbid) and isn't interested in nenes. Mauricio proposes that she
could marry A. and they could have a little something on the side...BASTA! He
reveals himself as the anti-Don Juan because she seduced him!
XVII. Don Eloíno gets sick. Friend advises him to get
married so that when he died, his viuda could get some money from the state.
The woman is a total user-abuser type. Of course, he doesn't die promptly (but
eventually). Moments about talking about writing a book without a plot, with
lots of dialogue (which of course it what that part of the book feels like). "Es muy frecuente que un autor acabe por ser juguete de sus
ficciones..." He's
going to invent a new genre for his book...nivola.
XVIII. E. finally talks to A. and says the bf is gone. In an aside, E. says "no hacemos sino representar cada uno su
papel." "Siempre hace falta la tercera (not just the two people in a
relationship), La Celestina. La Celestina es la sociedad."
XIX. E.'s servant asks A. if his gift (of her house) is
"sin compromisos". He said, "I've already done it and I don't
care about her reaction, really." He just says, "I'll be on my own
and that's fine." Laments the "pobres árboles trasnochadores"
who can't sleep because of street lights. "Levantóse
y empezó a recorrer calles como un sonámbulo" (like estudiante de
salamanca?)
XX. E. and A. meet, agree to be good friends.
XXI. Antonio talks about the story of his unfaithful wife
who had a kid with another man, "es mi hijo y no del ladrón; yo la he
criado"
XXII.
Víctor repeats to his friend "no te cases si quieres gozar de la ilusión
de una juventud eterna."
XXIII. A. finds himself falling in love with many women.
Decides to consult Paparrigópolus who is something of a young philosopher. "Los eruditos andamos a quitarnos unos a otros las pequeñas cositas
que averiguamos y a impedir que otro se nos adelante." All women "son una sola
y misma mujer" (Who IS this guy?!?)
XXIV. A. must find a third woman to pursue or drop down to
just one, according to Pap. So, heads for Rosario...wants to see his reflection
in her eyes, "sólo así llegaré a conocerme...viéndome en ojos de
mujer." Rosario is kinda freaked out by him.
XXV. Now Víctor tells him to get married. "quote"ish from Hamlet, "¿Dudas?, luego piensas; ¿piensas?,
luego eres....DUDAR ES PENSAR." Then, quote from Unamuno "y yo soy el
Dios de estos dos pobres diablos nivolescos" <-Metafiction
begins...
XXVI. Eugenia offers to marry Augusto
XXVII.
Eugenia doesn't want Orfeo to be a part of the marriage- "Es que cuando
nos casemos no ha de haber monólogos en mi casa." (more metafictive...getting
weird). E. wants A. to find a job for Mauricio to distract him
XXVIII. Mauricio repeats to Augusto the same thing about
looking him in the eyes that A. had said to Rosario. (maybe Ros+Maur have a
thing now?)
XXIX. Everything is ready for the wedding. A. is a little
overwhelmed. Cries in his bed.
XXX. A. is convinced people are making fun of him. Antonio says "Y hay que confundir...Confundir el sueño con la vela, la
ficción con la realidad, lo verdadero con lo falso; confundirlo todo en una
sola niebla." "no
hay sino devorar o ser devorado". A. feels like he's a father, like he's
been born...to suffer, to die. "Lo más liberador del arte es que
le hace a uno dudar de que exista." Things are becoming a psychological game...A. starts to
become suicidal.
XXXI. First person narrator. "Hey, in order for you to
kill yourself, you must actually be alive." A. talks
back "no ha sido ud. el que varias veces ha dicho que Don Quijote y Sancho
son no ya tan reales, sino más reales que Cervantes?" Author: I don't feel like
having you commit suicide. I could kill you though. (Yet, A. doesn't want U. to
kill him). **interesting that there's very little mention of the
Church/religion in this book.
XXXII.
"Partió Augusto de esta ciudad de Salamanca adonde vino a verme." A. thinks about the fact that
he might not exist. Leaves a note. "Unamuno, se salió ud. con la suya. He muerto -A." (this
reminds me of La Regenta/Clarín. When things are surprising, we say they're
like a novel. When things are real in a novel, we say it's like life) A. dies
of a heart problem (but the body is one unitary structure, so heart dies and
everything goes)
XXXIII. Unamuno feels bad for making him die, yet can't
resucitar him because you can't do that to Quijote either.
Epílogo: Orfeo was the saddest one about A.'s passing.
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