Sobre el autor y la obra
-
Martín-Santos
o
Spain, 1924-1964
o
Considered
one of the greatest Spanish novelists of the 20th century
-
This
work was censored initially; an uncensored version wasn’t published until 1981
Comps ideas to consider
-
La novela experimental: la ruptura
con el realismo: Luis Martín-Santos
Secondary
Source – Cambridge Companion to Spanish
Novel, Chap. 11: Gonzalo Sobejano
-
Critical or dialectical realism (180)
-
Collective
protagonist – whole country of Spain, represented through Madrid (181)
Notes from article: Voz narrativa y
protagonista
-
Pedro-narrador señala al lector y a sí
mismo que "un hombre encuentra en su ciudad no sólo su determinación como
persona y su razón de ser, sino también los impedimentos múltiples y los
obstáculos invencibles que le impiden llegar a ser."
-
Pedro demuestra tener una gran agudeza
crítica al hacer tales comentarios como las descripciones de Madrid, la
disertación sobre el cuadro de Goya, y las interpretaciones de la literatura
española.
Characters
-
Pedro
– protagonist, recently graduated doctor
-
Amador
– Pedro’s assistant
-
Muecas
– guy who provides rats for Institute’s experiments
-
Florita
– Muecas’s oldest daughter
-
Dora
– daughter of the guy who Pedro rents his pension from
-
Dorita
– Dora’s illegitimate daughter
-
Cartucho
– Florita’s boyfriend
Summary (from Wikipeda)
**
This summary is based on the film, not the novel, but seems pretty in line with
the book.
The story is set in Madrid in
the late 1940s early 1950s during the first years of Franco’s regime. Pedro
Martín, a young and ambitious doctor, is studying the effect of cancerous cells
on mice, but he has run out of mice in his laboratory, since they do not breed
there, and he has no funds to purchase more of these expensive laboratory
animals from the United States. Nevertheless, his assistant, Amador, informs
him that he gave some of the mice to an old trapper, nicknamed “el Muecas”, who
lives in precarious conditions in a shanty town outside Madrid, and that this
poor man has successfully bred them with the help of the natural heat of his
daughters. The incredulous scientist goes to the shanty town to obtain the
mice. There, Pedro meets Muecas, Muecas's wife Ricarda and their two daughters
Florita and Conchi. With the warmth of the women’s breasts, as the flirtatious
Florita shows Pedro, the mice are able to reproduce.
Pedro himself lives in a
modest boarding house run by a military widow and her daughter Dora, who also
has a vivacious daughter, Dorita. The owner of the boarding house tries to
encourage the doctor to fall in love with his granddaughter, Dorita, so that
his medical career may release them all from a life of squalor and penury.
During her birthday reunion, Dorita clearly shows Pedro that she is interested
in him. Pedro and his rich friend Matias discuss literature and painting in a
café and later they go out for a night of heavy partying in a house of
prostitution in which Matias gets involves with a prostitute that closely
resembles his own mother. Returning to his boarding house, Pedro goes to
Dorita’s bed. He excuses himself for being drunk, but she welcomes his advanced
and they make love, starting a relationship.
Pedro is awakened at dawn by
Muecas who needs his help as a doctor and begs him to save the life of his
daughter, Florita, who is severely hemorrhaging after a botched abortion. Pedro
tries to do what he can to save the girl’s life, but she dies in spite of his
efforts. With the horrific death of her sister, Conchi reveals that Muecas was
the father of the dead child in an incestuous relationship with his own
daughter. Cartucho, a low life tough guy, boyfriend of the butchered Florita,
is jealous of the doctor and after talking to Amador, extracts a false
confession. Amador makes him wrongly belief that Pedro is guilty of having
aborted the child and killed the mother. Later that day, Pedro is sought by the
local police. Dorita warns him and Pedro hides in the local brothel run by Doña
Luisa. Meanwhile, Matias begs Amador to tell the police the truth of Pedro's
innocence, but Amador refuses to cooperate.
The police finally apprehend
Pedro, who surprisingly, confesses rather than admit the truth because of the absurdity
of the situation. Ricarda, Florita's mother, follows the remains of her
deceased daughter to the place where the autopsy is performed. She can not calm
down and is arrested for interrupting the medical examiners. Meanwhile Pedro's
girlfriend, Dorita and Matias try to help him using Matias's influences in
order to set Pedro free, but they do not succeed. However, in the commissary,
Ricarda, realizing that the doctor has wrongly accused of her daughter death,
tells what have happened. Her testimony saves the doctor from prison. To
celebrate his freedom, Pedro and Dorita go to a fair. They have been followed
by Cartucho, who jealously watches Pedro dance with Dorita. Still believing
that Pedro is guilty of Florita's death, Cartucho takes advantage of a moment
in which Pedro is away buying some sweets and stabs Dorita. When Pedro returns
just a moment later, Dorita is already dead.
Themes/ideas
-
Writing
style
o
Third
person narration, sometimes omniscient and sometimes limited
o
Long,
run-on sentences
o
Some
use of local dialect
o
Random
asides with more philosophical thought
-
Realism
o
Stark
description of reality
-
Novela
posguerra
o
You
can see the lasting effects of the war on society/town (poverty, lack of
resources for scientific experiment)
o
Negative
perception of Spanish identity
-
Various
social perspectives/classes
o
Upper
class (Matías and his mother)
o
Intellectuals/scientists
(Pedro, Matías, the philosopher)
o
The state (the police)
o
The
lower class, almost poor people (Dora, Dorita, Amador)
o
Poor
people (Muecas’s family, Cartucho)
-
Costumbrismo
-
Gender/women
o
Some
description of women’s condition after the war
o
Florita
– botched abortion
-
Absurdity
General
plot notes
-
The
novel begins...
In the war, they ate rats (and cats). "Proteínas para el pueblo desnutrido."
Cancer research with specially selected mice who are dying faster than they're reproducing. Muecas has some extra mice. Mice were stolen from a lab.
In the war, they ate rats (and cats). "Proteínas para el pueblo desnutrido."
Cancer research with specially selected mice who are dying faster than they're reproducing. Muecas has some extra mice. Mice were stolen from a lab.
-
Describes
poorly planned and poor towns...long sentences!
"un hombre es la imagen de una ciudad y una ciudad las vísceras puestas al revés de un hombre." Cities, in short, are not the most wonderful, beautiful places they can appear to be.
"un hombre es la imagen de una ciudad y una ciudad las vísceras puestas al revés de un hombre." Cities, in short, are not the most wonderful, beautiful places they can appear to be.
-
(These run-on sentences are going to
kill me...)
-
"Así que mi hija prefirió un
mediohombre que ella podía tener en un puño o doblar en pedazos cuando se le
hubiera puesto en la idea hacerlo y que así y todo, fue suficiente a quitarla
la doncellez ya algo apolillada..." Had his grandchild when she was 19.
-
Guy still describing his daughter
"Así es como descubrí el encanto de la juerga flamenca, pues maldito para
lo que servía mi chaperonamiento." (starts to drink rum...owns a pensión/guest house)
-
"Comenzó
entonces a venirme otra clase de clientela" that required them to dress
like widows, act with more discretion.
-
Don Pedro, in chabolas, "hacía
caso omiso de estas actividades marginales de su secuaz"- just excited to
get his mice. Pedro
has a very scientific viewpoint of things (e.g. rotting calamares)
-
Fimosis, sífilis, venéreo, consultorio
económico... Pedro, ante estas muestra de la ciencia a cuya edificación él
mismo colaboraba, no se sentía molesto sin que noblemente consideraba esta
proyección sobre el bajo pueblo y la masa indocta de tan sublimes principios.
-
(worries
a little that the girls on the farm could catch mice's disease)
-
"La segunda generación estaba
gravemente oscurecida por la madre prepotente y por la consciencia de su
historia anterior." Some
talk about the 1st/2nd/3rd generations, how people change
-
RE: The War-
"Desgraciadamente-sonreía Pedro-yo soy pacífico. No me interesan más
luchas que las de los virus con los anticuerpos."
-
¿Por qué ir a estudiar las costumbres
humanas hasta la antipódica isla de Tasmania? Como si aquí (en las chabolas) no
viéramos con mayor originalidad resolver los eternos problemas a hombres de
nuestra misma habla....Como si no se supiera que la edad media de pérdida de la
virginidad es más baja en estas lonjas que en las tribus de África central
dotadas de tan complicados y grotescos ritos de iniciación (Interesting social
judgements/commentaries....)
-
Local dialect....
-
Cartucho is angry at Florita...¡Que
puede parecerse un crío a su padre! Es igual que yo. Pero no hay pruebas. Ella
ahora lo deja a su hermana la fea y a hacer la carrera con la nariz
rota...."
-
Pedro
talks to Amador/Florita about the mice. Goes to their chabola to pick them up.
He wants to know how they're keeping them alive, but Amador is resistant to
show him.
-
The
mice are kept in rusty old cages and Muecas and his daughters all share one
mattress (for warmth and to know the girls aren't "out" at night).
Mice slept in plastic bags on top of the women. (WEIRD!)
-
Muecas' prejudices:
Una certidumbre despreciativa permitía encontrar en los rostros de los coreanos la marca de la inominia y de la raza inferior. (Muecas thinks he's a big deal for doing business with a Dr.)
Una certidumbre despreciativa permitía encontrar en los rostros de los coreanos la marca de la inominia y de la raza inferior. (Muecas thinks he's a big deal for doing business with a Dr.)
-
Pedro
in streets of Madrid. Observing night scenes-coffee shops/taxis.
-
"Lo que Cervantes está gritando a
voces es que su loco no estaba realmente loco, sino que hacía lo que hacía para
poder reírse del cura y del barbero, ya que si se hubiera reído de ellos sin
haberse mostrado loco, no se lo habrían tolerado..."
-
Pedro
and rich friend Matías discuss painting/go out partying/see prostitutes. (from Wiki)
-
"El número de desnudos que pinta
indica el nivel alcanzado por la represión de un pueblo-opinó confusamente
Pedro pensando en sus propias represiones." German guy is showing them his
paintings. (Mentions
of WWII, gas chambers, ghettos)
Now, they start drinking (as mentioned above). Matías, in the whorehouse waiting room, launches into a ridiculous speech to the "vírgenes de Jerusalén".
Pedro ends up at home, with Dorita. "Te quiero-siente Pedro que va su boca pronunciando, prometiendo, desliando..."
Now, they start drinking (as mentioned above). Matías, in the whorehouse waiting room, launches into a ridiculous speech to the "vírgenes de Jerusalén".
Pedro ends up at home, with Dorita. "Te quiero-siente Pedro que va su boca pronunciando, prometiendo, desliando..."
-
Florita
is getting an abortion. Losing a lot of blood. (Her dad sits on her-squeezes
out contents of her bowels…awful!) She
seems dead before the procedure starts…
-
Muecas
smacks la hermanilla who accuses him of causing her death/performing the
abortion.
-
Meet
Cartucho, who’s chabola is AWFUL, unclean, a disaster. Cartucho threatens
Amador, who says Muecas is responsible. Amador then says “Fue el medico”
-
Seeiming
random, long aside….philospphical and (indecipherable, to me)
-
Flash
to a medical lconference where Pedro attended. (This book is very hard to read
because of the long sentences.
-
-
Costumbrismo:
Dorita’s mom ordering horchata when it’s too cold, orders Mahou beer instead
(beer of Madrid) with black olives.
-
Talks
about bars where men enter, with free alcohol, with a cover charge. And women enter free (sin derecho a consumición) –not feminist at all!
-
“El buen pueblo, con su permiso para
divertirse se apretaba a la otra parte del pueblo que le había caído en suere y procuraba , con
ese pedacito de cosa, consolarse de los trabajos y los días que arrastradamente
cen sin remedio sobre él y sacaba fuerza de flaqueza para hacer como si
divirtiera (like the Enlightenment/ Espectáculo-Feijoo)
-
Cartucho shows up, tells Dorita “Vamos
a bailar, guapa.” , stabs her, “la venganza había sido ejecutada.”
Notes from a random article "Novela española contemporánea":
-
Censure
could be a good thing for literature of the posguerra because it forces things
to be said indirectly.
-
Cela: descripción
satírica de costumbres y paisajes contemporáneos
-
la novela adquiere dimensiones más
profundas y evidentes.
-
Ana María Matute: cree un mundo fantasía infantil poético y fantasmagórico a la vez. La gran
contribución suya es plantear un problema ético y moral en cuanto a todas las
guerras mediante un uso de metáforas claves dentro de un sistema formal que se
va desarrollando en la obra. "ellos" y "nosotros".
Matute enlaza la quemazón de judíos en Mallorca en el siglo XV-con la crueldad
de todos en la isla, y su división en dos bandos--con la matanza entre
españoles por las fechas en que su novela tiene lugar. Vista así la obra Doble
plano de recuerdo de infancia, proceso de hacerse mujer Matia, y de búsqueda de
raíces ante la auto-destrucción de una nación
-
vamos de hechos particulares a
generalizaciones humanas
-
Cinco horas con Mario
o
profundo estudio psicológico de la
mentalidad de una mujer de clase media española.
o
-van resumiendo la vida que han llevado
juntos, y retratan la sociedad vacía de valores en que se mueven.
o
sintáxis de flujo de consciencia.
-
Tiempo de silencio-
o
El lenguaje, o búsqueda de un nuevo
lenguaje expresivo, es lo que la da una cualidad especial.
o
Martín Santos deja a su héroe (?) en
una encrucijada existencial, consciente de sus fracasos anteriores, a punto de
empezar otro rumbo en su vida, y ante un inexorable signo de interrogación
irónico.
o
-singular modo de narrar mediante el
cual el narrador y Pedro se funden algunas veces, mientras que otras se
establece una distancia que permite al narrador más su voz de auto omnisciente.
o
Pedro-pertenece a la pequeña burguesía.
Penetra las clases altas por su amistad con Matías y las chabolas con Muevas.
o
quedan claros el atraso científico y
espiritual de España a través de los tiempos, o-en un contexto más general, el
papel del hombre razonante en una sociedad industrial.
o
Características del lenguaje:
§ 1. amontonamiento (“aunque no gratuito ni barroco”)
§ 2. entretejido del habla coloquial con términos científicos o filosóficos
§ 3. suprema ironía del narrador, que nos recuerda a Cervantes, Quevedo,
Larra, y Valle-Inclán
-
Ciudad: importancia metafísica
-
-estilo coloquial directo sirve para
efectuar la simbiosis entre hombre de pueblo y hombre de ciudad.
-
-limits
on the freedom of the individual in a city.
-
-es, a la vez, costumbrista-realista-y-alegórico/filosófica.
-
-
-Hay “un absurdo” que afecta la obra
(Pedro, llevado por circunstancias fatídicas, a intervenir en un aborto que ya
había empezado el padre de la chica.
-
-Pierde su empleo en el laboratorio por
el mal nombre que eso le da.
-
-Then, Pedro’s girlfriend is stabbed by
the chulo, el amante de la joven del aborto.
-
-Al terminar la obra, Pedro está camino
de un pueblo en la sierra par servir de medico local.
-
-could
be considered bildungsroman. could also discuss themes of fatalidad.
-
-Maybe
the end can be interpreted as Pedro’s acceptance of the fact that maybe being a
town medic is just as important as winning nobel prize for research (again,
highlighting the retraso científico in Spain).
-
Martín-Santos “deja al lector en el
aire, entre la posibilidad de rendención del hombre por un proceso de liberación
y responsabilidad, y la ironía final que roba al individuo su libertad, y lo
somete a una fuerza externa que lo
domina y aplasta.”
-
In
general in Spain at this time: Censure…BUT, beginning to crack and open to the
outside world because of influx of tourists and emigration of Spaniards to work
in other countries.
