Approaches to Teaching the Works of Miguel de Unamuno
- Editor: Luis Álvarez-Castro
- Pages: 258
- Published: 2020
- ISBN: 9781603294713 (Hardcover)
- ISBN: 9781603294423 (Paperback)
“This is a very valuable tool for instructors at all levels of the Spanish curriculum . . . and is sure to be of use to scholars and teachers in other fields—comparative literature, philosophy, religion—who may be interested in including Unamuno in their classes.”
—Roberta Lee Johnson, University of Kansas
A central figure of Spanish culture and an author in many genres, Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) is less well known outside Spain. He was a surprising writer and thinker: a professor of Greek who embraced metafiction and modernist methods, a proponent of Castilian Spanish although born in the Basque Country and influenced by many international writers, and an early existentialist who was yet religious. He found himself in opposition to both King Alfonso XIII and the military dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera and then became involved in the political upheaval that led to the Spanish Civil War.
Part 1 of this volume, “Materials,” gives information on different editions and translations of Unamuno’s works, on scholarly and critical secondary sources, and on Web resources. The essays in part 2, “Approaches,” offer suggestions for introducing students to the range of his works—novels, essays, poetry, and drama—in Spanish language and literature, comparative literature, religion, and philosophy classrooms.
Preface (ix)
PART ONE: MATERIALS
Overview (3)
Editions (3)
Translations and Bilingual Editions (7)
The Instructor’s Library (9)
Internet and Audiovisual Resources (15)
PART TWO: APPROACHES
Introduction (19)
Teaching Unamuno
Unamuno for the Twenty-First Century (29)
Teaching Unamuno in Seven Contexts (36)
Teaching the Multifaceted Unamuno in a Semester-Long Undergraduate Course (42)
Literary and Historical Milieu
Toward a Twentieth-Century Modernity: Unamuno’s Paz en la guerra (49)
Dressing Up Unamuno’s Naked Theater: Contextualizing Unamuno’s Drama in the Classroom (57)
Teaching Unamuno’s Poetry: Romanticism and Modernity (65)
Unamuno, an Iberian Thinker: Portuguese Culture and Travel Literature in Por tierras de Portugal y España (74)
Unamuno’s Niebla: A Lesson in Paradox, Adaptation, and Innovation (80)
The Perversion of Genius: Unamuno’s Exile and the Censors (87)
Unamuno’s Press Articles: The Badge of Identity of the Unamunian Intellectual (93)
Critical and Theoretical Approaches
The Pathos of the Hero in Unamuno (99)
Of Love and Power: Teaching Unamuno’s Amor y pedagogía to Undergraduates outside the Literary Major (107)
Trains, Time, and Technology: Teaching “Mecanópolis” through Mobility and Science Fiction Studies (112)
Unamuno’s Metafiction: Niebla as a Deviation from Convention (119)
Teaching Unamuno’s Novels: Confrontation and Existence (125)
Abel Sánchez; or, The Reader’s Personality as Textual Assemblage (132)
Teaching Cómo se hace una novela and Its Legacy in Contemporary Spanish Autofictions (137)
San Manuel Bueno, mártir as Literary Artifact (143)
Teaching Miguel Picazo’s La tía Tula to College Students in the United States (151)
Comparative Literature, Philosophy, and Religion Classrooms
Belief and Modernity in Del sentimiento trágico de la vida (159)
Mist in a Comparative Literature Classroom: Unamuno, Dostoyevsky, and Dialogue (171)
“My Imitators Are Better Than I Am”: Clarice Lispector, Unamuno, and the Agony of Creation (177)
Unamuno in the Context of Jean-Paul Sartre and Modern Existentialist Literature (183)
Teaching Abel Sánchez to Undergraduates (191)
Unamuno and the “Protestant Left” (197)
San Manuel Bueno, mártir in an Integrated Spanish Major
Unamuno’s San Manuel Bueno, mártir: An Integrated Performance Assessment Approach (206)
Discovery Learning and Unamuno’s San Manuel Bueno, mártir (213)
Notes on Contributors (219)
Survey Participants (223)
Works Cited (225)
"This is a very valuable tool for instructors at all levels of the Spanish curriculum . . . and is sure to be of use to scholars and teachers in other fields—comparative literature, philosophy, religion—who may be interested in including Unamuno in their classes."
—Roberta Lee Johnson, University of Kansas
