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Issued at University College of London (April 2012) Blueprint for a paper in which I study 2 biographies' series Spin-off from my PhD dissertation (Plutarco de Moda. La Biografía Moderna en España, 2009) Theoretical considerations Socio-Cultural Context Features of the Book Series Legacy & Conclusions Manuel Pulido Mendoza PhD Hispanic Studies Twitter: @manuelpm [email protected]
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'Vidas' Book Series (Espasa-Calpe)
Blueprint for a paper in which I study 2 biographies' series
Spin-off from my PhD dissertation (Plutarco de Moda. La Biografía Moderna en España, 2009)
Theoretical considerations
Socio-Cultural Context
Features of the Book Series
Legacy & Conclusions
Manuel Pulido Mendoza
PhD Hispanic Studies
How old do you think the word 'biography' and the genre are?
Definition of Biography as a Literary Genre
West and other World Cultural spheres have long traditions of Life-Writing
But Biography is a 17th C neologism First appeared in England and France Secular Third Estate life-writing, Individualism,
personal records in paper, Rationalism & Science Lit. Convention of Enlightment, Industrial
Revolution, Romanticism, Bourgeois Soc. (Epstein)
How do you define a biography?
Definition (2)
Different from other forms of Life-Writing: Memories, Diary, Autobiography, récit de vie -sociology tool-, self-fiction...
As a literary form, conventionally, is a restrospective life-facts account of a third person.
How do you distinguish fiction from referential
literature?
Critical Aproaches towards Biography
50-60s: Biography as an Art
70-80s: (Postmodern Ap.) Biography as a Plot, Creation of the language or fiction, Negation of the subject factual account
90s: Cultural Studies: broadening the subject
BUT: Referentiality still matters in a pragmatic level (P. Lejeune, D. Cohn):
– Sources (verifiable)
– Narrative perspective
– Narrator identity (Author=narrator)
Modern Biography Forms
Non fiction, referential:
Historiography
Literary essay
Fiction:
Historical Novel
Biofiction
Which event changed the history and the
aesthetics of 20th C.?
History of New or Modern Biography
WWI: Dehumanization Extension of literacy New Technology Aesthetics changes:
Abstract Avant-Garde
Reaction / Back to humanism(s)
'New Biography' between wars... First appeared as a literary mock of
the Bourgeois (Victorian) conventional biography:
UK: Bloomsbury group: V. Woolf, L. Strachey, H. Nicolson, A.J.A. Symons
France: R. Rolland, A. Maurois
Germany: E. Ludwig
Austria: S. Zweig
Italy: G. Pappini
...And between aesthetics
Best-seller, competing with novel (Ortega)
Psico-biography (Freud)
Subjective time (Bergson)
Neo-Romanticism: Hero vs Masses
Only the work counts (New Criticism),
Imposibility of the genre (Existentialism)
How this affected to Spain and Spanish
Biography?
Socio-cultural Causes for “Vidas” Series in Spain
WWI Neutrality BUT Colonial War / Dictatorship / Restoration Regime crisis
Economic development: Publishing Industry during 20s
Educational & Propaganda Tools
Hispanic life-writing tradition
European models of New Biography (authors & series)
Celebrated the century of Romanticism in 1930
Celebrated the century of LatAm Independence
Back to human form after abstract Avant-garde
Best-seller genre in Ferias del libro Madrid (1933-1936): 'biografías noveladas'.
Ortega y Gasset's Cultural Leadership
The mind after the biograghy fashion:
Philosophy: Vital Rationalism, European Liberalism
Ideas sobre la novela: 'Nova Novorum' (Chacel, Rodríguez-Fischer)
Cultural leadership and sponsor: Rev. Occ., El Sol, Espasa-Calpe (Papelera Española)
Biographer himself
Melchor Fernández Almagro, Series editor
Historian, journalist, writer, essay writer
García Lorca's and other progressive intelectuals' friend
Became Ortega's colaborator, editor of the series 'Vidas españolas del siglo XIX” in Espasa-Calpe
Expert on 19th C. Spanish History and Law, wrote Orígenes del régimen constitucional en España (1928)
The colection was successful thanks to its pluralistic ideological approach
Evolution of 'Vidas' Series in Espasa-Calpe
1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942
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2
4
6
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10
12
14
16
18
20
Vidas extraordinarias
1st ed. VEHAXIX
1st+2nd ed VEHAXIX
Characters by Class, Origin, Gender
Nobiliary&Church / other classes Spanish / American / Both Men / women
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10
20
30
40
50
60
Column 1
Column 2
Column 3
Features of 'Vidas EHASXIX'
Most successful: Longest (1929-1942, 59 volumes, 17 reimp.)
Characters' social classes: open to broader extent
Women: 1 author, 7 characters, 11,86%
Hispanic American Presence (after Torres Bodet)
Ideologies: plural but with a moderate tone; an evolution
Literary forms: historiographic, literary essay (Baroja).
Theoretical considerations (forewords and reviews)
Some covers
-Retro design (Tipography & Filigree)
-Title: Name and description or motto
-Symbolic Motive or Design related to the biographee
Antonio Marichalar, editor of 'Vidas Extraordinarias'
1927 Poetic Group's member
Literary critic (The Criterion, El Sol, Rev. Occ.) and biographer
Introductor of English Lit. in Spain (Strachey, Woolf, Joyce, Conrad, Faulkner)
Strachey's translator in Rev. Occ.
Features of 'Vidas Extraordinarias'
No space or time limit
Spanish (1/3) and successful Foreign authors (2/3)
Good translators and Spanish authors
More women's biographies (5 of 14)
All of them reprinted in Argentine “Colección Austral” after the war
Conclusions
Biography was a broad cultural battlefield in Modern Spain
It explains identities in conflict
It offers a better understanding of Modern Spain and its approaches to LatAm & Europe
Espasa's: Model for further series, started a tradition of Modern Biography
It's still relevant in a social level
Currently Biographical Studies in Hispanic World are 'in'