Santiago Ramón y Cajal en la literatura, el cine y la televisión

Abstract

Introduction. The life and work of Santiago Ramón y Cajal has been portrayed in scientific papers, biographical and autobiographical works, comics, films, television series or documentaries that have attempted to reflect upon his life or his contributions to science and to bring him closer to the general public. Aims. To analyse the different ways Santiago Ramón y Cajal has been represented in literature, cinema and television, and to become more closely acquainted with this scientist through his fictional writings. Development. A number of biographical works have been written about Santiago Ramón y Cajal, including scientific papers, comics, books for children and youngsters, as well as the autobiographical writings, essays and even science fiction stories, which provide a good introduction to the life of the scientist and his work. His life has also been adapted to film (Leap to fame) or television (Ramón y Cajal, historia de una voluntad; The butterflies of the soul), which have, with varying degrees of success and accuracy, made him better known to the general population. Conclusions. The numerous biographical writings, historical notes, articles, the scientific work itself, the essays and fictional works by Cajal, as well as the portrayals of the Spanish Nobel Prize winner produced for films and television, can be used to obtain some interesting insights into the scientist, teacher, science populariser, humanist physician and, in short, the man who made such important contributions to neuroscience.

SANTIAGO RAMÓN Y CAJAL Y LA LITERATURA DE FICCIÓN Los cuentos de vacaciones y su valor pedagógico

“…In the story, several individuals are miniaturised and introduced into a person's body in order to save the host from a brain tumour. A similar story can be found in Innerspace (1987), directed by Joe Dante (Collado-Vázquez & Carrillo, 2016).…”

“…Santiago Ramón y Cajal was born in Petilla de Aragón in 1852 and was a doctor and humanist who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1906. He was renowned worldwide for his histological work, and especially for developing neuron theory, as opposed to the classic reticular theory defended by authors such as Camillo Golgi, with whom Cajal shared the Nobel Prize (Collado-Vázquez & Carrillo, 2016).…”

“…Cajal is considered the father of neuroscience and is known throughout the world for his scientific work. Perhaps less well known are other aspects of his life such as his interest in philosophy, drawing, gymnastics, reading, photography, chess, astronomy, archaeology, and hypnotism (Collado-Vázquez & Carrillo, 2016). In addition to his scientific and biographical work, he also wrote and illustrated fictional stories.…”

“…The work that impressed him the most was Robinson Crusoe (1719), by Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), because the shipwrecked man, who spends twenty-eight years on a desert island, shows a great spirit of selfimprovement and a daily effort to survive and defeat nature. In addition, the novel presents an attractive unspoilt landscape to be discovered (Aguilar-Alfaro & Giménez-Mestre, 2006;Collado-Vázquez & Carrillo, 2016;Delgado-Bona, 2003). His fascination with this adventure story led him to write a Robinsonade novel about a shipwrecked man and the adventures he lives on a deserted island.…”

“…These early stories and some of his youth poems were lost, as Cajal himself recounts, during some of his journeys as a military doctor. The histologist stated that, had they been preserved, it would have been a pleasant vulgarisation of histology and bacteriology concepts (Collado-Vázquez & Carrillo, 2016). In 1873, Amalio Gimeno (1852-1936), a friend of the Spanish Nobel Prize winner and the professor of doctors such as Gregorio Marañón or Vicente Sanchis Bayarri, published a surprisingly similar story.…”