Unamuno's Theory of the Novel

How to be universal

“…In a dramatic episode, he seeks to occupy the corpse of the Holy Roman Emperor and Spanish King Charles V, only to be violently rebuffed. At this, all the body parts of the dead arise and chase around the continents of the globe, migrating across the confines of place and beyond those of their demise (52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58)(59)(60)(61). In this domain of the poetic imagination and poetic language, opposites merge and fuse, liberated from their defining limits but not entirely alienated from what they were: 'La carne se iba en mármol confundiendo / Y algo de carne el mármol se volvía' (Flesh gradually blended into marble, and the marble turned to something of flesh) (38).…”

“…59 In Alex Longhurst's phrase, Unamuno treats language as 'a protean and malleable material'. 60 In this way, the very words Unamuno uses are both drawn from specific contexts, and freed from them. Systems of thoughtpsychology, sociology, transcendental philosophy, biology, Christian theologyappear only as instances of this rhythmic swaying, coming and going in the text.…”