Uncovering the Mind : Unamuno, the Unknown and the Vicissitudes of the Self

by Alison Sinclair

• ISBN13: 9780719061455
• ISBN10: 0719061458
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2002-03-20
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

Miguel de Unamuno, philosopher, writer, and academic, has a central position in early 20th century Peninsular Spanish letters, yet his importance in a wider intellectual and literary context has remained largely unrecognized. This study re-contextualizes Unamuno, by revising the concept of his intellectual parameters, and by including analytical essays on seven of Unamuno's major literary texts.

Author Biography

Alison Sinclair is Reader in Modern Spanish Literature and Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Introduction	1	(12)
PART I MENTAL MAPPING: THE INDIVIDUAL AND HIS WORLD
Man of books and letters: adventure and retreat	13	(18)
The scientific inheritance: explorations of minds and bodies	31	(19)
Art versus science: authority or authenticity?	50	(20)
Myths of origins: antecedents, progress and projections	70	(25)
Shopping for ideas and shipping contraband: Unamuno and the Argentina connexion	95	(16)
PART II THE THREATENED SELF: THE INDIVIDUAL, HIS FEARS AND FICTIONS
Emergence, definition and recognition: responses to primitive terror in Niebla	111	(15)
Twinning and singularity: El otro and the radical solitude of man	126	(14)
Envy: reconstruction and destruction of maternity in La tia Tula	140	(13)
The maternal vacuum: the paradox of the void and the uncontained in Dos madres	153	(17)
Engendering anxiety: Cain, Abel, and the mark of masculinity	170	(21)
Boundaries and black holes: Don Sandalio and the physics of personality and representation	191	(18)
Defences against closure: Como se hace una novela and the author	209	(18)
Conclusion	227	(4)
References	231	(12)
Index	243