Maravall on Unamuno

Due to the fact that my reading of Maravall is limited to his work on the Baroque (which I enjoy), I am surprised about the case he makes for Unamuno in his essay "De la intrahistoria a la historia".  Of course, the essay takes place in a lengthy volume called Homenaje a Miguel de Unamuno.  What surprises me is his upbeat tone.  In La cultura del Barroco Maravall is famous for labeling the an entire nexus of culture as a form of state propaganda, a position that (some what) negates some contemporary positions.

In the field of peninsular literature (or what some of us prefer to call Iberian literary studies), the Generation of 98 is often viewed as an oversaturated object of inquiry.  On this view, not only has each word of these authors been scrutinized in relation to ever other, but los noventayochistas tend to favor a vision of Spain as Castile (a blanket criticism that overlooks outliers -- like Valle-Inclán).  Castile is the microcosm for Spain.  All other regions are absorbed into the history and vision of an aged empire.  Maravall says something different about Unamuno:

El «hombre sustancial» de que nos habla en «Visiones y comentarios», ese hombre que es alma y carne, que es espíritu y tierra-- esa tierra que es paisaje, creación humana recibida de sus antepasados-- nos lo presenta con frecuencia Unamuno como el individuo arraigado en la soledad campesina.  Frente a él, «el hombre de la calle o el de la ciudad, el ciudadano, propiamente el elector, el de partido, es el político, de polis, ciudad; pero el otro, el interior, el de a sus solas, es el individuo del mundo--cosmos--, es el cósmico.  (181)

Maravall's discussion begs a few important questions in today's attention or dismissal to Unamuno.  They concern me because one aspect of my prelim is a sort of genealogy of literary landscapes in 20th century Spanish literature.  I am working to re-invigorate thinking about Unamuno through his contact with a variety of Iberia's nationalisms and the multivalent concept of landscape.  Unamuno was Basque.  And his correspondence with Maragall is also fascinating.  These connections push us to investigate the claim to some sort of cosmos in Unamuno.  Indeed, as I have alluded to here, I think U's En torno al casticismo is saturated in dark dormant voices -- not only of humans but of nonhumans, geography and submerged caverns.