Francisco Ayala (novelist)
Encyclopedia
Francisco Ayala García-Duarte (Granada
, Spain
, 16 March 1906 - Madrid, Spain, 3 November 2009) was a Spanish writer, the last representative of the Generation of '27
.
and Humanities
. During those years he published his first two novels, Tragicomedia de un hombre sin espíritu (Tragicomedy of a Spiritless Man) and Historia de un amanecer (A Sunrise Tale).
He was a frequent collaborator of Revista de Occidente and Gaceta Literaria. He lived in Berlin
from 1929 and 1931, during the advent of Nazism
. He got a Ph.D. in Laws at the Universidad de Madrid
, where he would also be a teacher.
At the beginning of the Republic
he became a lawyer for the Parliament. He was lecturing in South America when the Spanish Civil War
erupted; he worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the war.
When the Republican side lost the war, he exiled in Buenos Aires
, where he spent ten years. There he worked for the magazine Sur, the newspaper La Nación
and the publisher Losada. He also founded, along with fellow Spaniard Lorenzo Luzuriaga, the magazine Realidad.
During the '50s he moved to Puerto Rico
, where he would teach at the Law school
in the University of Puerto Rico
, invited by Dean
Manuel Rodríguez Ramos. He later went to the United States
, where he taught Spanish Literature at the Universities of Princeton
, Rutgers
, New York
and Chicago
, though he kept close intellectual and cultural bounds with Puerto Rico, where other noted Spaniards, such as Pau Casals and Juan Ramón Jiménez
, were also exiled.
He returned to Spain first in 1960. From that year onwards he would return every summer and bought a house there, rejoining literary life. In 1976, after Franco's
death, he moved to Madrid for good, where he continued his work as a writer, lecturer and journalist. In 1983, at the age of 77, he was elected for the Real Academia Española
. He kept on writing to a very old age. In 1988 he received the Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas. In 1991 he received the Miguel de Cervantes Prize
and, in 1998, the Prince of Asturias Award
in Literature.
Critics have usually divided Ayala's work in two stages: before and after the Spanish Civil War.
During his first stage, before the Civil War, Tragicomedia de un hombre sin espíritu (Tragicomedy of a Spiritless Man, 1925) and Historia de un amanecer (A Sunrise Tale, 1926) follow a traditional narrative line. With El boxeador y el ángel (The Boxer and the Angel, 1929) and Cazador en el alba (Hunter at Dawn, 1930) he embraced avant-garde prose. Both tale collections feature a metaphorical style, stylistically brilliant, with a lack of interest in the anecdotical and a fascination for the modern world.
After a long silence, Ayala begun his second stage in exile with El hechizado (The Bewitched, 1944), a tale of a Creole man trying to meet King Charles II of Spain
(known as the Bewitched), which became part of Los usurpadores (The Usurpers, 1949), a collection of seven narrations with the common theme of lust for power. The story is used here as a reflection on the past, in order to better know the present. Ayala gets closer here to Kafka's
existential and absurd world, including an implicit critic to the inmorality and stupidity of power.
La cabeza del cordero (The Lamb Head, 1949) is a collection of tales on the Civil War, where he pays more attention to the analysis of passions and human behaviour than to the relation of outside developments. Muertes de perro (Dog Deaths, 1958) denounced the situation of a country under a dictatorship, while presenting human degradation in a world with no values. El fondo del vaso (The Bottom of the Glass, 1962) complements his previous novel, which is commented by several characters. Irony becomes a central resource in this work, though a greater understanding for the human being replaces despise.
After these novels, Ayala kept publishing short tales, such as those collected in El As de Bastos (The Ace of Staves, 1963), El rapto (The Kidnap, 1965), and El jardín de las delicias (The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1971). The latest features a contrast between the satyric objectivity in the first part, Diablo mundo (Devil World), and the evocative, subjective and lyrical tone in the second, Días felices (Happy Days). These works were followed by De triunfos y penas (Of Triumph and Sorrow, 1982) and El jardín de las malicias (The Garden of Earthly Malice, 1988), where he collected six tales written at different times in his life.
Ayala was also a prolific essay
writer, covering political and social aspects, as well as reflections on Spain's past and present, cinema and literature.
He wrote his memoirs, Recuerdos y olvidos (Reminiscences and Overlooks, 1982, 1983, 1988, 2006). He was a member of the Academia de Buenas Letras de Granada. In November 2003 he was proclaimed Honorary Fellow of the association Granada Histórica at his birthplace. He mentioned that was "maybe, one of the most beautiful moments in the last stage of my life because, after nearly a century of feeling a granadino across the world, now I feel recognised by the granadinos themselves".
His short story El Tajo (The Tagus) was included in Partes de guerra (War Reports), an antology of tales about the Spanish Civil War by Spanish writer Ignacio Martínez de Pisón.
He was a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts
since 1997.
In 2007 he became the first donor for the Caja de las Letras (Letter Vault) of the Instituto Cervantes
.
Francisco Ayala died in Madrid, 3 November 2009, at the age of 103. He was cremated
at the San Isidro cemetery in Madrid.
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, 16 March 1906 - Madrid, Spain, 3 November 2009) was a Spanish writer, the last representative of the Generation of '27
Generation of '27
The Generation of '27 was an influential group of poets that arose in Spanish literary circles between 1923 and 1927, essentially out of a shared desire to experience and work with avant-garde forms of art and poetry. Their first formal meeting took place in Seville in 1927 to mark the 300th...
.
Biography
Born in Granada, at the age of 16 he went to Madrid, where he studied LawLaw
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
and Humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
. During those years he published his first two novels, Tragicomedia de un hombre sin espíritu (Tragicomedy of a Spiritless Man) and Historia de un amanecer (A Sunrise Tale).
He was a frequent collaborator of Revista de Occidente and Gaceta Literaria. He lived in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
from 1929 and 1931, during the advent of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. He got a Ph.D. in Laws at the Universidad de Madrid
Complutense University of Madrid
The Complutense University of Madrid is a university in Madrid, and one of the oldest universities in the world. It is located on a sprawling campus that occupies the entirety of the Ciudad Universitaria district of Madrid, with annexes in the district of Somosaguas in the neighboring city of...
, where he would also be a teacher.
At the beginning of the Republic
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
he became a lawyer for the Parliament. He was lecturing in South America when the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
erupted; he worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the war.
When the Republican side lost the war, he exiled in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, where he spent ten years. There he worked for the magazine Sur, the newspaper La Nación
La Nación
La Nación is an Argentine daily newspaper. The country's leading conservative paper, the centrist Clarín is its main competitor. It is the only newspaper in Argentina still published in broadsheet format.-Overview:...
and the publisher Losada. He also founded, along with fellow Spaniard Lorenzo Luzuriaga, the magazine Realidad.
During the '50s he moved to Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, where he would teach at the Law school
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
in the University of Puerto Rico
University of Puerto Rico
The University of Puerto Rico is the state university system of Puerto Rico. The system consists of 11 campuses and has approximately 64,511 students and 5,300 faculty members...
, invited by Dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
Manuel Rodríguez Ramos. He later went to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he taught Spanish Literature at the Universities of Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, Rutgers
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
, New York
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
and Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, though he kept close intellectual and cultural bounds with Puerto Rico, where other noted Spaniards, such as Pau Casals and Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. One of Jiménez's most important contributions to modern poetry was his advocacy of the French concept of "pure poetry."-Biography:Jiménez was born in Moguer, near Huelva, in...
, were also exiled.
He returned to Spain first in 1960. From that year onwards he would return every summer and bought a house there, rejoining literary life. In 1976, after Franco's
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
death, he moved to Madrid for good, where he continued his work as a writer, lecturer and journalist. In 1983, at the age of 77, he was elected for the Real Academia Española
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
. He kept on writing to a very old age. In 1988 he received the Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas. In 1991 he received the Miguel de Cervantes Prize
Miguel de Cervantes Prize
The Miguel de Cervantes Prize , established in 1976, is awarded annually to honour the lifetime achievement of an outstanding writer in the Spanish language. The prize is similar to the Booker Prize, with its candidates from Commonwealth countries, in that it rewards authors from any...
and, in 1998, the Prince of Asturias Award
Prince of Asturias Awards
The Prince of Asturias Awards are a series of annual prizes awarded in Spain by the Prince of Asturias Foundation to individuals, entities or organizations from around the world who make notable achievements in the sciences, humanities, and public affairs....
in Literature.
Critics have usually divided Ayala's work in two stages: before and after the Spanish Civil War.
During his first stage, before the Civil War, Tragicomedia de un hombre sin espíritu (Tragicomedy of a Spiritless Man, 1925) and Historia de un amanecer (A Sunrise Tale, 1926) follow a traditional narrative line. With El boxeador y el ángel (The Boxer and the Angel, 1929) and Cazador en el alba (Hunter at Dawn, 1930) he embraced avant-garde prose. Both tale collections feature a metaphorical style, stylistically brilliant, with a lack of interest in the anecdotical and a fascination for the modern world.
After a long silence, Ayala begun his second stage in exile with El hechizado (The Bewitched, 1944), a tale of a Creole man trying to meet King Charles II of Spain
Charles II of Spain
Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain and the ruler of large parts of Italy, the Spanish territories in the Southern Low Countries, and Spain's overseas Empire, stretching from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies...
(known as the Bewitched), which became part of Los usurpadores (The Usurpers, 1949), a collection of seven narrations with the common theme of lust for power. The story is used here as a reflection on the past, in order to better know the present. Ayala gets closer here to Kafka's
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
existential and absurd world, including an implicit critic to the inmorality and stupidity of power.
La cabeza del cordero (The Lamb Head, 1949) is a collection of tales on the Civil War, where he pays more attention to the analysis of passions and human behaviour than to the relation of outside developments. Muertes de perro (Dog Deaths, 1958) denounced the situation of a country under a dictatorship, while presenting human degradation in a world with no values. El fondo del vaso (The Bottom of the Glass, 1962) complements his previous novel, which is commented by several characters. Irony becomes a central resource in this work, though a greater understanding for the human being replaces despise.
After these novels, Ayala kept publishing short tales, such as those collected in El As de Bastos (The Ace of Staves, 1963), El rapto (The Kidnap, 1965), and El jardín de las delicias (The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1971). The latest features a contrast between the satyric objectivity in the first part, Diablo mundo (Devil World), and the evocative, subjective and lyrical tone in the second, Días felices (Happy Days). These works were followed by De triunfos y penas (Of Triumph and Sorrow, 1982) and El jardín de las malicias (The Garden of Earthly Malice, 1988), where he collected six tales written at different times in his life.
Ayala was also a prolific essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
writer, covering political and social aspects, as well as reflections on Spain's past and present, cinema and literature.
He wrote his memoirs, Recuerdos y olvidos (Reminiscences and Overlooks, 1982, 1983, 1988, 2006). He was a member of the Academia de Buenas Letras de Granada. In November 2003 he was proclaimed Honorary Fellow of the association Granada Histórica at his birthplace. He mentioned that was "maybe, one of the most beautiful moments in the last stage of my life because, after nearly a century of feeling a granadino across the world, now I feel recognised by the granadinos themselves".
His short story El Tajo (The Tagus) was included in Partes de guerra (War Reports), an antology of tales about the Spanish Civil War by Spanish writer Ignacio Martínez de Pisón.
He was a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts
European Academy of Sciences and Arts
The European Academy of Sciences and Arts was created in 1990 in Salzburg, Austria by heart surgeon Felix Unger of Salzburg; the cardinal archbishop of Vienna, Franz König; and the political scientist and philosopher Nikolaus Lobkowicz....
since 1997.
In 2007 he became the first donor for the Caja de las Letras (Letter Vault) of the Instituto Cervantes
Instituto Cervantes
The Cervantes Institute is a worldwide non-profit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. It is named after Miguel de Cervantes , the author of Don Quixote and perhaps the most important figure in the history of Spanish literature...
.
Francisco Ayala died in Madrid, 3 November 2009, at the age of 103. He was cremated
Cremation
Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
at the San Isidro cemetery in Madrid.
Narrative
- Tragicomedia de un hombre sin espíritu (1925).
- Historia de un amanecer (1926).
- El boxeador y un ángel (1929).
- Cazador en el alba (1930).
- El hechizado (1944).
- Los usurpadores (1949).
- La cabeza del cordero (1949).
- Historia de macacos (1955).
- Muertes de perro (1958).
- El fondo del vaso (1962).
- El as de Bastos (1963).
- Mis mejores páginas (1965).
- El rapto (1965).
- Cuentos (1966).
- Obras narrativas completas. Glorioso triunfo del príncipe Arjuna (1969).
- Lloraste en el Generalife.
- El jardín de las delicias (1971).
- El hechizado y otros cuentos (1972).
- De triunfos y penas (1982).
- El jardín de las malicias (1988).
- Relatos granadinos (1990).
- Recuerdos y olvidos 1 (1982) (Memorias).
- Recuerdos y olvidos 2 (1983) (Memorias).
- El regreso (1992).
- De mis pasos en la tierra (1996).
- Dulces recuerdos (1998).
- Un caballero granadino y otros relatos (1999).
- Cuentos imaginarios (1999).
Essay
- El derecho social en la Constitución de la República española (1932).
- El pensamiento vivo de Saavedra Fajardo (1941).
- El problema del liberalismo (1941).
- El problema del liberalismo (1942). Edición ampliada.
- Historia de la libertad (1943).
- Los políticos (1944).
- Histrionismo y representación (1944).
- Una doble experiencia política: España e Italia (1944).
- Ensayo sobre la libertad (1945).
- Jovellanos (1945).
- Ensayo sobre el catolicismo, el liberalismo y el socialismo (1949). De Donoso Cortés, con edición y estudio preliminar de Francisco Ayala.
- La invención del Quijote (1950).
- Tratado de sociología (1947).
- Ensayos de sociología política (1951).
- Introducción a las ciencias sociales (1952).
- Derechos de la persona individual para una sociedad de masas (1953).
- Breve teoría de la traducción (1956).
- El escritor en la sociedad de masas (1956).
- La crisis actual de la enseñanza (1958).
- La integración social en América (1958).
- Tecnología y libertad (1959).
- Experiencia e invención (1960).
- Razón del mundo (1962).
- De este mundo y el otro (1963).
- Realidad y ensueño (1963).
- La evasión de los intelectuales (1963).
- Problemas de la traducción (1965).
- España a la fecha (1965).
- El curioso impertinente, de Miguel de CervantesMiguel de CervantesMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
(1967). Edición y prólogo. - El cine, arte y espectáculo (1969).
- Reflexiones sobre la estructura narrativa (1970).
- El Lazarillo: reexaminado. Nuevo examen de algunos aspectos (1971).
- Los ensayos. Teoría y crítica literaria (1972).
- Confrontaciones (1972).
- Hoy ya es ayer (1972).
- Cervantes y Quevedo (1974).
- La novela: Galdós y Unamuno (1974).
- El escritor y su imagen (1975).
- El escritor y el cine (1975).
- Galdós en su tiempo (1978).
- El tiempo y yo. El jardín de las delicias (1978).
- Palabras y letras (1983).
- La estructura narrativa y otras experiencias literarias (1984).
- La retórica del periodismo y otras retóricas (1985).
- La imagen de España (1986).
- Mi cuarto a espaldas (1988).
- Las plumas del Fénix. Estudios de literatura española (1989).
- El escritor en su siglo (1990).
- Contra el poder y otros ensayos (1992).
- El tiempo y yo, o el mundo a la espalda (1992).
- En qué mundo vivimos (1996).
- Miradas sobre el presente: ensayos y sociología, 1940-1990 (2006).
Translations
- A. Zweig, Lorenzo y Ana (1930).
- Carl Schmitt, Teoría de la constitución (1934). Traducción y prólogo.
- Ernst Manheim, La opinión pública (1936).
- Karl Mannheim, El hombre y la sociedad en la época de crisis (1936).
- Thomas MannThomas MannThomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
, Lotte in Weimar (1941). - Sieyes, ¿Qué es el tercer estado? (1942).
- Benjamin ConstantBenjamin ConstantHenri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque was a Swiss-born French nobleman, thinker, writer and politician.-Biography:...
, Mélanges de la Littérature et de Politique (1943). - Rainer Maria RilkeRainer Maria RilkeRené Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
, Die Aufzeichnungen von Malte Laurids Brigge (1944). - Manuel Antônio de AlmeidaManuel Antônio de AlmeidaManuel Antônio de Almeida was a Brazilian writer, medician and teacher. He is famous for the book Memoirs of a Police Sergeant, written under the pen name Um Brasileiro...
, Memorias de un sargento de milicias (1946). - Maximilian Beck, Psicología: Esencia y realidad del alma (1947). Traducción junto con Otto Langfelder.
- A. Confort, The novel and our time (1949).
- Alberto MoraviaAlberto MoraviaAlberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism....
, La romana (1950).
External links
- Francisco AYALA Foundation, Granada, Spain
- http://www.us.es/ayala/premcandidatnobeling.htm
- http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/personal/reading/ayala-usurpers.html
- Ayala is Patron Honoris Causa of The Friends of Jorge Luis Borges Worldwide Society; the writers became friends when Ayala lived in Buenos Aires