Miguel de Unamuno and the Body: Will, Immortality, and Irony in "La tía Tula"
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/analecta44202318186Keywords:
Unamuno, La Tía Tula, body, organicism, willAbstract
In La tía Tula (1921), Miguel de Unamuno addresses the difficulties of dissociating mind and spirit from the body, and the problems of making such a separation the guiding principle for human life through an ascetic way of life. Starting with the notion that the activity of Aunt Tula’s central character is guided by a will not to be —instead of a will to be— this essay analyzes Unamuno’s novel in three steps: First, it examines what Tula denies (the body), in the context of what the body means in Unamuno’s work. Second, it considers the effects on her «descendants» of Tula’s rejection to have biological efficacy through the transmission of genes, and instead her embracing of cultural efficacy, through the passing on of memes. Finally, it shows the authorial denunciation of Tula’s activity through the use of the character’s self-evaluation at certain moments of her life, and the use of synecdoche and irony as the master tropes of the novel. I conclude that La tía Tula is one of Unamuno’s most important novels, not because it shows a positive existential model for human life, but because the main character represents a reversal of Unamuno’s organic thinking.
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