'Vidas' Book Series (Espasa-Calpe)

Blueprint for a paper in which I study 2 biographies' series

Spin-off from my PhD dissertation (Plutarco de Moda. La Biografía Moderna en España, 2009)

Theoretical considerations

Socio-Cultural Context

Features of the Book Series

Legacy & Conclusions

Manuel Pulido Mendoza

PhD Hispanic Studies

How old do you think the word 'biography' and the genre are?

Definition of Biography as a Literary Genre

West and other World Cultural spheres have long traditions of Life-Writing

But Biography is a 17th C neologism First appeared in England and France Secular Third Estate life-writing, Individualism,

personal records in paper, Rationalism & Science Lit. Convention of Enlightment, Industrial

Revolution, Romanticism, Bourgeois Soc. (Epstein)

How do you define a biography?

Definition (2)

Different from other forms of Life-Writing: Memories, Diary, Autobiography, récit de vie -sociology tool-, self-fiction...

As a literary form, conventionally, is a restrospective life-facts account of a third person.

How do you distinguish fiction from referential

literature?

Critical Aproaches towards Biography

50-60s: Biography as an Art

70-80s: (Postmodern Ap.) Biography as a Plot, Creation of the language or fiction, Negation of the subject factual account

90s: Cultural Studies: broadening the subject

BUT: Referentiality still matters in a pragmatic level (P. Lejeune, D. Cohn):

– Sources (verifiable)

– Narrative perspective

– Narrator identity (Author=narrator)

Modern Biography Forms

Non fiction, referential:

Historiography

Literary essay

Fiction:

Historical Novel

Biofiction

Which event changed the history and the

aesthetics of 20th C.?

History of New or Modern Biography

WWI: Dehumanization Extension of literacy New Technology Aesthetics changes:

Abstract Avant-Garde

Reaction / Back to humanism(s)

'New Biography' between wars... First appeared as a literary mock of

the Bourgeois (Victorian) conventional biography:

UK: Bloomsbury group: V. Woolf, L. Strachey, H. Nicolson, A.J.A. Symons

France: R. Rolland, A. Maurois

Germany: E. Ludwig

Austria: S. Zweig

Italy: G. Pappini

...And between aesthetics

Best-seller, competing with novel (Ortega)

Psico-biography (Freud)

Subjective time (Bergson)

Neo-Romanticism: Hero vs Masses

Only the work counts (New Criticism),

Imposibility of the genre (Existentialism)

How this affected to Spain and Spanish

Biography?

Socio-cultural Causes for “Vidas” Series in Spain

WWI Neutrality BUT Colonial War / Dictatorship / Restoration Regime crisis

Economic development: Publishing Industry during 20s

Educational & Propaganda Tools

Hispanic life-writing tradition

European models of New Biography (authors & series)

Celebrated the century of Romanticism in 1930

Celebrated the century of LatAm Independence

Back to human form after abstract Avant-garde

Best-seller genre in Ferias del libro Madrid (1933-1936): 'biografías noveladas'.

Ortega y Gasset's Cultural Leadership

The mind after the biograghy fashion:

Philosophy: Vital Rationalism, European Liberalism

Ideas sobre la novela: 'Nova Novorum' (Chacel, Rodríguez-Fischer)

Cultural leadership and sponsor: Rev. Occ., El Sol, Espasa-Calpe (Papelera Española)

Biographer himself

Melchor Fernández Almagro, Series editor

Historian, journalist, writer, essay writer

García Lorca's and other progressive intelectuals' friend

Became Ortega's colaborator, editor of the series 'Vidas españolas del siglo XIX” in Espasa-Calpe

Expert on 19th C. Spanish History and Law, wrote Orígenes del régimen constitucional en España (1928)

The colection was successful thanks to its pluralistic ideological approach

Evolution of 'Vidas' Series in Espasa-Calpe

1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942

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Vidas extraordinarias

1st ed. VEHAXIX

1st+2nd ed VEHAXIX

Characters by Class, Origin, Gender

Nobiliary&Church / other classes Spanish / American / Both Men / women

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Features of 'Vidas EHASXIX'

Most successful: Longest (1929-1942, 59 volumes, 17 reimp.)

Characters' social classes: open to broader extent

Women: 1 author, 7 characters, 11,86%

Hispanic American Presence (after Torres Bodet)

Ideologies: plural but with a moderate tone; an evolution

Literary forms: historiographic, literary essay (Baroja).

Theoretical considerations (forewords and reviews)

Some covers

-Retro design (Tipography & Filigree)

-Title: Name and description or motto

-Symbolic Motive or Design related to the biographee

Antonio Marichalar, editor of 'Vidas Extraordinarias'

1927 Poetic Group's member

Literary critic (The Criterion, El Sol, Rev. Occ.) and biographer

Introductor of English Lit. in Spain (Strachey, Woolf, Joyce, Conrad, Faulkner)

Strachey's translator in Rev. Occ.

Features of 'Vidas Extraordinarias'

No space or time limit

Spanish (1/3) and successful Foreign authors (2/3)

Good translators and Spanish authors

More women's biographies (5 of 14)

All of them reprinted in Argentine “Colección Austral” after the war

Conclusions

Biography was a broad cultural battlefield in Modern Spain

It explains identities in conflict

It offers a better understanding of Modern Spain and its approaches to LatAm & Europe

Espasa's: Model for further series, started a tradition of Modern Biography

It's still relevant in a social level

Currently Biographical Studies in Hispanic World are 'in'