Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
later received his doctorate at the Univer-
sity of Madrid. He represented the Spanish
government as consul at Antwerp, Helsing-
fors (Helsinki), and Riga. In this latter city,
depressed by a failed romance and by the
onset of a serious illness, he committed sui-
cide at the age of 33. During his brief life
Ganivet produced a relatively large number
of topics, including several novels and a
play. It was his essays and commentaries,
however, that won him the greatest atten-
tion and still marks him as a precursor of
the G
ENERATION
OF
'98. Although some lit-
erary historians have included him in that
group of writers who responded to the cata-
strophic defeat in the S
PANISH
-A
MERICAN
W
AR
, his literary stance, as well as the
actual date of his death, make it inappropri-
ate to include him within the group, several
of whose members were under his posthu-
mous influence. Ganivet's friendship with
M
IGUEL
DE
U
NAMUNO
grew out of a broadly
shared perspective on the historical evolu-
tion of Spain and certain flaws in the Span-
ish character. Like the members of the
Generation of '98, these two recognized
that many of Spain's problems grew from
its own weaknesses. Ganivet and Una-
muno, in their philosophical analysis, drew
hope from the distinctive positive traits that
their country had preserved and believed
that a true Spanish renaissance was possible
without resort to revolutionary upheaval.
The most important and influential of
Ganivet's works is
Ideárium español
(usually
translated as “The idea of Spain,” 1897).
Organized in three parts, it compresses an
overview of Spain's historical experience,
the country's chief contributions to West-
ern civilization, and the reasons for its
decline. An edition of his correspondence
with Unamuno,
El porvenir de España
(The
future of Spain), was published posthu-
mously in 1912. Unamuno, who first met
Ganivet in 1891, would probably not have
approved of his friend's suicide, for the phi-
losopher was adamantly committed to the
primacy of life, to be preserved even amid
the greatest adversity. Their correspondence
nevertheless shows a meeting of the minds
on many issues and provides an extension
of themes introduced in
Ideárium español.
Ganivet's other nonfiction works are chiefly
accounts of his travels and observations in
northern Europe and contain some inter-
esting insights on the cultural contrasts and
occasional similarities that this Spanish
thinker encountered there. Much of 20th-
century commentary on Ganivet has ana-
lyzed his thought, for all its occasional
inconsistencies, as a stimulating anticipa-
tion of the great debate over Spain's destiny
that has continued during the more than
100 years since his death.
García Lorca, Federico
(1898-1936)
Spanish poet and dramatist
García Lorca was born in A
NDALUSIA
and
retained an intense identification with his
birthplace and its distinctive spirit and cul-
ture throughout his life. He said that he felt
himself a representative of the Mozarabic
history of the region, the fusion of Spanish
and Islamic traditions that gave a special
character to Andalusia. After a perfunctory
study of the law he settled in M
ADRID
to
pursue a literary career though intensely
interested in art and music as well. His first
work was dismissed by the critical establish-
ment, but he soon gained praise and recog-
nition from the more open-minded
members of the arts community. By the
time he was in his 20s he had already
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