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the military catastrophe of 1898, when
Spain lost the remains of its empire and any
lingering claim to great power status,
offered an opportunity to renew the coun-
try's vitality through a return to its essential
identity. Beginning with
El alma castellana
(The Castilian soul, 1900) and continuing
in the trilogy of novels
La voluntad
(Will),
Antonio Azorín,
and
Las confesiones de un
pequeño filósofo
(Confessions of a small phi-
losopher), published between 1902 and
1904, Martínez Ruiz created a body of work
that awakened Spaniards to their literary
heritage and the distinctive characteristics
of their country and culture.
Borrowing the pen name
Azorín
from his
earlier book, the author steadily increased
his influence among Spanish readers with
compilations of his essays and articles,
topics such as
La ruta de Don Quijote
(The
route of Don Quixote, 1905),
Al margen de
los clásicos
(In the margins of the classics,
1915), and
Una hora de España, 1560-1590
(An hour of Spain, 1560-1590, 1924).
Although he inspired many imitators, none
could match his clarity, perceptiveness, and
ease of style. Leaving Spain at the outbreak
of the S
PANISH
CIVIL
WAR
in 1936, Azorín
settled in Paris and returned to his early
profession of journalist in articles for the
Argentine newspaper
La Nación.
He returned
to his native land some 10 years after the
war's end and lived quietly until the last
years of the Franco regime.
grim environment of the postwar Franco
regime, with its hunger, gloom, and persis-
tent fears. In this way she absorbed the per-
spectives and subject matter that would
dominate her literary work in adulthood.
Much of her fiction presents the anxieties
and uncertainties of children, and even her
adult characters often preserve the mark of
these childhood stresses in later life. Mov-
ing away from the social realism that domi-
nated the work of most Franco-era writers,
Matute entered the world of semifantasy, in
which her juvenile characters saw the stark
truths of contemporary Spanish life through
eyes of ignorance and inexperienced opti-
mism. In such topics as the award-winning
Fiesta al noroeste
(
Celebration in the Northwest,
1953) and
Los hijos muertos
(
The Lost Chil-
dren,
1958), which won the National Crit-
ics' Prize and the Miguel de Cervantes Prize
in 1958, she revealed her understanding of
the interaction between the child and the
adult.
Los soldados lloran de noche
(
Soldiers Cry
by Night,
1963) was honored by the Spanish
Royal Academy in 1969. It was part of a
trilogy that began with
Primera memoria
(
First Memory,
1959), a novel about children
thrust into the adult world by the civil war,
and concluding with
La trampa
(
The Trap,
1969), in which the children of the earlier
narrative have grown up.
In 1971 Matute published
La torre vigía
(The watchtower). Set in 10th-century
Europe, this novel is a precursor, in its envi-
ronment and, to some extent, its subject
matter, to the magnum opus that she was
already contemplating. After 25 years of
silence and secrecy as to her plans Matute
presented in 1996
Olvidado Rey Gudú
(For-
gotten King Gudu). In an imaginary medi-
eval world of monarchs and dwarfs, half
European, half fantastical, Matute had cre-
Matute, Ana María
(1926- )
Spanish writer
Matute grew up during the S
PANISH
CIVIL
WAR
, as her family moved back and forth
between B
ARCELONA
(her birthplace) and
M
ADRID
. She spent her adolescence in the
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