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to the family estate with the idea, radical for the

time, of educating and emancipating his serfs.

Tolstoy’s early education included grounding

in several European languages and literatures, and

he continued to enlarge this knowledge over the

next several years with extensive travels. He read

widely and was particularly taken with the ideas of

the 18th-century French writer Jean Jacques

Rousseau. He was also well acquainted with the

English novelists Laurence Sterne and Charles

Dickens, who helped form his approach to the

novel, while Rousseau and the New Testament in-

fluenced his later religious and philosophical

works.

Tolstoy had begun his literary career with the

publication, while he was still in the army, of an

autobiographical work, Childhood (1852), and this

was followed by Boyhood in 1854 and Youth in

1857. Material for these works came from his

prodigious memory, substantially abetted by refer-

ence to the detailed diary he had begun in 1847.

Though the facts of Tolstoy’s early life form the

basis of these books, their rearrangement and

modification show us the budding writer of fiction

learning his craft. Other short stories, based on his

army experiences, followed in 1855 and 1856. In

1862, Tolstoy married Sofiya Bers, with whom he

would have 13 children. His obsessive honesty led

him to give her his diaries to read, and the young

bride was, at the least, startled. She later got even

by giving Tolstoy her diary to read. But marriage

had a settling influence, and in the next 15 years

following that, Tolstoy produced his greatest

works, War and Peace (1865–69) and Anna Karen-

ina (1875–77).

Tolstoy’s approach to his work of this period

was to observe carefully even the most minute de-

tails of his characters’ lives and to record them

faithfully, building the story in the same way that

real life reveals itself. The great English critic and

essayist Matthew Arnold said that if life could

write its own story, it would write like Tolstoy. The

two novels are not led by preconceived literary

ideas of how structure, plot, and narrative are to be

delineated; they happen, as life happens.

Critical Analysis

War and Peace is the story of five aristocratic

Russian families, their associates, and the effects of

Napoleon’s wars from 1805 to 1820. The novel also

contains essays that reflect Tolstoy’s philosophy of

history. The central love story involves Natasha

Rostova and Pierre Bezukhov. Natasha finds fulfill-

ment in marriage and motherhood, serving as an

example of the value of life’s simple processes.

Meanwhile, Pierre searches for the philosophical

system that will explain to him the meaning of life,

but he comes, for a while at least, to believe that

no such system exists outside of the common rou-

tines of existence.

In the essays on history and in the novel’s

chaotic plots, Tolstoy repudiates the theory that

great men make history and that events are shaped

by human intention. He views Napoleon and the

Russian emperor Aleksandr as pompous men

whose bumblings cause great misery. The pre-

tenses of noble society are shown to be hollow as

well. The character Prince Andrey Bolkonsky es-

chews the false values and artificialities of social

life, substituting for a while the values of heroism

and bravery in battle. He is severely wounded at

Austerlitz and, while attempting to recuperate, re-

alizes that these values as well are worthless. Tol-

stoy’s own values are exemplified by the less

sophisticated characters. Critics often have noted

that Tolstoy describes his characters’ thinking and

behavior in minute detail, like a painter adding

small brushstrokes, until, through sheer accretion,

a full portrait appears. As the novel proceeds

through its many years, the characters age;

Natasha, for instance, grows from a giddy and self-

centered girl to a portly and concerned mother.

Anna Karenina, though set in the same aristo-

cratic milieu as War and Peace, is not as panoramic

in scope. Based on the true story of a young

woman’s suicide in Tolstoy’s province, it tells of the

aristocratic Anna, who conducts an adulterous

love affair with the dashing army officer Aleksey

Vronsky. For him, she leaves both her husband and

her beloved little boy. In contrast to her self-de-

feating romantic attachment is the true love of

428 Tolstoy, Leo

Kitty and Konstantin Levin. Kitty is the sister of

the unhappy Dolly Oblonsky, whose careless hus-

band Stiva has been unfaithful to her.

Anna is Stiva’s sister and in some ways is as

careless as he; she wants romance and persuades

herself that it is owed her. Society does not accept

Anna’s self-assertion in the face of convention, and

she is ostracized. When she comes eventually to see

the flaws in her lover, she has lost the love of her

good but dull husband and sees no way out of her

guilt-ridden life except suicide. Levin and Kitty

meanwhile have bonded with a true love that ac-

cepts the daily limitations of being human.

Underlying both these works and the great

changes that took place in Tolstoy’s life soon after

the publication of Anna Karenina are the philo-

sophical musings of Jean Jacques Rousseau, apos-

tle of what has come to be known as ROMANTICISM.

Central to this doctrine is the idea of the noble sav-

age, which holds that only those not infected with

civilization’s postures and deceptions are truly

good. Civilization includes high society, secular

and sacred institutions, commerce and money, le-

galisms and rank. Though Tolstoy used his read-

ing of Rousseau to profound effect in his two great

novels, when he tried to put these theories into

practice, he ran into serious trouble, both artistic

and personal. Among other things he was excom-

municated from the Russian Orthodox Church,

and he seriously alienated most of his family, par-

ticularly his wife, by repudiating the great novels

and attempting to give away all his worldly goods.

His writing suffered from his preoccupations, al-

though his two later novellas, The Death of Ivan

Ilyich (1886) and The Kreutzer Sonata (1891), are

still widely read. A third long novel, Resurrection,

was published in 1899, and at about this time he

wrote a play, The Living Corpse.

Tolstoy proceeded into an ascetic and anarchis-

tic old age. Although his philosophical meditations

do not have the standing today they once had, his

influence was profound, especially on the young

Mohandas

GANDHI: Passive resistance toward evil

was a principle advocated by Tolstoy that Gandhi

used with great effect to liberate India from foreign

rule. Tolstoy’s later convictions and behavior so

contradicted his earlier ones that he sought liter-

ally to run away from them. Hounded by the

demons of his own philosophy, he died while at-

tempting to escape media attention in a provincial

railroad station.

Works about Leo Tolstoy

Berlin, Isaiah. The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on

Tolstoy’s View of History. New York: Simon &

Schuster, 1986.

Bloom, Harold, ed. Leo Tolstoy: Comprehensive Re-

search and Study Guide. Broomall, Pa.: Chelsea

House, 2001.

Gifford, Henry. Tolstoy. New York: Oxford University

Press, 1982.

Orwin, Donna Tussing, ed. The Cambridge Compan-

ion to Tolstoy. New York: Cambridge University

Press, 2002.

Shirer, William. Love and Hatred: The Stormy Mar-

riage of Sonia and Leo Tolstoy. Upland, Pa.: DIANE

Publishing Co., 1994.

Troyat, Henri. Tolstoy. Translated by Nancy Am-

phoux. New York: Grove Press, 2001.

Tong Tianjian

See TIAN JIAN.

Tornimparti, Alessandra

See GINZBURG, NATALIA.

Torres Bodet, Jaime (1902–1974) novelist,

poet

Jaime Torres Bodet was born in Mexico City. He

was the son of Alejandro Torres Girbent, a theatri-

cal producer, and Emilia Bodet. Torres Bodet be-

lieved it was important for a writer to work a

“regular” job and to be involved in the world. He

was an educator and would eventually be ap-

pointed minister of education for Mexico.

He and his literary group, the Contempora-

neos, were seminal in bringing modern European

Torres Bodet, Jaime 429

literature to the attention of Mexican intellectuals

in the first half of the 20th century. His novel

Movie Star (1933) contrasts the world of psychol-

ogy and imagination with the reality of everyday

life in a modern style that brought intellectual vi-

tality to the Mexican novel.

Later in his life, when he was involved in his po-

litical career, he dedicated himself almost exclu-

sively to the writing of poetry. In 1965, he

published a volume titled Poems by Jaime Torres

Bodet, which included his own selection of his 50

most important poems. His poetry demonstrates

his ideas about the importance of everyday life as

a subject for literature. In it, he writes passionately

about simple experiences.

Torres Bodet is remembered for his great ex-

pressive force in writing. He received the National

Literature Award in 1966, and the Mexican gov-

ernment issued a commemorative stamp in his

honor in 1975. Torres Bodet’s poetry is considered

thoughtful, sensitive, and humanistic.

Another Work by Jaime Torres Bodet

Selected Poems. A bilingual edition with translations

by Sonja Karsen. Bloomington: Indiana University

Press, 1964.

A Work about Jaime Torres Bodet

Karsen, Sonja. Jaime Torres Bodet: A Poet in a Chang-

ing World. Saratoga Springs, N.Y.: Skidmore Col-

lege, 1963.

Trakl, Georg (1887–1914) poet

Georg Trakl was born in Salzburg, Austria, into a

middle-class Protestant family. Although his early

childhood was quite happy, Trakl began to show

signs of trouble in his adolescence. In his youth,

he was close to his sister Grete, so close that many

have speculated about an incestuous relationship.

In high school, Trakl frequented brothels, drank,

and used opium heavily. After failing his courses in

high school, he was forced to repeat a year and

eventually dropped out.

He apprenticed to a local pharmacist, many be-

lieve, to have an easier access to drugs. By his early

adulthood, he showed clear signs of mental illness

and emotional disturbance.

Trakl moved to Austria, where he studied to be

a pharmacist. In Vienna, he began to write his

first serious poems, publishing them in several lit-

erary journals. He also met prominent artists of

the expressionist movement (see

EXPRESSIONISM

including Oskar

KOKOSCHKA. Shortly before com-

pleting his degree, Trakl lost all financial support as

a result of his father’s death.

Trakl published only one collection of poetry

during his lifetime, Poems (1913). The poems,

permeated by dark themes of sorrow and decay,

reveal his deep disgust with imperialist society.

Two posthumous collections, The Autumn of the

Lonely (1920) and Song of the Departed (1933), re-

veal similar themes, often distorting reality to am-

plify the disturbed emotional state of the poet.

The bleak verses are pierced by nightmarish im-

ages of twilight, death, and somber religious sym-

bolism.

At the outbreak of World War I, Trakl was re-

cruited into the Austrian army in the capacity of a

pharmacist. He was hospitalized on several occa-

sions for depression, attempted suicide, and was

released seemingly without any improvement.

Three days after having witnessed several locals

hanged from a tree by the Austrian army, Trakl in-

tentionally overdosed on cocaine.

Although Trakl was by no means a prolific poet,

he left a significant contribution for the expres-

sionist movement. His poetry is widely read and

appreciated in Germany, the United States, and Eu-

rope as a whole. Trakl’s work has been translated

into nine languages.

Other Works by Georg Trakl

Autumn Sonata: Selected Poems of Georg Trakl. Trans-

lated by Daniel Simko. London: Asphodel Press,

1998.

Poems and Prose. Translated by Alexander Stillmark.

New York: Libris, 2001.

430 Trakl, Georg

A Work about Georg Trakl

Williams, Eric, ed. The Dark Flutes of Fall: Critical Es-

says on Georg Trakl. Rochester, N.Y.: Camden

House, 1991.

Tsushima Y¯uko (Tsushima Satoko)

(1947– ) short-story writer, novelist

Tsushima Y¯uko was born in Tokyo to novelist

Dazai Osamu and his wife, Michiko. Soon after her

birth, her father committed suicide with his lover.

Her mother raised her, her older sister, and an

older brother, who was mentally handicapped, on

her own. When Tsushima was very young, she at-

tended a music school for children. In 1965, she

began to study English literature at Shirayuri

Women’s College in Tokyo, graduated in 1969, and

went on for one year of postgraduate study at Meiji

University. She married in 1972 but later separated

from her husband after having two children.

Tsushima’s writing career began while she was

still an undergraduate when she won a university

prize for her story, “Requiem for a Dog and an

Adult” (1969). Her first novel, The House Where

Living Things Are Gathering, followed in 1973. She

continued to write at a rapid rate, producing

short-story collections that appeared almost annu-

ally, including A Bed of Grass in 1977. Her second

novel, Child of Fortune (1978), is about a 36-year-

old music teacher raising a child on her own. The

novel Driven by the Light of Night (1986), about the

efforts of a woman to retain the memories of her

dead son, marked a new direction in Tsushima’s

writing. She picked up the theme of bereavement

and memory again in To the Daylight (1988).

Tsushima’s protagonists are generally single

mothers who experience an awakening, and her

novels typically explore the internal world of fe-

male protagonists. Tsushima herself has claimed

that her writing stems from a desire to articulate

herself, which was repressed during childhood be-

cause of her nonverbal relationship with her hand-

icapped brother. She has won many literary prizes,

including the Kawabata Yasunari Prize in 1982 and

the Yomiuri Newspaper Prize in 1987.

Other Works by Y¯uko Tsushima

The Shooting Gallery and Other Stories. Translated by

Geraldine Harcourt. New York: Pantheon Books,

1988.

Woman Running in the Mountains. Translated by

Geraldine Harcourt. New York: Pantheon Books,

1991.

“Water’s Edge.” In Reexamination of Modern Subjec-

tivity in Japanese Fiction. Saitama-ken Sakado-shi,

Japan: Center for Inter-cultural Studies and Edu-

cation, Josai University, 1994.

Tsvetaeva, Marina (1892–1941) poet

Born in Moscow, Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva

grew up in an affluent family. Her father was an

art-history professor at the University of Moscow,

and her mother a talented pianist. Tsvetaeva’s

family frequently traveled abroad, and she at-

tended schools in Italy, Switzerland, Germany,

and France. In school, Tsvetaeva excelled in liter-

ature, history, and languages. She published her

first collection of poems, “Evening Album”

(1910), at the age of 18. The collection explored

the themes of childhood and subsequent transi-

tion to adulthood. It was noticed and praised by

Valery BRYUSOV.

In 1912, Tsvetaeva married Sergei Efron; two

daughters were born, in 1912 and 1917. Tsvetaeva

opposed the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, and

Efron volunteered to serve in the oppositional

forces of the White Army. Tsvetaeva remained in

Moscow, where she suffered from poverty and

hunger. Her daughter Irina died of starvation in

1920. In spite of all, Tsvetaeva wrote intensely, pro-

ducing six verse dramas and several narrative

poems including The Demesne of the Swans, an

epic about the Russian civil war, and many lyrics.

Eventually, Tsvetaeva and her family emigrated

from Russia, spending time in Berlin and Prague

and settling in Paris in 1925, the year her son Gy-

orgy was born.

During these years Tsvetaeva published five

collections of poetry, the last—and the last pub-

lished in her lifetime—being After Russia (1928), a

Tsvetaeva, Marina 431

collection that dealt with the themes of national

identity and displacement. Tsvetaeva was the only

source of income for her family in Paris, and she

eventually turned to writing prose because it paid

more than poetry. She wrote critical essays, mem-

oirs, and short stories. Tsvetaeva’s prose, however,

never achieved the level of skill and literary genius

found in her verse. Furthermore, Tsvetaeva did

not identify herself with the Russian émigré com-

munity. After writing a friendly and admiring let-

ter to the Soviet poet MAYAKOVSKY, Tsvetaeva was

ostracized from the émigré community and found

it virtually impossible to have her work published.

Efron had become more sympathetic to the Sovi-

ets, as had their daughter Alya, and in 1937 Alya

and Efron returned to Russia.

Tsvetaeva was never able spiritually and emo-

tionally to separate from Russia, as her nostalgic

and expressive poems “Homesick for Motherland”

(1935) and “Motherland” (1936) indicate. Tsve-

taeva’s last collection of verse, Poems to the Czechs

(1938–39), explored the anguish of the Nazi occu-

pation of Czechoslovakia. Tsvetaeva returned to

Russia in 1939, with Gyorgy, and soon found her-

self in the same predicament as she had been dur-

ing the 1920s. Besides the occasional translation

work that was provided to Tsvetaeva by Boris

PASTERNAK, she was unable to find employment.

Efron and Alya were arrested for espionage during

the height of the Stalinist purges. Alone, impover-

ished, and in deep despair, Tsvetaeva committed

suicide in 1941.

Tsvetaeva’s use of traditional poetic diction and

classical images went against the cultural politics of

SOCIALIST REALISM. For Tsvetaeva, poetry was a per-

sonal rather than a social experience. Her contri-

bution to Russian literature was not recognized

until years after her death. Now, however, she gen-

erally ranked with Anna AKHMATOVA, Osip MAN-

DELSTAM, and Boris PASTERNAK as one of the four

greatest Russian poets of the 20th century.

Other Works by Marina Tsvetaeva

Earthly Signs. Translated by Jamey Gambrell. New

Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002.

Milestones. Translated by Robin Kemball. Evanston,

Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2002.

Poem of the End: Selected Narrative and Lyrical Po-

etry, with Facing Russian Text. Translated by Nina

Kossman. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Ardis, 2000.

The Ratcatcher: A Lyrical Satire. Translated by Angela

Livingstone. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern Univer-

sity Press, 2000.

Selected Poems. Translated by Elaine Feinstein. New

York: Penguin Books, 1994.

Works about Marina Tsvetaeva

Dinega, Alyssa E. A Russian Psyche: The Poetic Mind of

Marina Tsvetaeva. Madison: University of Wis-

consin Press, 2002.

Feiler, Lily B. Marina Tsvetaeva: The Double Beat of

Heaven and Hell. Durham, N.C.: Duke University

Press, 1994.

Schweitzer, Viktoria. Tsvetaeva. Translated by Peter

Norman. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1993.

Turgenev, Ivan Sergeyevich (1818–1883)

novelist, dramatist, short-story writer

Ivan Turgenev was born in Orel, Russia, to Sergey

and Varvara Turgenev, rich aristocratic landown-

ers. Turgenev’s childhood was defined by the

domineering personality of his mother. In 1827,

the family relocated to Moscow, and Turgenev,

who up to that point had been educated by his

mother, was now tutored by prominent intellectu-

als and writers of the period. A brilliant student, he

was admitted to Moscow University at the age of

15. The family moved to St. Petersburg in 1834,

where Turgenev continued his studies.

While studying in St. Petersburg, Turgenev met

a number of important literary figures, among

them Aleksandr

PUSHKIN and Nikolay GOGOL.In

1838, he moved to Berlin to continue his studies

of philosophy and literature. While in Germany,

Turgenev developed a warm friendship with

Mikhail Bakunin, a famous anarchist and social

theoretician. Turgenev returned to Russia in 1841

and began work on short stories about the lives of

peasants. He published his first story, “Khor and

432 Turgenev, Ivan Sergeyevich

Kalinich,” in 1847. Many of these stories, depicting

daily lives and suffering of common people, ap-

peared together as A Hunter’s Sketches in 1852. The

collection revealed Turgenev’s love of nature as

well as his concern for the social conditions of

common Russians. In A Hunter’s Sketches, he criti-

cized the institution of serfdom, in which the so-

cial status of peasants was equivalent to that of

slaves. It was widely rumored that reading this

story was what inspired Aleksandr II to emanci-

pate the serfs.

In 1856, Turgenev traveled extensively through-

out Europe. He had a following in French literary

circles and developed friendships with such influ-

ential writers as FLAUBERT and ZOLA. After a hostile

response to his novel Fathers and Sons (1862), Tur-

genev left Russia and settled in Paris. By 1870s,

Turgenev was recognized as one of the world’s

leading writers.

The decade 1850–1860 was the most productive

in Turgenev’s career as a writer. Turgenev always

concentrated on social and political issues in his

work, as his novels Rudin (1856), A Nest of Gentle-

folk (1859), and On the Eve (1860) readily attest.

Turgenev often juxtaposes the daily struggles of

the peasants with disruption in the social structure

of country aristocrats. The parallel placement of

spiritual and physical struggles in the narrative

often plays an important role in his work. His most

famous novel, Fathers and Sons, deals with nihilism

and the role of the individual within a family and

the social dynamics of the state. The work was

widely criticized for its “social irresponsibility” and

supposed “misrepresentation” of Russia’s youth.

Despite this criticism, Turgenev continued to ex-

amine social issues in his work. His novels Smoke

(1867) and Virgin Soil (1877) deal with the trans-

formation of Russian society and its subsequent ef-

fects on the peasantry and country gentry.

Turgenev also wrote a number of plays. A

Month in the Country (1855) contained a number

of dramatic innovations in style and subject mat-

ter. This play became a catalyst for the dramatic

works of Anton

CHEKHOV. In the comical play A

Provincial Lady (1851), Turgenev satirically treats

the moral and ethical beliefs of country aristocrats.

Both plays demonstrate Turgenev’s ability to illu-

minate a certain social issue without demonizing

a certain class or social group. Turgenev’s criticism

is often intricately interwoven into the fabric of the

segment of society represented on stage.

When Turgenev died in 1883, his contribution

to world literature was already recognized, and his

literary influence extended far beyond the borders

of Russia. Henry James, for instance, considered

Ivan Turgenev one of the greatest writers of the

19th century. Turgenev’s work also inspired social

changes in Russia and contributed to the develop-

ment of liberal political thought.

Another Work by Ivan Turgenev

Three Novellas About Love. Translated by Tatiana

Litvinov. Moscow: Raduga, 1990.

A Work about Ivan Turgenev

Knowles, Anthony Vere. Ivan Turgenev. Boston:

Twayne Publishers, 1988.

Tuwim, Julian (1894–1953) poet

Julian Tuwim was born in Lodz, Poland. His fa-

ther’s family was strongly Jewish and included sev-

eral Zionists. His mother was an assimilationist

who insisted that Tuwim be educated in a strictly

Polish manner. He never attempted to conceal his

Jewish identity and upbringing; as a result, during

the years preceding World War II, he was subjected

to numerous brutal attacks by extreme Polish na-

tionalists.

Tuwim lived in exile in France, South America,

and the United States throughout the Nazi era. He

was an active antifascist, and part of one of his

poems became the anthem of the Polish resistance

movement.

Tuwim was also one of the leaders of the Ska-

mander group, a group of experimental poets. He

became a major figure in Polish literature largely as

a result of his collection Slowa we Krwi (Words

Bathed in Blood, 1926). The poetry in this volume

fervently expresses the sense of emptiness that

Tuwim, Julian 433

accompanies the violence of urban life. Although

Tuwim clearly sympathized with the poor and

underprivileged, he did not become as actively

involved in the proletariat revolutionary move-

ment as he had in speaking out against fascism.

Instead, his poems voiced the protest of an isolated

intellectual. He used his works to illustrate the

dangerous effects of capitalism.

In addition to Slowa we Krwi, Tuwim also wrote

a collection of poems for children called Locomo-

tive (1938; translated 1940) and published transla-

tions of

PUSHKIN, for which he won the Pen Club

Award in 1935, and of other Russian poets. Many

of Tuwim’s poems were also set to music and be-

came extremely popular.

Another Work by Julian Tuwim

The Dancing Socrates, and Other Poems. Translated by

Adam Gillon. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1968.

Tzara, Tristan (Samuel Rosenstock)

(1896–1963) poet, essayist

Known primarily as one of the founders of DADA,

Tristan Tzara was born in Moinesti, Romania, on

April 16. While living in Zurich during World War

I, he wrote La Première Aventure céleste de Monsieur

Antipyrine (The First Heavenly Adventure of Mr. An-

tipyrine, 1916) and Twenty-Five Poems (1918).

These two works are commonly considered to be

the first dadaist texts. He also wrote the move-

ment’s manifesto, Seven Dada Manifestos (1924).

Tzara eventually moved to Paris, where he be-

came involved with fellow writers André BRETON,

Louis

ARAGON, and Philippe Soupault. Together

this group shocked readers and critics alike with

their nihilistic works, which sought to subvert the

conventional structures of language and society.

In the early 1930s, Tzara began to tire of ni-

hilism and turned, instead, to the newly emerging

surrealism as a more constructive form of artistic

expression. In 1936, he joined the Communist

Party and became actively involved in seeking ways

to integrate surrealism with Marxist doctrine.

During World War II, Tzara joined the French

resistance movement. His political activities

brought him into close contact with the realities

of oppression and made him brutally aware of

human suffering. His later works, such as The Ap-

proximate Man (1931), Speaking Alone (1950), and

The Inner Face (1953), reflect this new understand-

ing of the human condition.

Tzara continued to be active as both a poet and

an essayist until his death in Paris on December

24.

Another Work by Tristan Tzara

Approximate Man and Other Writings. Translated by

Mary Ann Caws. Detroit: Wayne State University

Press, 1973.

Works about Tristan Tzara

Lindsay, Jack. Meetings with Poets: Memories of Dylan

Thomas, Edith Sitwell, Louis Aragon, Paul Eluard,

Tristan Tzara. New York: Ungar, 1969.

Peterson, Elmer. Tristan Tzara: Dada and Surrational

Theorist. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University

Press, 1971.

434 Tzara, Tristan

435



Ueda Fumi

See ENCHI FUMIKO.

Unamuno y Jugo, Miguel de

(1864–1936) novelist, playwright, poet,

essayist

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was born in Bilbao,

Spain. He grew up and was educated there until he

was 16, absorbing the Basque culture and inde-

pendent spirit of that city. At 16, he went to

Madrid to study literature and philosophy at the

university.

Unamuno went on to become a professor of

Greek and Spanish literature at the University of

Salamanca. Because he spoke out publicly against

the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in the 1920s,

he was banished and fled to France. He lived just

over the Spanish border in the town of Hendaye

so that he could continue to express his views

against the regime to his fellow Spaniards.

In 1930, he was able to return to Spain. During

the Spanish civil war, he sided with Franco, al-

though he eventually spoke out against the dicta-

tor. Unamuno was one of the most famous

members of the group of Spanish writers known

as the

GENERATION OF

1898

. Like other members

of the movement, he sought to present a revital-

ized model of Spanish nationalist identity be ex-

punging certain decadent cultural habits that had

infiltrated Spanish culture. To this end, he was

against bullfights and the veneration of the Haps-

burg and Bourbon royalty that had ruled Spain

for the past few centuries. He called for a return

to the Spanish traditions of the Middle Ages be-

fore the Spanish Inquisition had homogenized

Spanish culture.

He was the most versatile of the Generation of

98, writing novels, poetry, and philosophy with

equal skill. In line with his political views, Una-

muno’s most important essays examine Spanish

history and the potential roles the Spanish nation

might play in the modern world.

His novels and poetry focus more on the plight

of the modern individual. In Mist (1914), a typical

novel and one of his most successful, Unamuno

traces the life of Augusto Perez, a man who lacks a

strong personality and any self-knowledge. Gradu-

ally, Unamuno depicts how Perez arrives at self-

knowledge through the pain of unsuccessful

romances. The mist of the title becomes a meta-

phor both for Perez’s personality and the forces

that obscure it.

Unamuno’s most famous poem is “Atheist’s

Prayer,” which portrays the irony of praying to a

god whom one cannot truly believe exists. It is

representative of Unamuno’s typical blend of in-

tensely spiritual feeling and skepticism.

Along with José ORTEGA Y GASSET, Unamuno is

the member of the Generation of 1898 who has the

largest international reputation. He is certainly the

most internationally known novelist of his genera-

tion. His influence on later Spanish authors who

followed his particularly open style of narrative

structure and ideas was immense. He demon-

strated a mode of philosophical literature that was

particularly suited to the themes of existential phi-

losophy and, along with Pío BAROJA Y NESSI, pio-

neered the modern Spanish novel.

Other Works by Miguel de Unamuno y

Jugo

The Agony of Christianity; and, Essays on Faith. Trans-

lated by Anthony Kerrigan. Princeton, N.J: Prince-

ton University Press, 1974.

Our Lord Don Quixote: The Life of Don Quixote and

Sancho, with Related Essays. Translated by An-

thony Kerrigan. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univer-

sity Press, 1976.

A Work about Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo

Ilie, Paul. Unamuno; An Existential View of Self and

Society. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,

1967.

Undset, Sigrid (1882–1949) novelist, short-

story writer, essayist

Born in Kalundborg, Denmark, Sigrid Undset

grew up in Christiana (present-day Oslo), Norway.

Her father Ingvald Undset was an archaeologist

and a historian who encouraged her interest in his-

tory and literature. Her mother Anne Charlotte,

the daughter of a Danish attorney, had to support

the family after Ingvald died in 1893. To help her

mother, Undset took a job as a secretary at age 16.

She cultivated her literary talent during the 10

years she worked in offices. In 1909, she started to

write full-time.

Undset’s first novels and short stories drew

from her work experience and portrayed women

trying to decide between career and family. In the

1920s, she turned to historical novels and pub-

lished her masterpiece, the Kristin Lavransdatter

(1920–22) trilogy. Undset’s next set of works on

medieval Norwegian history, translated into Eng-

lish as The Master of Hestviken (1928–30), earned

her the Nobel Prize in literature. In the 1930s,

Undset returned to writing about modern con-

cerns and became one of the first Norwegians to

oppose fascism. During World War II, she fled to

the United States to escape Nazi occupation.

Undset was a keen observer of contemporary

events. Her works about women caught between

public and private spheres deal with careers, love,

marriage, and infidelity. Undset’s historical novels

display an impressively detailed knowledge of me-

dieval Norway. Her search for ethics and religion

led to her conversion to Catholicism in 1925. Al-

though Undset’s religious views offended some,

her biographer Mitzi Brunsdale pointed out in

Sigrid Undset (1988) that even Undset’s critics

praised her sincerity: “She assailed not only Nor-

wegian social conditions but the dangerous mate-

rialism and sentimental humanitarianism that she

felt threatened all Western civilization.”

Other Works by Sigrid Undset

Gunnar’s Daughter. Translated by Arthur B. Chater.

New York: Penguin USA, 1998.

Kristin Lavransdatter: The Cross. Translated by Tina

Nunnally. New York: Penguin USA, 2000.

Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wreath. Translated by Tina

Nunnally. New York: Penguin USA, 1997.

Kristin Lavransdatter II: The Wife. Translated by Tina

Nunnally. New York: Penguin USA, 1999.

A Work about Sigrid Undset

Brunsdale, Mitzi. Sigrid Undset: Chronicler of Norway.

New York: Berg Publishers, Ltd., 1988.

Ungaretti, Giuseppe (1888–1970) poet

Giuseppe Ungaretti was born in Alexandria, Egypt.

He spent his childhood in North Africa, however,

where the nomadic culture influenced many of his

436 Undset, Sigrid

future life choices as well as his writing. Educated

in Paris, he lived a free-spirited life along with

many other members of the emerging literary and

artistic avant-garde. Their ideas, particularly those

of the French symbolists, would eventually impact

the direction of his poetry.

During World War I, Ungaretti served in the

Italian infantry. He fought with the 3rd Army on

the lower Isanzo front from 1915 to 1918. In the

spring of 1918, he was transferred to the Western

front where the Italian army fought with much

distinction. It was this experience that gave the as-

piring poet the background for his mature works,

particularly his war poetry, such as Vigil (1915)

and Brothers (1916).

Writing in the style of the symbolists, in which

the works are reduced to their simplest and most

essential elements, Ungaretti’s major themes are

love and the precarious and temporary nature of

the human existence. This is particularly evident

in I Am a Creature (1916). He chose each word

carefully, stressing the musicality of language

and avoiding elaborate structure within his poems.

His style was so unique that it prompted an entire

poetic movement that became known as hermeti-

cism.

Ungaretti’s poetry is collected in English trans-

lation in a series titled The Life of Man (1969). As

well as writing poetry, he also translated the works

of Shakespeare and Racine and held teaching posts

in Brazil and Rome.

Another Work by Giuseppe Ungaretti

Selected Poems: Bilingual Edition. Translated by An-

drew Frisardi. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux,

2002.

Ungaretti, Giuseppe 437