Miguel de Unamuno

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (September 29, 1864–December 31, 1936) was a writer and philosopher from the Basque Country in Spain.

Drama

Unamuno's dramatic production presents a philosophical progression.

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Questions such as individual spirituality, faith as a "vital lie", and the problem of a double personality were at the center of La esfinge (1898), La verdad (Truth), (1899), and El otro (The Other), (1932).

Related Topics:
1898 - 1899 - 1932

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In 1934, he wrote El hermano Juan o El mundo es teatro (Brother Juan or The World is a Theater).

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Unamuno's theater is schematic; he did away with artifice and focused only on the conflicts and passions that affect the characters. This austerity was influenced by classical Greek theater. What mattered to him was the presentation of the drama going on inside of the characters, because he understood the novel as a way of gaining knowledge about life.

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By symbolizing passion and creating a theater austere both in word and presentation, Unamuno's theater opened the way for the renaissance of Spanish theater undertaken by Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Azorín, and Federico García Lorca.

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