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ÁNGEL GANIVET Y GARCÍA (1865-1898) | |
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Spanish essayist and novelist, one of the most important social philosophers in the 1890s in Spain, member of the literature circle 'La Cuerda granadina'. Ángel Ganivet committed suicide at the age of 32. In his doctoral dissertation Ganivet descibed Spain as a divided country where ideas are used as destructive political weapons – a view which already predicted the bitterness of the Spanish Civil War. Ganivet himself was a divided character: he was deeply religious but at the same time a sceptic, a diplomat but known for his blunt openness. Central theme in his work was the spiritual regeneration of Spain. "I don't find the Finnish woman aesthetically attractive, because she is too little feminine. Here are young women, not much, who are called dockor, dolls. Ibsen's play Et Dukkehjem (A Doll's House) has made popular the characterless type of woman, who decides to become emancipated by abandoning her child in order to have more time for amusements." (from Cartas finlandesas, 1898) Ángel Ganivet was born in Granada into a modest industrial family. His father committed suicide in 1875, leaving his wife, Angeles García de Lara y Siles to take care of their five children and to look after a mill and a bakery. However, the business prospered and she managed to give her children the best possible education. Ganivet studied at the Institute of Granada (1880-85) and University of Granada, receiving degrees in the arts and law. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Madrid in 1890, Ganivet worked in a library and taught Greece. Fluent in five languages, Ganivet served with the Spanish consular service from 1892 in Antwerp (1892-96), Helsinki (1896-98), and Riga. Compared to his education and remarkable intelligence he had shown through his university studies, Ganivet's career started in relatively modest way. In Antwerpen Ganivet experienced an intellectual and spiritual crisis. Later the Finnish publisher and bookseller Wentzel Hagelstand wrote that Ganivet was least of all people a diplomat – he was open, unpretending, and did not try to please. From 1892 Ganivet had a liaison with Amelia Roldán Llanos, a Cuban, they had one son and a daughter, who died in infancy. During this relationship Ganivet fell is love with his neighbour, Marie 'Mascha' Djakoffsky, who gave lessons in languages. Amelia became so jealous that Mascha had to escape abroad – she died in 1934. In Finland Ganivet learned Swedish, the language of the cultural and economic elite élite. However, the majority of the population was Finnish-speaking – also the size of the Finnish-speaking educated class had expanded. Gavivet read Swedish newspapers and literature and gave French lessons. His major work, IDEARUM ESPAÑOL, appeared in 1896 and in 1896-97 he wrote LA CONQUISTA DEL REEINO DE MAYA, depicting the conquest and colonial rule of an imaginary country, Maya, which was set in the East Africa. Que je suis seul dans le monde! Ganives' sisters moved to Finland in 1898 but he became more and more unsociable. After leaving Spain he did not have any close frieds. In 1897-98 he wrote the partly autobiographical novel LOS TRABAJOS DEL INFATIGABLE CREADOR PÍO CID. "Cid" (Conqueror) refers to a man of action; "Pío" (Pious Man) to contemplation and discussion. Uniting these two sides, a true soul can be born. He was appointed canciller of the consulate in Riga and left Finland in the summer. Against his wishes Amelia followed him to his new post. On the day of her arrival, on November 29, 1898, disillusioned in love, Ganivet drowned himself in the Dvina River, nearly failing in his attempt: he was first rescued but managed to throw himself into the river again. Ganivet had contemplated suicide for several years and he had suffered from progressive syphilitic paralysis. Posthumously appeared his verse drama EL ESCULTOR DE SU ALMA, which was printed in 1899 and performed first time in Granada on March 1 in the same year. Ganivet is considered a member of the Generation ´98, an intellectual and moral colleague of Antonio Machado, Azorín (pseud. of José Martínez Ruiz), Pio Baroja, and a close friend of the educator, philosopher Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936), whom he had met in 1891, and who was the most prominent personality of the movement. Ganivet wrote his major works in Finland, among them the essay Spain, an Interpretation (1897), which examined the political situation of the country. In the work the characterizations of nations are drawn according to their geographic identification as an island, peninsula, or continent. Spain is an exception – it is a peninsula that has adopted behaviours appropriate to an island nation. Is has also mixed Arab, Jewish, and Castilian heritage, which are ideal for the creation of a contemplative culture. Ganivet suggest that Spain's past was an error, a deviation of its true nature. Spain must realize her true mission and give birth to a great nation and culture. In his dissertation Ganivet argued that Spain's mission is corrupted by materialism and egotism. Ganivet's arguments are drawn from 19th-century debate over Catholicism, positivism, imperialism, and rationalism, but he uses them creatively, changing flexibly from topic to topic. The publication of Francisco García Lorca's Angel Ganivet: Su idea del hombre (1952), Miguel Olmedo Moreno's El pensamiento de Ganivet (1965), and Antonio Gallego Morell's Angel Ganivet, el excéntrico del 98 (1965) created a new interest in his work For further reading: Vida y obra de Ángel Ganivet by Melchor Fernández Almagro (1925); Juicio de Angel Ganivet sobre su obra literaria by L. Seco de Lucena Paredes (1962); 'Alkusanat' by Kaarle Hirvonen in Angel Ganivet: Suomalaiskirjeitä (1964); El pensamiento de Ganivet by Miguel Olmedo Moreno (1965); Ángel Ganivet, el excéntrico del 98 by Antonio Gallego Morell (1965); Ángel Ganivet, un iluminardo by Javier Herrero (1966); Ángel Ganivet's 'Idearium español': A Critical Study by Herbert Ramsden (1967); Temas, fomas y tonos literarios by Mariano Baquero Goyanes (1972); The 1898 Movement in Spain by Herbert Ramsden (1974); Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, ed. by Jean-Albert Bédé and William B. Edgerton (1980) - Bibliography: Estudios y textos ganivetianos, Antonio Gallego Morell (1971) - Ángel Ganivet Institute is situated in Granada. SEE ALSO: España filosófice contemporanea Selected works:
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