Los caracteres nacionales según En torno al casticismo

Abstract

Unamuno's En torno al casticismo has often been regarded a work deeply concerned with Spain. Hoyle (2000) has recently argued that some of the metaphors with which Unamuno illustrated his concept intrahistoria in En torno al casticismo are some of the neatest ones in Spanish Modernism. Albeit Ribas (1971) succeeded in his comparison of Unamtino's intrahistoria and Hegel's Volksgeist, En torno al casticismo wants for a critical analysis of the Spanish Volksgeist which it presents. The aim of this article is 1) to scrutinise the philosophical, historical and political bias which were influential on Unamuno at the time of writing En torno al casticismo, 2) to examine Unamuno's view of the Spanish psychology as it is portrayed in this work, and 3) to present it as a part of the continuum of responses which Unamuno and Ganivet gave to one another in their earlier works, i.e. in España filosófica contemporánea, En torno al casticismo, Idearium español, and El porvenir de España.