THE EXPRESSION OF SOCIAL CRITICISM IN ANA MARIA MATUTE'S PRIMERA MEMORIA: A ...

113 Pages·2009·5.45 MB·English

THE EXPRESSION OF SOCIAL CRITICISM IN
ANA MARIA MATUTE'S PRIMERA MEMORIA :
A STUDY OF THEMES, CHARACTERS AND IMAGES
by
Diane Yvonne C o l l i ns
B . A ., U n i v e r s i ty of B r i t i sh Columbia, 1970
A t h e s is submitted in p a r t i al f u l f i l m e nt of
the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
in the Department
of
Hispanic and I t a l i an Studies
We accept t h is t h e s is as conforming to the
r e q u i r ed standard
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
March, 197U
In p r e s e n t i ng t h is t h e s is in p a r t i al f u l f i l m e nt of the r e q u i r e m e n ts f or
an a d v a n c ed degree at the U n i v e r s i ty of B r i t i sh C o l u m b i a, I agree t h at
the L i b r a ry s h a ll make it f r e e ly a v a i l a b le f or r e f e r e n ce and s t u d y.
I f u r t h er agree t h at p e r m i s s i on f or e x t e n s i ve c o p y i ng of t h is t h e s is
f or s c h o l a r ly p u r p o s es may be g r a n t ed by the Head of my D e p a r t m e nt or
by h is r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s. It is u n d e r s t o od t h at c o p y i ng or p u b l i c a t i on
of t h is t h e s is f or f i n a n c i al g a in s h a ll n ot be a l l o w ed w i t h o ut my
w r i t t en p e r m i s s i o n.
Department of /^Zvi? i-rCT- j-'L-6~*'-
The U n i v e r s i ty of B r i t i sh C o l u m b ia
V a n c o u v er 8, Canada
D a te / VTJJ S & J7 J
T
i
ABSTRACT
Ana M a r ia Matute is known to have a c r i t i c al a t t i t u de towards the
Franco regime, and has declared that she w r i t es in order to protest against
oppression, h y p o c r i sy and i n j u s t i c e. How she manages to do t h is and s t i ll
survive l i t e r a ry censorship as a p u b l i s h i ng author in post-war Spain is
the problem discussed in t h is t h e s i s.
I propose that Matute has made use of imagery as the most subtle
means of conveying t h is c r i t i c i s m. Primera'.'imemoria, which r e c e i v ed the
Nadal P r i ze in 1959, and is considered by most c r i t i cs to be her master
piece to that date, appears to be the c u l m i n a t i on of t h is formoof e x p r e s s i o n;
I have therefore chosen to study P r i m e ra memoria in t h is t h e s i s.
The t h e s is is d i v i d ed i n to three main parts: the study of themes in
order to show general targets of M a t u t e 's c r i t i c i s m, the study of characters
because they embody d i f f e r e nt aspects of Spanish s o c i e t y, and the study of
images. Since themes and characters are l a r g e ly revealed through imagery,
images must i n e v i t a b ly be discussed throughout the t h e s i s.
Because the three main themes of P r i m e ra memoria r e c ur throughout
Matute's works, in the f i r st chapter I s h a ll introduce these themes -
childhood, i s o l a t i on and Cain and Abel - as they are presented in a ll her
other n o v e l s. Chapters I I, I II and IV d e al w i th these themes in P r i m e ra
memoria. Chapters V to IX discuss the characters in the n o v e l. In
chapter V Dona Praxedes is shown to represent the p r e s e r v a t i on of Spain's
monarchic, C a t h o l i c, feudal past: the status quo, and in chapter VI her
ii
dubious l i nk with the Church is examined. In chapter VII Borja is
studied as a representative of upper class hypocrisy, materialism and
conformity and in chapter VIII Lauro is examined as a member of the meek,
oppressed lower classes. Chapter IX deals with Jose and Manuel Taronji
as representatives of the lower classes' rebellion against oppression and
injustice. Chapter X shows Matute's use of nature imagery - sun, flowers
and wind - as a vehicle for her social protest and moral judgement. In
the conclusion I shall b r i e f ly mention social criticism in the other two
novels of the trilogy Los mercaderes .
i ii
CCOONNTTEENNTTSS
Page
Introduction. Censorship and the post-war n o v e l i st 1
Chapter I. The themes of Matute's other novels . 11
In Primera memoria l The themes
Chapter I I. Childhood 30
Chapter I I I. I s o l a t i on
Chapter I V. Cain and A b e l; the C i v il War 53
The characters
Chapter V. Dona Praxedes; the status quo 59
Chapter V I. Mosen Mayol; the Church 68
Chapter V I I. B o r j a; h y p o c r i s y, m a t e r i a l i sm and conformism . .. 7^
Chapter V I I I. Lauro; the oppressed lower classes -. 79
Chapter I X. Jose and Manuel T a r o n j i; the protesters . . . . .. 83
The images
Chapter X. Sun, flowers and w i n d; Matute's protest 87
Conclusion. 9^
B i b l i o g r a p hy 10h
I would like to acknowledge the assistance and encouragement
of my thesis director, Dr. Marian G.R. Coope, and my gratitude to her
for having introduced me to the novels of Ana Maria Matute.
1
INTRODUCTION
Since the C i v il War, l i t e r a ry censorship has "been a major problem
for Spanish w r i t e rs l i v i ng in Spain, and when Ana Maria Matute was b e g i n
ning her l i t e r a ry career, in the nineteen f o r t i e s, censorship was stringent.
In the a r t i c le "A Wounded G e n e r a t i o n " , 1 w h i c h, s i g n i f i c a n t l y, has been
published only in North America and in E n g l i s h, Matute discusses t h is
problem:
Our generation grew without w r i t e rs to emulate. As an
example of the a r b i t r a r i n e ss of these p r o h i b i t i o n s,
Dostoevski was forbidden almost e n t i r e l y, as were Balzac
and Anna Karenina - or they were m u t i l a t e d. Almost a ll
the contemporary w r i t e rs of France, I t a ly and the U n i t ed
States were forbidden. Also p r o h i b i t ed were our own
Baroja, V a l le I n c l a n, Ortega y Gasset, a large p o r t i on of
Unamuno and C l a r i n, not to mention the work of those who
were forced to leave the country for p o l i t i c al reasons, (p. ^23)
We grew up in d i f f i c u lt times for Spanish w r i t e r s. The
Spanish novel of those days could r e f l e ct nothing but a
spurious hero or the d e f i n i t i ve triumph of decency over
indecency, of the angels over the demons: the "good guys"
and the "bad guys" once again, as in the t a l es of our
childhood.
We brought to the novel a new c r i t e r i o n. When we r e
ferred to the war, we simply c a l l ed it the C i v il War instead
of the G l o r i o us U p r i s i ng or the Holy Crusade. But that was
censored. So were words l i ke l i b e r t y . There were c e r t a in
relevant "taboos" in Spain. In the novels w r i t t en in that
epoch, no one, for example, committed suicide or adultery.
Those of us who were then 18 or 20 began to w r i te in
t h is suffocating environment. It was d i f f i c u l t. . . .
The censor dismembered our books.
I remember how we wrote, our discovery of forbidden
books in the back of c e r t a in bookstores, our discovery
of new names, of new l i t e r a ry tendencies , in the s h e l t er
of s i l e n c e, always s i l e n c e. We were born to t h is v o c a t i o n,
breaking our heads against the systematic no, against the
o p p o s i t i on and the negations. Between aseptic i n d i f f e r e n ce
and bought c r i t i cs who labeled as E x i s t e n t i a l i st a ll they
did not understand or approve, we turned our eyes back to
the war. And t h is is e a s i ly explained since we had watched
2
it with ignorant, open eyes as it penetrated us; it
finally became a way of seeing, vision itself. But the
brilliance of what was revealed hurt us: and we were
cut off from it, suddenly and brutally. We were surrounded
only by echoes, distant rumblings. The words "liberty"
and "the rights of man" were torn from our writings and
erased from our program. And social justice, that justice
for which we were clamoring, they changed to the word
"charity", (p. 1,22-3)
Matute's view is corroborated by Willis Knapp Jones in the article
"Recent novels of Spain: 1936-56"2 and by Kessel Schwartz in The Meaning
of Existence in Contemporary Hispanic Literature.-^ Jones and Schwartz
further state that literature was deliberately shaped to political ends,
and according to Schwartz, it was used to affirm the spiritual qualities of
the rightist revolt: hispanidad, tradition and Catholicism.
Matute wrote her first novel, Pequeno teatro, in 19^3 when she was
eighteen years old. The protagonist Zazu, a girl with nymphomaniac tend
encies, drowns herself. This might explain why the novel was not published
until eleven years later, although when it was, in 195^, it was considered
good enough to win the Premio Planeta.
In 19^-9 Matute's novel Las luciernagas was , according to Eugenio de
Norva,^ a semifinalist for the Nadal prize. It presents a highly critical
picture of the conditions during the Civil War and of post-war Spain. The
protagonists Soledad and Cristian struggle for six years to earn an honest
living in the society of post-war Spain, which is depicted as economically
ruined and morally corrupt. Their attempt is doomed to failure, for in such
a society only the dishonest and unscrupulous prosper; the idealistic young
couple find themselves humiliated and severely in debt. The novel was
censored and Matute had to rewrite it, omitting the post-war period.
3
( C r i t i c i sm of war-time c o n d i t i o n s, it appears, was much less feared by
Franco than c r i t i c i sm of the post-war, since the l a t t er i m p l i es d i r e ct
c r i t i c i sm of h is government.)5 The r e w r i t t en v e r s i o n, e n t i t l ed En esta
t i e r r a , was p u b l i s h ed in 1955-
Matute has not had any more novels "banned, although she expected
censorship of Los soldados l l o r an de noche since it has a communist hero.^
This is l a r g e ly due to the fact that as the Franco regime has become more
secure, the s t r i c t n e ss of the censorship has lessened. It is perhaps also
a result of the author's many f o r e i gn contracts to p u b l i sh since she has
become i n t e r n a t i o n a l ly known. Her works have been t r a n s l a t ed i n to French,
E n g l i s h, German, Swedish, Norwegian, D a n i s h, F i n n i s h, Dutch, U k r a i n i a n,
P o l i s h, I t a l i a n, Portuguese, B u l g a r i a n, Rumanian, L i t h u a n i a n, C z e c h o s l o-
v a k i a n, Hungarian and Japanese. The fact that they have also been
t r a n s l a t ed i n to R u s s i a n, but not i n to Greek, is p o l i t i c a l ly s i g n i f i c a n t.
Above a l l, I suggest that her c o n t i n u i ng p u b l i c a t i on in Spain has been
due to her s k i ll in evading censorship.
To a v o id censorship on p o l i t i c al grounds in post-war S p a i n, a
w r i t er must appear not to c r i t i c i ze the Franco regime. Matute is known
to have a c r i t i c al attitude to the government, for in December 1970 she
took part in an anti-Franco demonstration w i th three hundred Catalan
i n t e l l e c t u a l s. They signed the "Montserrat M a n i f e s t o ", a t r e a ty supporting
the Basque n a t i o n a l i s ts and asking for p u b l ic l i b e r t i es and c i v il r i g h t s.
Matute was f i n ed f i f ty thousand pesetas, which is the maximum allowable
for t h is offence.
The fact that she is a "persona non grata" in Spain is shown by the
f o l l o w i ng i n c i d e nt reported by Janet ¥. Diaz:
In May 1972, A na M a r ia Matute was detained by p o l i ce in the
a i r p o rt of Barcelona and prevented from making a t r ip to
France where she was scheduled to receive h i gh r e c o g n i t i on
in an i n t e r n a t i o n al meeting f or h er c o n t r i b u t i on to
c h i l d r e n 's l i t e r a t u r e. Although she had been issued a new
passport only days p r e v i o u s l y, she was refused p e r m i s s i on
to leave the country, without explanation. . At the same t i m e,
other Spanish w r i t e rs who were not to receive honours were
permitted to make the t r i p.
This was the c u l m i n a t i on of a [series o fl i n c i d e n ts
apparently intended to prevent Matute's r e c e i v i ng i n t e r
n a t i o n al r e c o g n i t i on f or h er j u v e n i le f i c t i o n. In
previous years, the agency of the Spanish government
which is o f f i c i a l ly empowered to make nominations f or
c o n s i d e r a t i on by the H . C. Andersen giury (which chooses
among nominees from many countries) had postponed and
avoided Matute's nomination, consenting to mention h er
t h is year o n ly after a Spanish w r i t er won l a st year,
thereby making another Spaniard i n e l i g i b le f or f i r st
place t h is year. When she was nonetheless i n v i t ed to
receive a s p e c i a l ' c i t a t i o n, she was denied a r i g ht which
is supposedly fundamental in "free" countries the w o r ld
over.7
Despite the censorship since the C i v il War, and e s p e c i a l ly since
the nineteen f i f t i e s, many.Spanish n o v e l i s ts assert that the n o v el is not
an end in i t s e l f. It is f i r st and foremost a means of communication
through w h i ch the r e a l i ty of post-war Spain, i ts s o c i al and p o l i t i c al
s i t u a t i on can be reveaiked.
In J u ly 1962, in the P a r is j o u r n al Les lettres. francaises , s e v e r al
young Spanish n o v e l i s ts made statements about the contemporary n o v el which
r e v e al a uniform attitude towards i t: the desire to r e f l e ct f a i t h f u l ly
present-day Spanish r e a l i ty so that others can see and understand i t; to
expose s o c i al problems in order to disturb the reader and o b l i ge h im to
take a stand, w i th the hope of improving s o c i al c o n d i t i o n s .^
In i960 A na Maria Matute had acknowledged the same aims:
La n o v e la ya no puede ser meramente de pasatiempo y de
evasion. A la par que un documento de nuestro tiempo