ÁNGEL GANIVET: BIOGRAPHY AND COMPLETE WORKS - LITERATURE - 2024

Ángel Ganivet García (1865-1898) was a 19th century Spanish diplomat and writer. He is considered by many historians as the father of the Generation of 98, which worked in the intellectual sphere for a new Spain after the consequences of the Spanish-American war, also called the "Disaster of 98".

Ganivet is known in the field of literature for his famous work Spanish Idearium. In this book the writer expressed his concern for being and for the history that Spain had had up to now. The text has a place in modern thought for its content and its philosophical charge.

Angel Gavinet. Source: José Ruiz de Almodóvar The thought and work of this Spanish writer were inclined towards the rejection of the advances of modernity; he believed more in a country oriented towards Christian precepts. According to him, lack of will and apathy caused his nation to go into crisis.

Biography

Ángel Ganivet was born on December 13, 1865 in the city of Granada. Little information is available about his family; however, it is known that he was part of the middle class and that at nine years of age he was orphaned by his father, Francisco Ganivet, because he committed suicide. His mother was called Ángeles García de Lara.

Childhood and academic studies

Ganivet's childhood years were difficult after his father's suicide. A year after he died, the boy had a fracture that compromised his leg. However, his will allowed him to move on and prevented it from being cut off. Years later he managed to walk without any problem.

The incident forced Ángel to stay away from the classrooms. He was able to begin high school studies late and later enrolled at the University of Granada to study philosophy, letters and law. There he stood out for his high marks.

After graduating from university, Ganivet moved to Madrid. Once in the capital he began a doctorate, in which he obtained the highest grade and an award for his final work entitled The Importance of the Sanskrit language.

Love and friendship

The young Ganivet applied for many job positions and managed to work in the then Ministry of Development in the Spanish capital. At that time he began to visit the athenaeum and frequently attended the literary meetings held by groups of intellectuals.

Mill House by Ángel Gavinet. Source: Jjmerelo, from Wikimedia Commons In 1891 he met the Spanish writer and philosopher Miguel de Unamuno, with whom he shared some ideas and whose friendship was for life. Some time later he became friends with the literary critic and scholar of Cervantes's work, the journalist Francisco Navarro Ledesma.

As for the writer's love life, it is known that he fell in love with a young woman named Amelia Roldán Llanos. There was no marriage, but there were two children born of the relationship: a girl named Natalia, whose life was short; and a man named Ángel Tristán.

Political life

Ganivet had an important performance in the political life of his country. In 1892 he was appointed vice consul in Belgium.

The fact that they had gone to live in another country caused problems in their love relationship. However, she took advantage of the distance to write, learn languages and play instruments.

Three years later, Ganivet's good work earned him the consulate of what is now Helsinki, in Finland. It was not long until he was transferred to Latvia, because the diplomatic headquarters where he served as consul was closed because there was not enough economic and commercial activity.

Although the writer tried to mitigate loneliness by developing most of his works in the countries where he was a diplomat, depression won him over. The fact of being away from his family, coupled with the situation in Spain, caused a strong decline in his spirit.

Ganivet's death

Angel Gavinet's tomb. Source: Herodotptlomeu, from Wikimedia Commons Loneliness and sadness clothed the writer and politician. On November 29, 1898, he died when he jumped from a boat towards the Dviná River, in the city of Riga (Latvia).

Ganivet's remains were brought to Spain almost 30 years later. They currently rest in Granada, in the San José cemetery.

Ideals

Ángel Ganivet was always concerned about the situation in Spain. The economic, political and social crisis that the country suffered after the Disaster of 98 led him to a constant struggle for the total recovery of his nation.

Gavinet said that the citizens lacked the courage, courage and energy to avoid the ruin of the nation. In addition, she never hid her rejection of the modern.

He considered that industrialization and private property did harm to society, and assured that it was through thought, ideas and actions that a country could achieve great changes.

Ganivet was a spiritual man and his goals were focused on making the citizens of his country achieve such spirituality. He was always against violence and aspired to a Spain with a sense of morality and with faith in humanity, where humility was the guide.

Complete works

The main works of Ángel Ganivet were the following:

Novels

- The conquest of the Mayan kingdom by the last conqueror Pío Cid (1897).

- The works of the indefatigable creator Pío Cid (1898).

Theater

- His most outstanding work of this genre is The Sculptor of His Soul (1898).

essays

- Contemporary philosophical Spain (1889).

- Spanish Idearium (1897), his most important work.

- Men of the North (1898).

Works in prose

- Granada the beautiful (1896).

- Finnish letters (1898).

Description of the most outstanding works of Ángel Gavinet

Granada the beautiful

It was a work written in prose in which Ganivet made manifest his thoughts and wishes for an ideal city. At the same time, he expressed the problems that had to be solved in his native land and made an analogy with other entities.

The author proposed a transformation of Granada as well as the need to maintain it as a place worth inhabiting, where scholars and intellectuals had an active participation.

As an opponent of the modern, Ganivet criticized the creation of the Gran Vía. According to the writer, this work affected the decline of the city's heritage, as well as its harmonic balance. Despite the author's doubts, the work was well received.

Fragment

“We are what everyone knows, what everything is in Spain: an interim… we are in full indigestion of new laws and, therefore, the greatest absurdity that can be conceived is to give new laws and bring new changes; to get out of our interim we need a century or two of rest…

They figure that laws are learned by reading: this is how lawyers learn them for a living; but the people must learn them without reading them, practicing them and loving them ”.

The conquest of the Mayan kingdom by the last conqueror Pío Cid

This novel by Ángel Ganivet is classified within the fantastic. The conquistador Pío Cid goes in search of adventure and enters a region where the inhabitants have had little contact with the whites. Then, he pretends to be a member of the community to integrate them into civilization.

In the work there is a reflective criticism about different cultures. Ganivet considered that the inhabitants of the tribes had a better knowledge of the value of sincerity than the civilized people of the Western world. Finally, Pío Cid fails to make the Mayan people advance towards modernity.

Fragment

“Another no less pleasant surprise was hearing them express their first words in one of the various dialects of the Bantu language, of which I had some knowledge acquired through trade with the uahuma tribes, who speak it.

Are these warriors of the human group, that is, men from the north, dominators of the properly indigenous race and, therefore, as originally from India (as it is believed), my race brothers?

Spanish Idearium

This essay by Ganivet is considered one of his most important and outstanding works. It is the writer's analysis of the importance and essence of man as being, and at the same time it is a meditation on the situation Spain was experiencing at that time.

At the end of the work the author refers to what he called abulia on the part of Spanish society. It determined that citizens suffered from a psychosocial disorder that prevented them from fighting for their country. Spanish Idearium was dedicated to his father.

Fragment

"All our history shows that our triumphs were due more to our spiritual energy than to our forces, since our forces were always inferior to our works… because walking blindly can only lead to random and ephemeral triumphs…".

Finnish letters. Men of the north

This prose work by Ganivet responds to a request from his friends. While he lived in Finland as a diplomatic representative of Spain, his colleagues asked him for a description of life in that Nordic country. He pleased them through some epistles.

Fragment

“The disturbances and wars that disturb the inner peace of nations and put one to arms against each other are almost always born from the much debated question of nationalities; because there has been no means of organizing nations in such a way that each one comprises only one nationality, that is, a nucleus perfectly characterized by its own characteristics: race, language, religion, traditions and customs ”.

References

1. Angel Ganivet. (2018). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: wikipedia.org
2. Valverde, F. (2006). A book analyzes the thought of Ángel Ganivet in his relationship with Granada. Spain: The Country. Recovered from: elpais.com
3. The conquest of the Mayan kingdom by the last Spanish conqueror, Pío Cid. (2011). (N / a): The dart of the word. Recovered from: eldardodelapalabra.blogspot.com
4. Angel Ganivet. (2018). Cuba: Ecu Red. Recovered from: ecured.cu
5. Tamaro, E. (2018). Angel Ganivet. (N / a): Biographies and Lives: The Online Encyclopedia. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com.