Spanish Modernism in Context: Failed Heroism and Cross-Cultural Encounters in Pío Baroja and Joseph Conrad

• Katharine Murphy ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Exeter

     University of Exeter

     Exeter District, Reino Unido

     
• Localización: Bulletin of Spanish Studies, ISSN-e 1478-3428, ISSN 1475-3820, Vol. 97, Nº 5, 2020, págs. 807-829
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Over the last two decades, the recuperation of Spanish authors in the development of Modernist fiction in a pan-European context has gained increasing momentum among scholars. Extending the scope of these critical studies, this article presents a comparative analysis of cross-cultural encounters and ironic journeys of development in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim (1900) and Pío Baroja’s César o nada (1910). The study addresses three key strands: the question of direct influence; the thwarted search for self-definition set against the competing perceptions of multiple fictional observers; and finally the failed heroism of each protagonist which, I propose, symbolically references a scepticism towards European narratives of progress. The comparison of two authors (one Spanish; one Polish émigré) identifies resonant parallels between their fictional works and seeks to reframe Baroja and Conrad as literary counterparts across national borders in turn-of-the-century Spain and Britain.