José Martínez Ruiz,"Azorín": La voluntad as a regenerational novel.
José Martínez Ruiz,"Azorín": La voluntad as a regenerational novel.
José Martínez Ruiz's La voluntad (1902) was a fundamental novel that made a contribution to the regeneration of the novel in the twentieth century. However, when it was first published it received hardly any acclaim. The novel is part of a trilogy, including itself, Antonio Azorín (1903) and Las confesiones de un pequeño filósofo (1904). La voluntad is very much a novel belonging to the 'Generation of 1898,' and it insists on the existence of the Generation. La voluntad presents the frustration of the failure of a generation; it protests against the association of the era with disillusionment and anger. La voluntad even protests against the annihilation of La voluntad, of the will of a character, Antonio Azorín. The character of Antonio Azorín represents the author José Martínez Ruiz, and all the 'Generation of 1898.'
La voluntad is almost a symbol; it can represent a generation without will, indecisive and without energy; a generation which, unlike the realist Generation, did not have strength of will. Yecla emerges as a synonym for post- desastre Spain. The character of Antonio Azorín is placed as a representation of the 'Generation' and the alter ego of José Martínez Ruiz. It is a novel of the end of a century, discussing the incapacity of reason. Furthermore, discussing the global crisis, which affected the 'Generation of 1898.' Ortega's vision of the novel shows clearly what Azorín achieved with La voluntad:
Se trata de siempre hablarnos del hombre. Pero como ahora el hombre no es sujeto de sus actos sino que es movido por el medio en que vive, la novela buscará la representación del medio. El medio es el único protagonista.1
Within La voluntad, the author and the character may be classified to be suffering from a lack of will; a 'reality', which both cannot stand and reject, but cannot help, this is the drama and tragedy of the novel. Martínez Ruiz highlights Azorín's lack of will or abulia, by placing Illuminada in the text; she is the antithesis of Azorín and Justiana:
Esta Illuminada es amiga íntima y vecina de Justiana; es una muchacha inteligente, vivaz, autoritaria, imperativa. Habla resueltamente, y su cuerpo todo, joven y fuerte, vibra de energía, cada vez que pone su empeño en algo. Iluminada es un genial ejemplar de una voluntad espontánea y libre; sus observaciones serán decisivas y sus gustos, órdenes.2
The novel is also autobiographical; José Martínez Ruiz can be identified within Azorín, especially as José Martínez Ruiz later adopted the name Azorín, as his pseudonym. However, it is important to bear in mind that the book is a novel, and not an autobiography, and thus, should not be read as one. It is not until later that Martínez Ruiz adopted the psyeudonym: José Martínez Ruiz, he did not write La voluntad as Azorín. It is more a case of Martínez Ruiz becoming Azorín than the other way around.
La voluntad also has metafictional characteristics, as shall be seen in Niebla, within it there exists a theory of the novel, what it should be like, and a critique of the novel. Here Yuste and Azorín talk about literature and how it should be. José Martínez Ruiz cleverly achieves a critique of the novel:
" Y en la vida no se habla así; se habla con incoherencies, con pauses, con páraffos breves, incorrectos... naturales... Dista mucho, dista mucho de haber llegado a su perfección la novela."3
This is exactly what Martínez Ruiz did in his novel: he attempted to emulate 'reality'. He is at times incoherent, and creates pauses in the text. Martínez Ruiz tries to achieve perfection of the novel by trying to imitate real life in this way. Moreover, he discussed the theory of the novel, and his intentions for this novel, within the novel. Therefore, we see another truly metafictional text, constantly reflecting upon the nature of the novel, just as shall be seen in Unamuno's Niebla.
In the twentieth century novel there was no fábula, or plot as there is no need for one.
Ante todo, no debe haber fábula [...] la vida no tiene fábula: es diversa, multiforme, ondulante, contradictoria[...] todo menos simétrica, geométrica, rígida, como aparece en las novelas..., como en la novela del antiguo regimen, a contarnos tilde por tilde, desde por la mañana hasta por la noche, las obras y milagros de su protagonista [...] cosa absurda, puesto que toda la vida no se puede encajar en un volumen, y bastante haremos si damos diez, veinte, cuarenta sensaciones[...]4
One of the fundamental characteristics of Martínez Ruiz's novel is that the novel does not have a plot. This lack of fábula is what Martínez Ruiz was most criticized and admired for, many believed, especially the realist writers that without fábula there was no novela. Unamuno used this idea in Niebla as he also thought that the novel should imitate 'reality', and not have a clear argument. Martínez Ruiz used fragmentation, emotions and sensations, to take the place of the novel's plot. In La voluntad, José Martínez Ruiz, attempted to represent the post- desastre crisis, and the new way of seeing the world. Thus, La voluntad is a search for the novel. In this novel, Martínez Ruiz mixes diverse and heterogeneous elements. La voluntad is fragmented, there are essay-like chapters and lyrical chapters, journalistic articles, theatrical chapters, paragraphs taken from other books and even discourse that is read in front of the tomb of the famous writer Larra, as it was done in reality. The accumulation of different genres makes the novel an intertext, breaking boundaries of classification and genre. It is a novel in which different literary genres are mixed; this is one of the fundamental ways in which the novel was regenerated.
Azorín started his experimentation with the novel in La voluntad, which, is considered by many to be a novela lírica as opposed to Unamuno's novela ensayo although both type of novels share abundant amounts of similar characteristics. Ralf Freedman discusses the novela lírica in his book called La Novela Lírica5 (1972), in which he named this concept of the novel. Writers such as Herman Hesse, Andre Gidé and Virginia Woolf share the characteristics of the novela lírica.
In his time "Azorín" was one of the only Spanish authors whose work has been considered to be a ...
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Azorín started his experimentation with the novel in La voluntad, which, is considered by many to be a novela lírica as opposed to Unamuno's novela ensayo although both type of novels share abundant amounts of similar characteristics. Ralf Freedman discusses the novela lírica in his book called La Novela Lírica5 (1972), in which he named this concept of the novel. Writers such as Herman Hesse, Andre Gidé and Virginia Woolf share the characteristics of the novela lírica.
In his time "Azorín" was one of the only Spanish authors whose work has been considered to be a novela lírica, along with Gabriel Miró, Benjamin Jarnés and Pérez Ayala. The essential characteristics of the novela lírica are its autobiographical qualities, its interiorisation and fragmentation, and finally the annihilation of time and discourse, which is lineal and consecutive. La voluntad fits into these characteristics completely. Furthermore, the novel does not have a plot in the traditional sense; it has a minimal plot. What the reader does find in the novela lírica are strongly subjective visions. The novela lírica explores interior worlds and tales of interiorisation, an exploration of the author's interior, as Unamuno in Niebla, when he talks about himself in a dramatised form though his characters.
The novela lírica is constituted of a group of sketches which are tenuously linked by reflections, memories or something they have in common, they are not logically connected by a line a of argument. In these novels the plot is constantly interrupted. The novel leans towards the protagonist Antonio Azorín: the only thread that connects the different chapters of the novel. Azorín is not always present in ever chapter; but the presence of his shadow and that of the 'Generation' can always be felt.
The novela lírica is also symbolic; there are symbols and metaphors, sensuous prose and rhythm although it is not because of the latter that they are named lyrical novels. In the novel prose looks forward to the present; verse is almost always looking to the past. In the lyrical novel prose and verse are mixed together. The abolition of lineal and consecutive time is essential to the lyric novel. What we find in La voluntad is a continual present.
All the aforementioned characteristics are present in La voluntad, fragmentation, and diverse heterogeneous elements; in addition, if a chapter is inverted or removed it makes little difference to the text, showing that La voluntad has almost no plot at all. Each chapter is like a different independent painting, in the 'gallery' that forms the book. Martínez Ruiz actually published some of the chapters of La voluntad independently. The chapters are very similar to those in Cervantes' Don Quijote: the chapters also can be moved around, to a certain extent, without altering the meaning of the text. La voluntad does not have a plot, because life does not have a plot, the writers of the 'Generation, did not want to be conventional like the nineteenth century realists; they wanted to be realistic. The novel turns towards the protagonist: Antonio Azorín, the only link between all the chapters. There are no events; nothing happens, there is no history, the novel is only interesting as the reader sees the influences upon the protagonist. When Martínez Ruiz describes Yecla he is not focusing on the description but on representing the way in which Azorín lives and the way his conscience develops.
In La voluntad it appears that time does not pass by or advance. As will be examined in Niebla, the novel gives the reader the sensation that the action is happening in the exact moment the reader is reading. La voluntad appears to have been written without knowledge of what is going to happen next. Time is static it does not move or advance in La voluntad; it is almost as if time has stood still. Martínez Ruiz had a peculiar concept of time, in which past and present were combined: just as the readers see the juxtaposition of the iglesia Nueva and the iglesia Vieja.6
The prologue appears to have nothing to do with the protagonist. It is about the building of a church in Yecla, yet it is a symbolic prologue. Martínez Ruiz places this prologue before the protagonist. Antonio Azorín is not introduced till later on in the next section of the novel and Martínez Ruiz does this very cinematographically as Eugenio G. de Nora suggests: 'El primer capítulo y parte del segundo pueden considerarse un verdadero "travelling" cinematográfico.'7 The author zooms in to the action more so than Unamuno does in Niebla. Thus, Martinez Ruiz created his own cinematic perspective before cinema had evolved.
The prologue has symbolic significance it does not mention the protagonist but the moral atmosphere that would influence him. The church ends up being a paralytic anachronism as it was built when cathedrals were no longer built. This reflects the lack of will of Spain and is a metaphor of the world in which Antonio Azorín was born into, brought up in and lived. Moreover, the church is a metaphor for the Spain in which the 'Generation of 1898' found themselves, and wrote about.
The first part of the novel is narrated in the third person; the narrator is omniscient, which is to say that he is aware of what is happening within the novel. Together with the epilogue this is the most objective part of the novel. The second part of the novel is in third person; the narrator appears to be coming from the inside of the novel, thus attempting to interiorise Antonio Azorín. The third section marks a culmination in the novel written in first person Antonio Azorín talks about himself.
The first part is more objective, distanced from Azorín and always set in Yecla. In this first part the protagonist appears, to the reader, to be taking a back seat, he appears somewhat blurry and is not quite what the reader would expect from a protagonist. Antonio Azorín appears to be a spectator or listener of the ideas of others. There are only a few chapters in which he appears centre stage moving constantly towards an approximation. In the beginning, Martínez Ruiz does not tell us information about Antonio Azorín, his technique is to slowly close in on the character, almost like a camera zooming in on its subject. Martínez Ruiz in this section reveals a discovery of Azorín through the things that surround him. Later, there are various conversations in which he does not take part he only listens. The author thus, starts to narrate the failure of the Generation in relation to the failure of Antonio with Augustina. When the protagonist separates with Augustina, the text divides, and the reader can see Azorín and Yuste's life alongside Augustina's.
This division is an attempt to create a simultaneous effect, which is very difficult to create within literature, as literature is made up of writing, which is lineal and continuous, it breaks with tradition breaking this linearity. This subjugation of the lineal and continuous discourse of the novel is a characteristic of the novela lírica. Furthermore, it is a rupture from the nineteenth century realist novel.
In the second part of the novel the reader sees a complete change, the novel is no longer centred in Yecla, but in Madrid. Moreover, there is a shift in narrative, the novel is now in the first person. In the second part there is more movement, and change of characters; the reader no longer sees the blurry identity of Antonio Azorín as he takes a step closer to the novel's centre stage. Madrid as Yecla did, represents the Spain after the desastre, the Spain that so many of the young Spanish intellectuals were dissatisfied with. Antonio Azorín's arrival in Madrid is the deus ex machina of Antonio Azorín's final annihilation of will. As the chapters continue the reader perceives Azorín losing his will, as many of the 'Generation of 1898' did.
In the third and last part, the novel returns to Yecla. The difference between this episode and the earlier episode in Yecla, is that it is made up of several writings in the first person narrative, written by Antonio Azorín. Once again Martínez Ruiz is letting the reader get closer to Azorín, edging him further and further as the book develops. The roots of this narrative focus, in narratives, provide the clearest vision possible of the protagonist, focused in a variety of ways, in different sections. Here he progressively gets closer to the character until the third section. This is a very complicated vision, which shows the reader that they are facing a new novel; the truth is manifested in different points.
The epilogue carries on discussing Antonio Azorín, manifesting his personality more objectively. Martínez Ruiz introduces himself to the reader, as did Unamuno in Niebla, through his letters discussing the character's provisional destiny. The epilogue has a variety of functions. Firstly, it introduces the author in the fictional realm. Secondly, the reader will perceive Antonio Azorín from yet another perspective, from a distance where the reader may judge him. Finally the reader can view Antonio Azorín and his annihilation of will, of La voluntad .The reader is also introduced to Baroja. Furthermore, it is at this point when the author distances himself from the character of Antonio Azorín; the text appeared autobiographical up until this point.
El no hace nada; no escribe ni una línea; no lee apenas; en su casa solo he visto un periódico de a capital de la provincia, que les manda un pariente que borrajea en él algunos versos. De cuando en cuando Azorín va al campo y se está allá seis u ocho días; pero no puede disponer nada tocante a las labores agrícolas, [...] La mujer es la que lo dispone todo, y da cuentas, hace, en fin, lo que le viene en mientes. Azorín deja hacer, y vive, vive como una cosa[...]8
Antonio Azorín like Don Quixote/ Alonso Quijano, at the end of Don Quixote de La Mancha, has no will of his own. Similarly to Don Quixote Azorín feels disappointed with the world around him, having lost Justiana as Don Quixote loses Dulcinea.
Martínez Ruiz wants to display the fullest possible picture of Antonio Azorín's character. That is why we are introduced to him slowly starting from his birthplace in Yecla then gradually chapter by chapter, part by part. Martínez Ruiz tries to emulate life in his novel; in real life we would not know everything about a person straight away, we would gradually get to know them; this is what Martínez Ruiz does in La voluntad.
In the third part of the novel Martínez Ruiz explains clearly his intentions regarding the further development of Antonío Azorín' character:
Esta parte del libro constiuyen fragmentos sueltos escritos a ratos perdidos por Azorín. El autor decide publicarlos para que se vea mejor la complicada psicología de este espíritu perplejo...9
The epilogue highlights Antonio Azorín's failure almost cruelly. Besides this, Martínez Ruiz interpolates the fictional Antonio Azorín into the real world of Martínez Ruiz and Pío Baroja. Thus, we see the intention of bringing the fictional entity: Azorín, into reality, just as Cervantes succesfully did with Don Quixote, and Unamuno does in Niebla with Victor Gotí and Augusto Perez. Furthermore, on another level as Unamuno became a fictional character entering Niebla as a character, Martínez Ruiz similarly trades places with his creation by adopting his name as a pseudonym.
Throughout La voluntad there are ellipses: omissions signaling abrupt changes or breaks. These ellipses are almost like stage directions forcing the reader to pause, or imagine what is taking place: (Una pausa larga.) [...] (Una pausa; Yuste saca la diminuta tabaquera.) [...] (Sonriendo.).10 There are also narrative ellipses when there is something important withheld from the reader, these are noticed when there is a jump in the narrative and the reader has been left in the dark about something.
Another characteristic of the novela lírica is the use of lyrical language. Ralph Freedman writes: 'Es un género híbrido que utiliza la novela para aproximarse a la función del poema.'11 Martínez Ruiz uses poetic, expressive and musical language in La voluntad. At the beginning of the novel the author uses poetic language to describe the sunrise, capturing the moment perfectly:
El campo- claro ya el horizonte- se aleja en amplia sabana verde, rasgado por los trazos del ramaje ombrajoso, surcado por las líneas sinuosas de los caminos. El cielo, de verdes tintas pasa a encendidas nacaradas tintas. Las herrerías despiertan con su sonoro repiqueteo; cerca, un niño llora; una voz grita colérica. Y sobre el oleaje pardo de los infinitos tejados, paredones, albardillas, chimeneas, frontones, esquinazos, surge majestuosa la blanca mole de la iglesia Nueva, coronada por gigantesca cúpula listada en blancos y azules espirales.12
The author's use of colours is furthermore, a way in which to transmit the sentiment of the landscape. Martínez Ruiz very accurately paints the landscape in the reader's mind's eye.
In the novel he demonstrates the influence of the landscape on the person, and visa versa. Martínez Ruiz does not just describe Yecla as he sees it; he uses the landscape to display feelings and emotions. The description used by Azorín is meticulous he does his very best to capture sensations. In La voluntad Azorín discusses the sadness of the Spanish landscape, superimposing his feelings unto the landscape:
[...]reflexiona en la tristeza de este pueblo español, en la tristeza de este paísaje. 'Se habla- piensa Azorín- de la alegría española, y nada hay más desolador y melancólico que esta española tierra. Es triste el paisaje y es triste el arte.13
Within the novel we see a theory of what the artist should try to achieve:
Lo que da la medida de un artista es su sentimiento de la naturaleza, del paisaje...Un escritor será tanto más artista cuanto mejor sepa interpretar la emoción del paisaje... Es una emoción completamente, casi completamente moderna.14
The artist must be able to capture and emulate the emotion and sentiment within the landscape, once achieved the writer is succeeds.
In La voluntad Martínez Ruiz appears have a naturalist approach to life, he is concerned with depicting the social environment of the Spain of the 'Generation of 1898.' Likewise, he dwells on the failures and inadequacies of the human being, as we have seen with Antonio Azorín and his abulia. Martínez Ruiz displays how a man's life and actions can determined by the environment he inherits, as Zola describes in Thérèse Ranquin (1868). Martínez Ruiz performs an autopsy on life, like Zola suggests the novelist should do.
Zola had a marked influence on La voluntad and on Martínez Ruiz's regeneration of the novel. José Martínez Ruiz named Zola as the Baptist of the new aesthetic:
Una gran revolución se está preparando en la literatura europea; estamos abocados a una gran alborada del espíritu humano [...] ¿ Quién será el Mesías de la nueva doctrina artística?
Contentémonos con saber quién es le Bautista, quién es el precursor:
Emilio Zola.15
In addition, Zola's publication of Le roman experímental, would have been of further influence to both Martínez Ruiz and the Generation of 1898. Le roman experímental suggested that the novel was to be experimented with, just as experiments were made in science for the good of humankind.
In La voluntad we can see José Martínez Ruiz clearly contemplating Schopenhauer's aesthetic doctrine that distinguished, the will to live, common to every human being, as a origin of suffering; he considered that the work of art was a medium in which one could overcome this suffering. This doctrine is a very good analogy of the 'Generation of 1898' and the regeneration of the Spanish novel.
La voluntad is a unique and completely regenerational novel. It contains many regenerational aspects that make it stand out from other contemporary works. The novel sees Martínez Ruiz using the novel to critique Spanish society in a very subtle way. The novel also sees an admirable experimentation of the novel, and its intent to emulate reality. Martínez Ruiz introduced the definition of the 'Generation of 1898' and with La voluntad he paints the anguish they have suffered.
Ortega y Gasset, José,Meditaciones sobre la literature y el arte: (la manera espanola de ver las cosas).
Ed. Inman Fox, (Madrid: Castalia, 1988).p. 235.
2 José Martínez Ruiz, "Azorín". La voluntad. Ed.: María Martínez del Portal, (Madrid: Catedra, 1997). p.171.
3 José Martínez Ruiz, "Azorín". La voluntad. p.190.
4 Ibid. p.190.
5 Freedman, Ralph. La novela lírica: Herman Hesse, André Gide y Virginia Woolf. (Barcelona: Barral Editors, 1972).
6 José Martínez Ruiz, "Azorín". La voluntad. p.120.
7 De Nora,Eugenio G, La novela española contemporánea, (Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1979). p.237.
8 Ibid. p.350.
9 José Martínez Ruiz, "Azorín," La voluntad. p.316.
0 Ibid. Pp 144,149,166.
1 Freedman, Ralph. La novela lírica: Herman Hesse, André Gide y Virginia Woolf . p.13.
2 José Martinez Ruíz, "Azorín," La voluntad. p. 120-121.
3 José Martínez Ruiz, "Azorín," La voluntad , pp. 269.
4 Ibid. pp. 186.
5 Díez Mediavilla, A. Ed., Azorín fin de siglos (1898-1998). (Alicante: Editorial Aguaclara, 1998). p.80.
