Anales galdosianos - Año VI, 1971

161 Pages·2014·13.04 MB·Spanish

SUMARIO
Harriet S. Tumer: Rhetoric in La Sombra: the Author and his
Story. ° Rafael Bosch: La Sombra y la psicopatología de Galdós.
0 Nicholas G. Round: Rosalía Bringas' Children. • R. O. Jones
and Geraldine M. Scanlon: Miau: Prelude to a Reassessment e
Herberí Ramsden: The Question of Responsibility in Galdós'
Miau. e Nicholas G. Round: Time and Torquemada: Three
Notes on Galdosian Chronology. ° Peter B. Goldman: Galdós
and Cervantes : Two Articles and a Fragment. • Ruth A. Schmidí:
José Ortega Munilla: Friend, Critic and Disciple of Galdós. •
Peíer B. Goldman: Historical Perspective and Political Bias:
Comments of Recent Galdós Criticism. e Charles A. McBride:
Religión in the Spanish Novel. e Marcos Guimerà Peraza: Algu
nas precisiones a la reseña del libro Maura y Galdós. • Manuel
Hernández Suárez: Bibliografía.
AÑO VI 1971
THE UMYERSITY OF TEXAS
Austin,, Texas

ANALiSS GALDOSiíANOS
publica anualmente artículos, reseñas de libros, noticias y documentos sobre la obra
de D. Benito Pérez Galdós; textos y documentos para la historia intelectual de la
España de Galdós; artículos y reseñas de libros sobre los problemas teóricos de la no
vela realista; y una bibliografía descriptiva clasificada sobre Galdós.
Director Honorario: Joaquín Casalduero
Director: Rodolfo Cardona Subdirector: Anthony N. Zahareas
Redactores: Alfonso Asmas Ayala, Juan Bautista Avalle-Arce, Carlos Blanco Agui-
naga, Stephen Gilman, Ricardo Gullón, John W. Kronik, A. A. Parker, Paul P.
Rogers, Gonzalo Sobejano, Vicente Lloréns
Redactores en el exterior: (Alemania) Hans Hinterhauser; (España) Sergio Beser;
(Francia) Robert Ricard; (Inglaterra) Geoffrey Ribbans
Redactores de estilo: Daniel Aaron: Gerald Gillespie
Redactor bibliográfico: Manuel Hernández Suárez
PRECIO DE SUSCRIPCIÓN Y VENTA: 3 dólares al año.
REDACCIÓN Y ADMINISTRACIÓN:
Batts Hall, 112
The University of Texas
Austin, Texas 78712
U. S. A.
Diríjanse los pedidos en los Estados Unidos a: Batts Hall, 112, The University of
Texas, Austin, Texas, 78712
En España a: Editorial Castalia, Zurbano, 39, Madrid 10
En XMS Palmas de Gran Canaria a: Casa-Museo Pérez Galdós •—• Cano, 33, Las Pal
mas de Gran Canaria
Venta de monografías, números sueltos y otras publicaciones, en los Estados Unidos:
LAS AMERICAS PUBLISHÏNG CO.
152 East 23rd Street
New York, N. Y. 10010
Acogida a la franquicia postal e inscripta como correspondencia de segunda
clase en la oficina de correos
Depósito Legal: V. 172-1972
Artes Gráficas Soler, S. A. — Jávea, 28 — Valencia (8) — 1971
PRINTED IN SPAIN
SUMARIO
Harriet S. Tumer: Rhetoric in La Sombra: the Author and his
Story. ° Rafael Bosch: La Sombra y la psicopatología de Galdós.
0 Nicholas G. Round: Rosalía Bringas' Children. • R. O. Jones
and Geraldine M. Scanlon: Miau: Prelude to a Reassessment e
Herberí Ramsden: The Question of Responsibility in Galdós'
Miau. e Nicholas G. Round: Time and Torquemada: Three
Notes on Galdosian Chronology. ° Peter B. Goldman: Galdós
and Cervantes : Two Articles and a Fragment. • Ruth A. Schmidí:
José Ortega Munilla: Friend, Critic and Disciple of Galdós. •
Peíer B. Goldman: Historical Perspective and Political Bias:
Comments of Recent Galdós Criticism. e Charles A. McBride:
Religión in the Spanish Novel. e Marcos Guimerà Peraza: Algu
nas precisiones a la reseña del libro Maura y Galdós. • Manuel
Hernández Suárez: Bibliografía.
AÑO VI 1971
THE UMYERSITY OF TEXAS
Austin,, Texas
LA SOMBRA: DOS INTERPRETACIONES
Siguiendo nuestra política de presentar, como hicimos en él caso de Fortunata y
Jacinta (ver Anales galdosianos, Volúmenes / y 111), interpretaciones que utilizan
métodos diferentes, a veces radicalmente opuestos, de enfoque, publicamos en este
volumen dos artículos sobre La sombra, esa novélita, novela corta o cuento largo que,
después de haber sido prácticamente ignorada por tantos años, atrae la atención de
los críticos de algún tiempo a esta parte.
Los títulos de los ensayos a continuación nos indican ya la divergencia de enfoque:
él análisis retorico que enfoca esta obra principalmente como «novela ejemplar» o
«apólogo» en la cual Galdós presenta la locura como un estado ambiguo de cuyo origen
la sociedad, en gran parte, es directamente responsable; y el enfoque sociológico y
científico, por otro lado, que nos presenta, con gran detalle y erudición, todo el tras-
fondo científico implícito en esta obra primeriza que, lejos de apuntar hacia lo freu-
diano, como algunos habíamos propuesto, parece más bien explorar las vías que la
fisiología y la neuropatía de su tiempo le proporcionaron a través de ciertos tratados
y textos que, como el autor demuestra, estuvieron al alcance de Galdós.
La Dirección
ÍNDICE GENERAL
PÁG.
ESTUDIOS
HARRIET S. TURNER, Rhetoric in La Sombra: the Author and his Story ... 5
RAFAEL BOSCH, La Sombra y la psicopatología de Galdós 21
NICHOLAS G. ROUND, Rosalía Bringas' Children 43
GERALDINE M. SCANLON and R. O. JONES, Miau: Prelude to a Reassessment. 53
HERBERT RAMSDEN, The Question of Responsibility in Galdós' Miau 63
NICHOLAS G. ROUND, Time and Torquemada: Three Notes on Galdosian
Chronology 79
TEXTOS
PETER B. GOLDMAN, Galdós and Cervantes: Two Articles and a Fragment ... 99
DOCUMENTOS
RUTH A. SCHMIDT, José Ortega Munilla: Friend, Critic, and Disciple of
Galdós 107
PETER B. GOLDMAN, Historical Perspective and Political Bias: Comments on
Recent Galdós Criticism 113
ENSAYO-RESEÑA
CHARLES A. MCBRIDE, Religión in the Spanish Novel 125
CARTA AL DIRECTOR
MARCOS GUIMERÀ PERAZA, Algunas precisiones a la reseña del libro Maura
y Galdós 133
BIBLIOGRAFÍA
MANUEL HERNÁNDEZ SUÁREZ, Bibliografía 139
RHETORIG IN LA SOMBRA: THE AUTHOR
AND HIS STORY
Harriet S. Turner
I
Galdós speaks apologetically of La sombra, his first novel, which appeared as
a serial in Revista de España in 18711 and then in 1890 as a book, along with three
other fictional pieces. In the «Preface» to the first edition he recalis absentmindedly
that La sombra «data de una época que se pierde en la noche de los tiempos..., y tan
antigua se me hace y tan infantil, que no acierto a precisar la fecha de su origen,
aunque, relacionándola con otros hechos de la vida del autor, puedo referirla vaga
mente a los años 66 ó 67.» 2 He painstakingly points out that «en ella hice los primeros
pinitos... en el picaro arte de novelar»3 and that only at the insistance of friends was
the story published, «no por buena, que dista mucho de serlo, ni por entretenida, sino
por respetable, en razón de su mucha ancianidad.»4
Yet despite obvious shortcomings La sombra deserves attention and respect, not
only, as one critic writes, «por su carácter fantástico y la presencia en sus páginas de
personajes propios de la creación galdosiana,»s but because of the novelistic techniques
Galdós used to develop within his story a difficult question of moral responsibility.
Even in its rudimentary form La sombra anticipates in both matter and manner the
artistry characteristic of later masterpieces.
The subject of La sombra concerns the story of one man's insanity, told to the
author as a confession. As Rodolfo Cardona notes in his introduction to the text book
editiòn, it is significant that Galdós' first novel should deal primarily with the «'fan
tàstic'» 6 —that concept of ülusion and reality in which subjective, imaginative pheno-
mena interact reciprocally with their opposite: verifiable fact. The protagonist, doctor
Anselmo, recounts to Galdós the story of his fantàstic experiences: hallucinations,
psychotic behayior, and other symptoms of mental suffering. Although he himself is
unable to perceive clearly the realities underlying and provoking such behavior, he
manages at the end, by dint of Galdós' informed and sympathetic collaboration, to
understand that what he had deemed the cause—the apparition of Paris—was in
fact the result of his madness, a result which, though apparently fantàstic in nature,
was nevertheless engendered as the logical consequence of very real circumstances.
In his introduction Mr. Cardona treats La sombra as a self-contained piece of
work, attending primarily to the description and analysis of don Anselmo's illness. He
writes that La sombra «is probably one of the earliest works anywhere in Europe to
present a complete 'case history' aimed at explaining the delusions of a psychotic
individual, thus making this a remarkably 'Freudian' novel long before Freud had
even begun his investigations.»7 Mr. Cardona's view of La sombra as a case history
quite naturally focuses upon the relationship of the author to his character. Galdós,
depicted formally in a passive role vis-a-vis his protagonist, probes and intèrprets the
story in the manner of a psychiatrist. Thus, according to Mr. Cardona, the narration
of Anselmo's perplexing and painful experience develops within a double point of
view. This double point of view renders two important advantages: (1) it produces a
6 HARRIET S. TURNER
greater realism and (2) it constitutes a means by which Galdós may portray the min-
gling of the real and the fantàstic. For example, we see that on the one hand, «'para
dar a mi aventura más verdad'» (IV, 227),8 Anselmo telis the story backwards, as it
happened to him. The suspense and impression of verisimilitude this narrative pers-
pective affords also suggests «Galdós' awareness of the order in which the contem-
porary psychiatrist confronts his cases: from a manifestation of the abnonnality he must
move toward its source.» 9 Henee greater realism is achieved. On the other hand, the
fact that «Galdós presents his story as if it were indeed a fantàstic and supernatural
tale, only to strip it of these qualities at the end in order to reveal the truth» 10 depiets
narratively that reciprocal relationship between illusion and reality so characteristic
of Anselmo's mental disorder.
Yet Galdós intended the story of his protagonist to be more than just a case history.
In his own words it is «un regular apólogo..., una pequeña obra de arte, propia para
distraer y aun enseñar» (IV, 197)." This larger meaning involves La sombraos effect
on the reader, an effect produced as a consequence of the analysis of don Anselmo's
illness. The novel may be treated as a self-contained piece but it may also be treated
as a work of rhetoric,12 designed to communicate a social message and to impose
that message upon the reader without violating the demands of realistic, non-didactic
fiction. A discussion of La sombra from the point of view of rhetoric focuses upon
the effeets certain novelistic elements produce and whether such effeets are appropriate
to the novel. In this essay I am primarily concerned with the problem of how Galdós,
as an author present in his own novel, handles his relationship to don Anselmo so
that, upon arousing and guiding certain sympathetic reactions, he induces the reader
not only to recognize but to accept the message ultimately embodied in the faets of
the story.
In La sombra Galdós is depicted from within as a friend of don Anselmo, a fre
qüent visitor to his laboratory, and a man well informed of Alselmo's family
background, his past and present mental condition, and of prevailing públic opinión.
As such a friend and commentator Galdós presents don Anselmo in a more complex
manner than his historical approach or his easy conversational tone might at first
suggest. For our acquaintance of the doctor derives initially from a second-hand chorus
of públic voices which Galdós then contrasts with his more immediate, charitable, and
henee more reliable observations. We read on the first page, for example, that everyone
who knew don Anselmo flatly considered him a «loco rematado» and that such públic
opinión was «general, unánime, profundamente arraigada, sin que bastaran a desmen
tirla los frecuentes rasgos de genio de aquel hombre incomparable, sus momentos de
buen sentido y elocuencia, la afable cortesía con que se prestaba a relatar los más
curiosos hechos de su vida, haciendo en sus narraciones uso discreto de su prodigiosa
facultad imaginativa» (IV, 190).
Guided by such commentary we immediately perceive that públic utterance is
superstitious and prejudicial, since it so readily dismisses or ignores certain faets attes-
ting to Anselmo's deceney and intelligence. It is further discredited when Galdós
adds that «pocos le trataban...; desdeñábanle los más, y todos los que no conocían
algún antecedente de su vida ni sabían ver lo que de singular y extraordinario había
en aquel espíritu, le miraban con desdén y hasta con repugnancia» (IV, 190). Public
opinión surrounding don Anselmo feeüs upon rumor, apathy, and disdain and thus
appears unreliable.
RHETORIC IN LA SOMBRA: THE AUTHOR AND HIS STORY 7
In opposition are the altitudes and opinions of two people: Galdós and don An
selmo himself. For Galdós not only sets the stage for Ànselmo's autobiographical tale.
As noted above, he gives his own evaluation of the doctor and it is important to
observe that from the outset his attitude is hesitant and unsure, marked by ambivalent
feelings of doubt, affection, and respect. Such feelings are manifest in a number of
details, for example, in Galdós' description of Ànselmo's physical appearance, «tan
poco romántico, tan del día y de por acá... que nadie fijará en él la atención» (IV,
193), of his clothes— «El vestido no llamaba la atención aquí, donde hay un museo
de ridiculeces en perpetua exhibición por esas calles» (IV, 193), or of his drawing
room, an «habitación vulgar, de éstas en que todos vivimos» (IV, 191). There is an
appealing kind of normality about this strange man, a basic everyday quality about
his appearance which is manifested in many aspects of his behavior. Galdós speaks of
Ànselmo's «buen sentido,» his «afable cortesía» and judges him to be «el más afable
e inofensivo de los seres» (IV, 192). His humane, balanced opinión renders suspect that
inflated image of the man as a «loco rematado» which prejudicial gossip had proposed.
Therefore we soon see that ambiguity, not facile definitions, characterizes the man
whose confession of mental disturbances constitutes the novel's plot. He appears to
our eye as a baffling mixture of normality and abnormality, as unreal in his extrava-
gance, «de éstos que más se ven en el artificioso mundo de la novela y el teatro que
en la escena de la vida» (IV, 193), yet as a man not unlike ourselves in many respects.
This impression of Ànselmo's complexity is confirmed by the author's frank admission
that «no es empresa llana hacer una exacta calificación de aquel hombre, poniéndole
entre los más grandes o señalándole un lugar junto a los mayores mentecatos nacidos
de madre» (IV, 190).
Galdós' attitude of bewilderment and respect which accompanies his presentation
of don Anselmo exerts an important influence on the reader. One must remember
that, as Mr. Cardona points out, mental illness in 1867 was still a little investigated
and feared phenomenon. In presenting don Ànselmo's case the only preconceptions
Galdós may take for granted in his audience are the same kinds of ignorance and
superstitious fear which surround don Anselmo. Galdós must first overeóme these
prejudices in order to propose, in their stead, a more convincingly humane and
informed attitude toward mental illness. Yet Galdós also seeks to make his audience
recognize their own responsibility toward people like don Anselmo, whose illness arises
in part from their thoughtlessly cruel collaboration.
Owing, therefore, to the complex nature of his subject and the adverse opinión of
the general reading públic, Galdós uses the trick of author as character rhetorically,
that is, to arouse in his reader certain feelings and perceptions which will help to alter
any conventional views of mental illness. Among these feelings and perceptions are (1)
an initial sympathy and esteem for don Anselmo, (2) an awareness of the injustice and
unreliability of públic opinión and, consequently, (3) a willingness, following the
author's own example of bewilderment and respect, to approach the case history in a
flexible, unprejudiced state of mind. Quite specifically, how does Galdós' management
of his relationship to Anselmo produce these reactions?
In the first place, rather than evolving from a double point of view the story deve-
lops within a triple perspective. Dramatized in the novel not only as Ànselmo's friend
but also as chronicler, Galdós mediates between Anselmo and society. Thus we ap-
'prehehd the man from three points of view: (1) públic opinión, (2) GaldoS^còmmen-
tary, and (3) Ànselmo's narration of events. It is important to note the fact of a triple
8 HARRIET S. TURNER
viewing perspective because it reveáis how society itself, as well as Galdós and An
selmo, is implicated in the narration of mental illness.
Secondly, a multi-faceted approach to Anselmo entails a notion of his human
complexity, for he appears to our eye as a different personality according to three
distinct sources within the novel. The general públic considers him a ridiculously
inane characterj «enteramente ajeno a la actual sociedad» (IV, 193). Galdós, in turn,
offers a picture that is benevolent in its ambiguity while Anselmo's words depict an
extraordinarily sensitive man whose lucidity only serves to compound his mental suf-
fering. The complexity manifested in this three-dimensional portrait suggests a direc-
tional pattern expressive of moral valué. We progress in our acquaintance of the man
from the negative evaluation públic opinión has proposed to a positive impression
of Anselmo's personal worth. Galdós' commentary, which mediates between outside
opinión and inside revelation, keeps our minds open and receptive along this trajectory
because (1) his own attitude discredits the públic view at the same time that (2) it
points out the ambivalence and difficulty which attend any «exacta calificación de
aquel hombre.»
Moreover, the very movement from outside to inside, from an external, more
distant perspective to the inside view, exerts a persuasive effect since the question
of distance is involved with reliability.13 Society's opinión is obviously discredited by
its detachment and disdain, by the fact that «pocos le trataban...; desdeñábanle los
más» and that just when Anselmo most needed loyality and support, «huyeron de él
los que antes le tenían afecto o lástima» (IV, 195). Conversely, Galdós' proximity to
Anselmo makes his opinión more believable.
Besides using explicat commentary to guide his audience Galdós indirectly mani
fests opinión in the content and tone of certain descríptive passages. A good example
is the picture of Anselmo's laboratory in Chapter I. There Galdós depicts, in abundant
detail, the weird trappings and fearsome noises which have created that atmosphere
of mystery and terror popular opinión associates with the man's mental condition.
In this description, however, Galdós also uses pictorial allusions and comparísons to
various historical and fictional alchemists and necromancers. For example, he mentions
don Anselmo and the laboratory in connection with «la faz cadavérica del doctor
Fausto, del maestro Klaes, de los sopladores de la Edad Media, del buen marqués
de Villena y de los fabricantes de venenos y drogas en las Repúblicas italianas» (IV,
190-191).
These references undercut, in a strangely ambivalent way, the very mystery and
terror they apparently are supposed to créate, for they invest the description with a
kind of comic unreality. This impression of unreality is then confirmed by a comment
foUowing the above enumeration of magicians and poisoners: «Esto hacía parecer
a nuestro héroe punto menos que nigromante, pero no lo era ciertamente» (IV, 191).
Anselmo appears to be a man in the guise of madness, as one playing a literary, melo
dramàtic role and whose extravagant behavior, therefore, we should not take too
seriously. Galdós' descríptive tone in this passage is benevolently humorous. That
humor further deflates any superstitious apprehension while at the same time it huma-
nizes don Anselmo.
Consequently, we note a curious paradox in the way Galdós describes Anselmo's
resemblance to literary and historical people and scenes. On the one hand, such
-dllusions equate Anselmo's eccentricities with fiction and artífice: «La" habitación del
doctor,» writes Galdós, «parecía laboratorio de esos que hemos visto en más de una