SOURCE: Valdes, Mario J. “Metaphysics and the Novel in Unamuno's Last Decade.” Hispanofila 44 (1972): 33-44.

In the following essay, Valdes argues that Unamuno's late works of literature, from Paz en la Guerra to San Manuel Bueno, mártir and La novella de don Sandalio, jugador de ajedrez, demonstrate a well-developed metaphysics and that Unamuno's literary works metaphorically express a dialectical method and a fundamental dualism.

One of the fundamental problems that confronts the literary critic is how to determine the place and function of philosophy in literature. Because the novel is a more elastic genre the influence of philosophy in it has been more pronounced than in other forms of literature, but philosophy in literature is certainly not limited to the novel nor is this observation an implied value judgement of the genre.

The rôle of philosophy in the novel can be approached through three distinct modes of...