SOURCE: Franz, Thomas R. “The Poetics of Space in San Manuel Bueno, Mártir.” Hispanic Journal 16, no. 1 (spring 1995): 7-20.

In the following essay, Franz employs Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space to analyze the symbolic use of space in Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr.

Many studies have wrestled with the symbolism in Unamuno's San Manuel Bueno, mártir and have interpreted the symbols in very different ways. So wide is the critical chasm that at least one critic has declared that “there can be no objective solution to the question” (Butt 67). Nevertheless, the major treatments of the problem (Falconieri, Morón Arroyo, Rodríguez-Alcalá, Blanco Aguinaga, Hammitt, García de la Concha) tend to agree on certain points. (1) The lake and the mountain are intimately related to the appearance, behavior, and spiritual concerns of Don Miguel. (2) The mountain and the sky suggest lofty spirituality, while—in the novella's...