Antonio de Obregon, epilogo de la novela espanola de vanguardia.

Abstract

Antonio de Obregon (1908-1985) is one of the youngest and perhaps least known writers among the Spanish vanguard novelists of the late 20's and early 30's. Neither his biography nor his literary production have attracted scholarly attention, due in part to ideological and artistic prejudices, to the shadow cast over the novelists by the poets of the Generation of 1927, and because he only published two novels: Efectos navales (1931) and Hermes, en la via publica (1934). Despite this, Obregon is an extremely interesting literary figure. His publications in periodicals, such as La Gaceta Literaria, Revista de Occidente, Luz, and El Sol during the late 20's and 30's, as well as his personal connections with the contemporary intelligentsia place him at the center of the artistic and cultural ambience in pre-civil war Spain. His narrative exemplifies the late vanguard esthetic, both formally and thematically, and indeed signals the end of the vanguard novel in Spain. Given that no modern editions of his works are available, and almost no bibliography is devoted to him, my research had to start from the very basics: first, reconstructing his personal and literary life by reviewing contemporary documents and publications; second, reading and cataloging criticism of his journalistic and literary works to see how he has been read and interpreted, and third, closely reading his novels, going beyond the obvious and reexamining the critical commonplaces. Some critics have considered Obregon frivolous and reactionary and his novels an exercise in empty intellectualism during a time when social conflicts were reaching alarming proportions. My research tries to portray impartially the trajectory of Obregon's life and works within the cultural context in order to demonstrate that the alleged empty intellectualism is only apparent, and that his last novel in particular displays the key preoccupations and conflicts of his time.