On those days in October 1935, as the world's largest literary prize approached, the Spanish-speaking world was the most eager, with scattered news and articles reporting the nomination of the most famous and controversial writer, philosopher and novelist Miguel de Unamuno for the Nobel Prize for Literature (1).
"Spain hurts me"
Unamuno was one of the most prominent writers of his generation in Spain, the generation that witnessed the decline of the country's international status and its defeat to the United States, and its loss of colonies, and then the signing of the Paris Agreement in which Spain abandoned its last colonies in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, so in 1898 a number of writers and writers analyzed the reasons for the decline reached by Spain, and wrote their opinions about what could restore the country's status (2).
Unamuno was writing enthusiastically about attempts at change in his society, so he presented his production in books, novels, poems, short stories, articles and studies, and most of his works expressed an existential philosophical concern, the man was the owner of heavy words, sometimes carrying severe contradictions, interpreted by some with his extreme sincerity in announcing and defending his positions (3).
The religious education he received as a child in Bilbao, where he was born in 1864, had a profound impact on his entire life, and at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Madrid Onamuno continued his studies, obtaining a doctorate in literature, before returning to Bilbao again and starting his path in the world of writing.
In addition to essays, plays and poetry collections, Unamuno wrote about his childhood in Bilbao his first novel "Peace in War" in 1897, reintroduced the heroes of the famous Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes in the book "The Life of Don Quixote and Sancho", and in 1913, he presented his most famous book "The Tragic Sense of Life", and his most famous novel "Mist" in 1914.
The book "The life of Don Quixote and Sancho". (Photo: Social Media)
In the essays he collected in his book On Purity, Unamuno criticized Spain's lagging behind the zeitgeist in science and industry (4), but was later frustrated, and lamented his country with the expression that Spanish politicians would often use afterwards: "Spain hurts me" (5).
Unamuno taught at the University of Salamanca, of which he was appointed president in 1901, and this position will remain a measure of his relationship with power in Spain, as he was removed in 1924, re-elected in 1931, and then appointed president for life in 1934, yet Onamomo was not in that position at his death a few years later (6).
"Don Miguel" was a well-known name in literary circles, as well as political, where he broke the political life that was rippling with great changes, opposing the rule of the military dictator Primo de Rivera, and then exiled to the island of Fuerteventura and from there to France, where he resided until the fall of the dictatorship in 1930 (7).
With the establishment of the Second Republic in Spain in the thirties of the twentieth century, Unamuno was one of its defenders and on his return he advanced as an independent candidate for the municipal council elections in Salamanca, and for the parliamentary elections, and he did win them, but the performance of the government disappointed him, so he wrote strongly critical of it and refused to run for the next elections (8).
Withheld Award
Miguel de Unamuno. (Photo: Shutterstock)
In early 1935, the Spanish newspapers were reporting the news of the nomination of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Brussels for the "Unamuno" for the Nobel Prize, and celebrating the current supporting the most prominent Spanish thinker from different European countries, after which the faculties of the University of Salamanca joined the supporters of the nomination of Unamuno for the prize.
This time, all the reasons – as analysts saw – were in favor of the rector of the University of Salamanca, but the list of Nobel laureates came out without the name of Unamunu, and in 1935 specifically, the place remained empty, it was the only year in which the prize was withheld - without a world war - in the field of literature only (9).
In 2001, part of what happened at that time will be known: the Swedish Academy declassified the deliberations of the Nobel Prize and the opinions put forward by the judges about the nominees for the prize. "While War Was War" tells the last years of Unamunu's life, embodying the apparent contradictions that characterized the presence of his ideas in the life of Spain, and how the man admired by the Spaniards of his time, and was also known and influential throughout Europe.
The film also monitors – according to the documents – the reason that prevented the Spanish thinker from winning the Nobel Prize, while the documents revealed the great support that Unamuno enjoyed, and the judges admired the "sincerity and beauty of the language", and the "power" of the pen, and their assertion that he "may be the most important figure in contemporary Spanish literature", it also revealed criticisms including that he is a person who is "too confident of himself", and that the arbitrators found it difficult to understand some texts, perhaps due to translation problems, as well as differences Between the culture of the Nordic countries and the culture of the Mediterranean countries makes it difficult to understand" (10).
The documentary "Words for the End of the World" shows a document from the archives of the German Foreign Ministry at the time that revealed that "Germany should refuse to support Unamuno's application for the Nobel Prize for national, political, cultural reasons," and monitors the attitudes and writings of the Spanish thinker against Hitler, which warns of the threat posed by Nazism, and asserts that the man "became the spiritual spokesman against Germany in Spanish intellectual circles" (11) (12).
You will win. But you won't convince anyone.
With the beginning of the civil war in Spain, Unamuno supported the military rebellion led by General Franco against the elected republican government and saw it as "a correction to the direction of the country", and appealed to Spanish intellectuals to support the movement, but the persistence of violence and the multiplicity of massacres shocked the most prominent thinker, so he retreated from supporting the rebellion (13).
General "Francisco Franco". (Photo: Shutterstock)
In October 1936, Onamuno was sitting on his crutch in the audience at the University of Salamanca's celebration of the start of the academic year, and was led on behalf of General Franco by General Milan Estre, a decorated military man whose legs and chest were wounded by wars, and for which he lost his left arm and right eye.14
"You are waiting for my word, you know that I am not able to be silent, because silence sometimes tells lies, and it can be interpreted as consent."
Miguel de Unamuno
After taking a number of notes, Unamuno stepped forward slowly to give a speech that was not part of the concert program, and did not return to him, but improvised a speech that became one of the most important texts in modern Spanish history, in which he condemned the bloodiness of the rebellious generals, and strongly criticized General Milan Astrai sitting at the head of the audience, it is possible to imagine how daring it is to think that he gave that speech less than two months after the murder of the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca (15).
Unamunu's speech at the time stated: "I did not want to speak because I knew myself, but I was pulled out of my tongue and it became my duty to speak, there was talk of an international war to defend Christian civilization, and I myself did this on various occasions, but no, our war now is just a barbaric war."
Despite the angry boycotts, Unamuno was able to continue his speech, it was a premature lament for the state of his country, which was being dragged into a civil war that the elderly thinker appreciates the consequences, as he warned: "I was born on the edge of another civil war (the Second Carlist War) and I know what I am saying, victory does not mean persuasion, and persuasion must be first of all, no hatred that leaves no room for mercy can convince anyone" (16).
With the same overconfidence as one of the Nobel Prize judges, Unamuno continued: "This is a temple of thought, I am its high priest, and you desecrate its sanctity, I have always been a prophet in my homeland, you will triumph but you will not convince anyone, you will triumph because you have brute force, but you will not convince anyone," he added desperately: "It seems to me absurd to ask you to think about the fate of Spain."
Unamuno finished his words amid fanfare and death threats, he was removed from his post as rector of the University of Salamanca, and forced to stay at home, where he spent three months until his death in the last hours of 1936 (17). With the death of Unamuno did not end the controversy about him, the works, studies and films continued to dig into the life of the man, analyze his positions, question the attribution of some speeches to him, and doubt from the basis that his death was natural, and that he was only the victim of another crime of the Franco regime that he was able to seem innocent of, at a time when talk about the murder of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca had not yet stopped (18).
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