Re-lectura de nada menos que todo un hombre: alegoría a la creación

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In the prologue to the Tres novelas ejemplares, Unamuno proposes that in his novels the concept of ..querer ser" or desire is represented in the form of characters depicted with realistic language. The present article argues that this combination of a concept developed in mimetic language generates an incommensurability between signified and signifier whose consequence is allegory. Although the Romantic tradition considers allegory an aesthetically inferior representational form, contemporary criticism has overturned such notions and resurrected allegory as characteristic of the twentieth century. The article proceeds to analyze Nada menos que todo un hombre as an allegory that explores what Unamuno considered one of the great mysteries of being, the idea of creation. Alejandro Gómez believes that he can create his world from no more than his own will but eventually discovers that on the contrary, his creation creates him. The creative self is always created by the other, and Alejandro becomes a character in a melodramatic tale created by his wife, Julia Yáñez.