Unamuno and Kierkegaard

Book excerpt: Miguel de Unamuno was profoundly influenced by S ren Kierkegaard's pseudonymous works at a time when Kierkegaard was virtually unknown in Southern Europe. This book explores the scope and character of that influence, clarifies misconceptions in the relationship between the authors, and offers an original, Kierkegaardian reading of three of Unamuno's best known novels: Niebla, San Manuel Bueno, m rtir, and Abel S nchez. Both authors hold a "self as achievement" view in which the authentic self is seen as the result of the choices one makes over a lifetime. For Kierkegaard, the spheres of existence-the esthetic, the ethical, and the religious-are "stages on life's way" to becoming an authentic self before God. Unamuno, however, holds that the same spheres of existence offer equally valid modes of authentic existence as long as one chooses them freely and passionately. This book will be of great interest to scholars of existentialism, Unamuno, and Kierkegaard.