• DOI:10.1080/14753820.2020.1726630
• Corpus ID: 214389935

Spanish Modernism in Context: Failed Heroism and Cross-Cultural Encounters in Pío Baroja and Joseph Conrad

@article{Murphy2020SpanishMI,
  title={Spanish Modernism in Context: Failed Heroism and Cross-Cultural Encounters in P{\'i}o Baroja and Joseph Conrad},
  author={Katharine Murphy},
  journal={Bulletin of Spanish Studies},
  year={2020},
  volume={97},
  pages={807 - 829}
}

• K. Murphy
• Published 9 March 2020
• Art
• Bulletin of Spanish Studies

Abstract Over the last two decades, the recuperation of Spanish authors in the development of Modernist fiction in a pan-European context has gained increasing momentum among scholars. Extending the scope of these critical studies, this article presents a comparative analysis of cross-cultural encounters and ironic journeys of development in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim (1900) and Pío Baroja’s César o nada (1910). The study addresses three key strands: the question of direct influence; the thwarted search for self-definition set against the competing perceptions of multiple fictional observers; and finally the failed heroism of each protagonist which, I propose, symbolically references a scepticism towards European narratives of progress. The comparison of two authors (one Spanish; one Polish émigré) identifies resonant parallels between their fictional works and seeks to reframe Baroja and Conrad as literary counterparts across national borders in turn-of-the-century Spain and Britain.