Unamuno

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (1864–1936), commonly known as Unamuno, was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, dramatist, and philosopher of the Generation of '98. Born in Bilbao, he studied at the University of Madrid and later taught at the University of Salamanca, where his career as a writer and public intellectual developed.

Unamuno's work spans fiction, drama, and philosophical essays. He is best known for The Tragic Sense of Life (Del sentimiento trágico de la vida, 1913), a meditation on mortality, faith, and reason; the novels Niebla (Fog, 1914) and Abel Sánchez (1917) and the short novel San Manuel Bueno, mártir (1931), which explores belief and doubt. His writing often blends existential concerns with religious and anti-rational themes, and he pursued a critical examination of Spanish identity and culture.

In politics and public life, Unamuno was a prominent public intellectual; his outspoken criticism of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera led to his removal from a university post and exile to the Canary Islands in 1924–25. He returned to Salamanca after the regime's fall in 1930 and remained active during the Second Republic, though his later writings reflected ambivalence toward the upheavals of his time. He died in Salamanca on December 31, 1936.

Legacy: Unamuno is regarded as a central figure of Spanish literature and philosophy, whose work influenced existential thought and Spanish Catholic intellectual life; his insistence on inner conflict and his critique of dogmatic certainty remain influential.