The Modern Novel as Viewed by Ortega

More than any other contemporary Spaniard, Jos6 Ortega y Gasset has been most sensitive to the nature of problems facing modern man. In a vast variety of fields-embracing literature, art, music, sociology, psychology, philosophy-Ortega was the first Spaniard, often the first European, to put his finger squarely on the central core of such problems. Always, by means of an eloquent pen and voice, he set these problems before his compatriots. It is the intent here to show how this is true in one very limited and specific instance. In 1925 Ortega published some brief Ideas sobre la novela,/ at a time when a vast amount of interest was being directed toward this genre. An examination of his ideas, which have remained relatively unnoticed,2 proves fruitful for several rea'sons: they contain penetrating insights into various problems concerned with the novel; they provide a most revealing comparison with ideas of Pio Baroja, a practicing novelist; they show to what degree Ortega's thought has been attuned to one specific current critical preoccupation. Ortega, aware of current discussions in literary circles in the rest of Europe, and sensitive to an ausencia de mais s61idas reflexiones on the modern novel in current Spanish literary criticism (p. 387), drew his together around the development of two themes: a consideration of the nature of the then much talked about crisis of the novel, and an exposition of a few workable norms which he considered basic to a critical examination of the genre. The crisis of the novel -he summarized and explained thus: En suma, creo que el genero novela, si no est4 irremediablemente agotado, se halla, de cierto, en su periodo 'iltimo, y padece una tal penuria de temas posibles, que el escritor necesita compensarla con la exquisita calidad de los dem'is ingredientes necesarios para integrar un cuerpo de novela (p. 390). Such crisis involves both the author and the reader of novels. The novelist must face the fact, according to Ortega, that there no longer exist any plots which have not been used as the basis of novels, and he must recognize a change in readers' tastes which have become more discriminating: Conforme iba saliendo a la luz el tesoro de los temas posibles, la sensibilidad del puiblico se iba haciendo mis rigurosa y exacta. Lo que anteayer hubiera ai6n aceptado, ya no le sabia ayer. Necesitaba temas de mejor calidad, mis ins61litos, mis 'nuevos.' De suerte que paralelamente el agotamiento de temas nuevos, crece la exigencia de temas 'mas nuevos,' hasta que se produce en el lector un embotamiento de la facultad de impresiones (p. 389). Ortega encouraged the novelist to face this two-fold dilemma with confidence. For many years novelists have lamented the fact that there apparently exist no entirely new, never-before-used plots. That is easily understood, he explains, for there are only a limited number of plot situations. The problem is not a one, and there does exist an adequate solution: the novelist need only turn to the ever fecund reservoir of psychological study of individual souls. But more closely associated with his solution' for the apparent existence of no new plots is that given the problem posed by a 'change in readers' more discriminating tastes. Ortega believes that modern readers of novels are no longer as interested in simple adventure stories which now may appear naive. Just as greater

Philosophy · Political Theory and Democracy · Spanish Philosophy and Literature