Miguel de Unamuno: Aunt Tula: La tía Tula: A Novel (Aris and Phillips Hispanic Classics)

Aunt Tula (La tia Tula), published in 1921, is one of the few novels written by Miguel de Unamuno to centre on a female protagonist. It is a vivid, nuanced portrait of the intelligent, wilful and yet vulnerable Tula. Despite having no biological children of her own, the unmarried Tula becomes the primary maternal figure for successive generations of children; some related to her, others not. Her chaste maternity is presented as a complex response to her long-held, self-sacrificing romantic love for her brother-in-law, her antipathy for the submissive role expected of bourgeois married women, and Tula's fear of her own physicality. Julia Biggane's translation captures the accessibility of style and richness of literary substance in the original, and the introduction equips the reader with an understanding of the text's wider material contexts and historical significance. Of special interest is the novel's representation of womanhood and maternity, itself inflected by wider social changes in countries across Western Europe and Russia during the first two decades of the 20th century. Esta novela narra la vida de Gertrudis, también llamada la Tía Tula, y los sacrificios que realiza durante su vida para satisfacer sus ansias de maternidad. Una de las novelas más conocidas de Unamuno, comparte con otras de sus obras el estilo y las preocupaciones habituales del autor, aunque incluye como factor diferencial un erotismo sutil. La trama de la novela se sustenta en la práctica antropológica del levirato y el sororato en un contexto de represión sexual. Tiene como tema principal el amor maternal. Miguel De Unamuno ; Translated With An Introduction By Julia Biggane. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 31-32). In English; Novel In Spanish And English On Opposite Pages. Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Bibliographical Note La tía Tula / Aunt Tula Notes