Unamuno, a public intellectual in the Spanish war. The agony of traditional criticism

Abstract

Unamuno, the first modern intellectual in Spain, represents a prophetic and contradictory way of doing politics, especially after the establishment of the Republic in Spain and even more so after the civil war caused by the coup d'état of July 18, 1936. This article analyzes his singular public figure, his liberal past, his initial adherence to the Franco regime and his rebellious attitude on October 12, 1936 in the Auditorium of the University of Salamanca in front of the Francoist authorities. The current historiographical controversy about the scope of his attitudes on October 12 is described, reviewing the latest bibliographic and cinematographic news about his acts in 1936. And the thesis is defended that his behavior, beyond the paradoxical dimension, expresses the agony of the traditional intellectual who speaks in the name of universal values and the emergence of a new type of intellectual with partisan militancy who in turn is in retreat today.