Knowledge and Art in Ernest Hemingway's Vision of Bullfighting

The book is a study of the relationship existing between two central topics in Hemingway´s life and career: modern art and bullfighting. More particularly, it sheds light on the influence that impressionism and cubism had on the use of narrative techniques aimed at underlining some of the central ideas that Hemingway had on bullfighting.

The literary legacy of Ernest Hemingway is irredeemably linked to modern art and bullfighting. The American writer found in impressionism and cubism different pictorial techniques that he translated into narrative art. Bullfighting was one of the thematic cornerstones of his work and left an indelible print on his way of understanding life and death. The book connects these two important elements in Hemingway´s work, showing how he underlined certain aspects of bullfighting through the use of narrative strategies inspired in modern art. In this sense, it may be argued that Hemingway represents the fiesta almost using brushstrokes instead of words. The book also deals with one key element in his portrait of bullfighting, knowledge, and this in a twofold sense: on the one hand, shedding light on how Hemingway started to understand this tradition, and, on the other, revealing its condition of source of prestige and survival

Autorentext

Ricardo Marín Ruiz PhD is Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature in the College of Humanities of Albacete (UCLM). Many of his studies have dealt with the literary representations of Spain in the context of English and North American literature. He is also a member of the research group LyA of the College of Humanities of Albacete.

Inhalt

Introduction - Discovering the fiesta, discovering a country - Knowledge, prestige, and survival in Hemingway's vision of bullfighting - Hemingway, art, and bullfighting - Seeing bullfighting through the eyes of impressionism in "The Undefeated" and Death in the Afternoon - So close, yet so far: Cubism and the social dimension of the fiesta in "The Capital of the World" - Conclusions - Bibliography.