SOURCE: Mora, José Ferrater. “Unamuno and His Generation.” In Unamuno: A Philosophy of Tragedy, translated by Philip Silver, pp. 1-24. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962.

In the following essay, Mora underscores Unamuno's relationship with the Generation of 1898 and lists the defining characteristics of the literary movement.

1. the Generation of 1898

Miguel de Unamuno was born in Bilbao, the spiritual and industrial capital of the Spanish Basque country, on September 29, 1864. He spent his childhood and a part of his youth there, and it left an indelible mark on the whole of his life. Unamuno was always profoundly aware of his “Basqueness,” even throughout his struggle against the political nationalism prevailing in that region. Far from believing that being Basque and Spanish at the same time were incompatible, he often urged that the Basques become the substance and, as it were, the salt of Spain. By so doing, he ranged himself...