Francisco Ayala
Francisco de Paula Ayala García-Duarte, born on March 16, 1906, in Granada, Spain, was a prolific writer, lawyer, and academic known for his contributions to both fiction and nonfiction. He began his literary career early, publishing his first novel at nineteen, and made significant strides in film criticism with his groundbreaking work "Indagación del cinema" in 1929. Ayala's life was deeply affected by the Spanish Civil War; as a supporter of the Second Spanish Republic, he faced exile following the Republicans' defeat in 1939, leading him to Argentina, where he continued his writing and teaching.
Throughout his career, Ayala produced a diverse array of literature, including novels, essays, and memoirs, exploring themes of politics, society, and morality. He taught at various prestigious institutions in the United States and returned to Spain in 1976. Ayala received numerous accolades for his literary achievements, including the Cervantes Prize and the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He was recognized as a prominent figure in Spanish literature until his death on November 3, 2009, at the age of 103. His works remain influential, reflecting his deep engagement with the cultural and political issues of his time.
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Francisco Ayala
Author
- Born: March 16, 1906
- Birthplace: Granada, Spain
- Died: November 3, 2009
- Place of death: Madrid, Spain
Biography
Francisco de Paula Ayala García-Duarte was born March 16, 1906, in Granada, Spain. At the age of nineteen, he published his first novel, Tragicocomedia de un hombre sin espíritu (Tragicomedy of a man without spirit), while a student at the University of Madrid, and quickly followed with a second novel, Historia de un atardecer (Story of a sunset). Ayala received his law degree from Madrid in 1929. The same year two of his works appeared: a novel, El boxeador y un ángel (The boxer and an angel), and his first nonfiction work, Indagación del cinema (An inquiry into the cinema)—the first book on film criticism ever published in Spain. Ayala afterward studied for a year in Berlin, during which his Cazador en el alba (Hunter at dawn) was released. He returned to Madrid, receiving his doctorate in law in 1931, and began teaching at the university in 1933.
Ayala was out of the country when the Spanish Civil War began in 1936. He returned briefly and, as a supporter of the Second Spanish Republic, served as the Secretary of the Republican Delegation, carrying out diplomatic and political assignments, and writing several documents in favor of peace, which proved fruitless. His activities made Ayala a marked man, and he was forced into exile.
Following the defeat of the Republicans in 1939, Ayala moved to Argentina. In his new home, where he lived until 1950, Ayala taught sociology, cofounded the magazine Realidad (reality) in Buenos Aires, became friends with Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, and continued publishing both fiction and nonfiction. Ayala’s fictional works during this period included the novella El hechizado (The bewitched), a tale of seventeenth century Spanish ruler Charles II; La cabeza del cordero (The lamb’s head), a collection of stories about the Spanish Civil War; and The Usurpers, another collection examining the immorality of subjugation. Among Ayala’s numerous nonfiction works completed during this time (such as El problema del liberalismo [the problem of liberalism], Oppenheimer, and Historia de la libertad [the history of liberty]), the text Tratado de sociología (treatise on sociology) in particular stands out.
In 1950, Ayala joined the faculty of the University of Puerto Rico, where he founded the literary magazine La Torre (The tower). He later lived in Brazil before moving to the United States in 1958, where he taught classes in Spanish literature at several institutions of higher learning, including Princeton and Rutgers Universities and the University of Chicago. Ayala meanwhile continued to write, producing the satirical and pessimistic novels El fondo del vaso (The bottom of the glass) and Death as a Way of Life (1958), as well as additional story collections El as de bastos (The ace of clubs) and De raptos, violaciones, y otras inconveniencias (On abductions, rapes, and other inconveniences), and a considerable body of nonfiction dealing with literature, film, and society.
Ayala returned to Spain in 1960 and summered there annually until returning permanently in 1976. A writer, lecturer, and contributor to various periodicals, his later works include the collection El jardín de las delicias (1971, Garden of delights); two volumes of memoirs, Recuerdos y olvidos (1982, Things remembered and things forgotten) and De mis pasos en la tierra (1996, Of my steps upon the Earth); the long narratives Relatos granadinos (1990) and Narrativa completa (1993); and the short story collections Cuentos imaginarios (1999) and Un caballero granadino, y otros relatos (1999). In 2005 he published La invención del Quijote (The invention of Don Quixote) to mark the four-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote.
An author of recognized status, Ayala had been showered with honors, including election to the Spanish Royal Academy (1983), the Spanish National Prize for Literature (1983), the Spanish National Prize for Letters (1988), the Cervantes Prize for Literature (1991), the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature (1998), and a myriad of gold medals, honorary degrees, and memberships. Many supporters promoted him for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Ayala died in Madrid on November 3, 2009, at the age of 103.
Bibliography
Ewing, Jack. “Francisco Ayala.” Guide to Literary Masters & Their Works (2007): 1. Literary Reference Center. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.
Fox, Margalit, and Andrés Cala. “Francisco Ayala, a Spanish Novelist and Literary Scholar, Dies at 103.” New York Times. New York Times, 5 Nov. 2009. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.
Jiménez Heffernan, Julián. “The Sovereign and the Saint: Francisco Ayala's Critique of the Baroque in Context.” Revista Hispánica Moderna (0034–9593) 68.1 (2015): 1–19. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.
Mullan, Michael. “Francisco Ayala Obituary.” Guardian. Guardian News & Media, 4 Nov. 2009. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.
Zatlin, Phyllis. “Los Usurpadores.” Rev. of Los usurpadores, by Francisco Ayala. Hispanic Review 62.4 (1994): 561–62. Literary Reference Center. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.