Publication Details

Abstract

The author (she) presents the Generation 98 as the first generation of modem Spanish intellectuals, which, after the collapse of the Spanish colonial politics, were the first to reflect on the crisis critically, in the broader cultural - philosophical context of the "fin de siécle". On the other hand, she points out, that they were genetically linked with the so called "polemics on Spanish science" going back to the 18th century. She sees this linkage as the ground of the contradictory relation of this generation to the heritage of modem European rational culture. She focuses on the writings of two famous representatives of this generations - Angel Ganivet and Miguel de Unamuno who tried to overcome the crisis by a new perspective of Spanish history and anew concept of Spain. She explains the evolution of Unamuno's views tending to irrationalism as the evolution from "the philosophy of quijanism" to "the philosophy of quijotism", the latter being the most authentic expression of the "spanishness".