Max Aub, crítico e historiador literario

Fundamentado en las semejanzas y diferencias de las consideraciones sobre los autores que se dan en Discurso de la novela española contemporánea y en La prosa española del siglo XIX, este estudio señala la poética del realismo planteada por Max Aub en sus estudios críticos y en sus textos de ficción, modalidades que conviven en su prolífica obra. Se destaca que su contribución al estudio de la literatura española y mexicana es sobresaliente tanto por su enfoque socio-histórico, como por su perspectiva, que no intenta hacer una "historia" de la literatura sino relacionar los procesos de creación que se suceden en el tiempo con la Historia y sus avatares. El autor, que en sus años juveniles había militado en las vanguardias, se decantó, a partir de la guerra civil, por la escritura realista y, como no podía ser menos, su punto de mira estuvo en Galdós. Cuando se remonte en La prosa española a los albores del siglo XIX y vuelva a hacer un recorrido similar a éste para abordar al punto donde empieza el discurso, el análisis del proceso evolutivo de la novela española le reafirmará en su idea de la inevitabilidad del realismo, como único camino por esta "ley española". Los ensayos críticos de Aub refiriéndose a otros autores son, en suma, inseparables de sus personales ideas y cuitas acerca de la teoría y la praxis literaria.On the basis of similarities and dissimilarities in the consideration of authors dealt with in Discurso de la novela española contemporánea, Francisco Caudet points out Max Aub’s poetics of realism stated in both his critical studies and fiction. This essay shows that Aub’s contribution to the study of Mexican and Spanish literature is outstanding, not only because of his socio-historical approach, but also because of a specific perspective. This does not mean writing a “history” of literature but rather connecting creative processes. Committed during his youth to the avant-garde, Max Aub shifts after the Civil War to a type of new realistic writing. The author highlights Max Aub’s activity as a critic discussing and commenting his sources. Aub’s critical essays cannot be detached from his personal ideas about literary theory and practice.Centro de Estudios de Teoría y Crítica Literari

¿De qué hablamos cuando hablamos de literatura de exilio republicano de 1939?

Pero España presenta, no es menos cierto, unas variantes tan peculiares y distintivas que hacen que su caso no sea del todo equiparable al de esos otros pueblos. La principal de esas variantes es que en España triunfó, en 1939, el fascismo del nacional­catolicismo y se mantuvo, durante cuarenta años, en el poder. Esta variante vulneró en su momento,y lo sigue haciendo hasta hoy, la función –según Tusell– de la memoria “como elemento que configura espiritualmente una sociedad, y, además, es indicio de los cambios que en ella se producen”.Centro de Estudios de Teoría y Crítica Literari

Las abarcas de Fontanosas, o cuando la memoria/escritura es la memoria/escritura de uno mismo...

La elaboración del relato del pasado puede representar un desafío debido a las tensiones que se manifiestan entre memoria y escritura, mayormente cuando el pasado reciente de una sociedad implica una experiencia traumática. Este artículo constituye una reflexión, a partir de las tensiones entre memoria y escritura, sobre las posibilidades de narrar el pasado reciente de España en torno al denominado pacto de silencio, tomando como disparador la aparición de una carta (relato de confesión) anónima de un soldado franquista, que permitió -transcurrido más de medio siglo- encontrar y exhumar los cuerpos de un grupo de fusilados.Making a story about the past may be a challenging task, because of the existing tensions between memory and writing, especially when a society carries a traumatic experience in its recent past. Focusing on the tensions between memory and writing, this article puts forward a reflection about the possibilities of telling the recent past in Spain around the named "pact of silence". The starting point of this analysis is the anonymous letter from a soldier of Franco's army, written in a confessional tone, which, appearing half a century later, helped to find and exhume the remains of a group of shot soldiers.Centro de Estudios de Teoría y Crítica Literari

Las abarcas de Fontanosas, o cuando la memoria/escritura es la memoria/escritura de uno mismo...

La elaboración del relato del pasado puede representar un desafío debido a las tensiones que se manifiestan entre memoria y escritura, mayormente cuando el pasado reciente de una sociedad implica una experiencia traumática. Este artículo constituye una reflexión, a partir de las tensiones entre memoria y escritura, sobre las posibilidades de narrar el pasado reciente de España en torno al denominado pacto de silencio, tomando como disparador la aparición de una carta (relato de confesión) anónima de un soldado franquista, que permitió -transcurrido más de medio siglo- encontrar y exhumar los cuerpos de un grupo de fusilados.Making a story about the past may be a challenging task, because of the existing tensions between memory and writing, especially when a society carries a traumatic experience in its recent past. Focusing on the tensions between memory and writing, this article puts forward a reflection about the possibilities of telling the recent past in Spain around the named "pact of silence". The starting point of this analysis is the anonymous letter from a soldier of Franco's army, written in a confessional tone, which, appearing half a century later, helped to find and exhume the remains of a group of shot soldiers.Centro de Estudios de Teoría y Crítica Literari

Interplay between Intestinal Bacterial Communities and Unicellular Parasites in a Morbidly Obese Population: A Neglected Trinomial

Obesity is an epidemic causing a metabolic health crisis. Herein, the interactions between the gut prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities, metabolic comorbidities and diet were studied. Stool samples from 56 subjects, 47 with type III obesity and 9 with type II obesity and cardiovascular risk or metabolic disease, were assessed for the richness, diversity and ecology of the bacterial gut community through metagenomics, together with the study of the presence of common unicellular eukaryote parasites (Blastocystis sp., Dientamoeba fragilis and Giardia intestinalis) by qPCR. Clinical information regarding metabolic comorbidities and non-alcoholic hepatic fatty liver disease was gathered. To assess the quality of the patients' diet, each participant filled in three dietary questionnaires. The most prevalent parasite Blastocystis sp. (46.4%), together with D. fragilis (8.9%), was found to be associated with higher mean diversity indexes regarding non-colonized subjects; the opposite of that which was observed in those with G. intestinalis (16.1%). In terms of phyla relative abundance, with Blastocystis sp. and D. fragilis, very slight differences were observed; on the contrary, G. intestinalis was related to an increase in Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria, and a decrease in Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, presenting the lowest Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio. At genus level, Blastocystis sp. and/or D. fragilis was accompanied with an increase in Lactobacillus spp., and a decrease in Akkermansia spp., Bifidobacterium spp. and Escherichia spp., while G. intestinalis was associated with an increase in Bacteroides spp., and a decrease in Faecalibacterium spp., Prevotella spp. and Lactobacillus spp., and the highest Bacteroides spp./Prevotella spp. ratio. Participants with non-alcoholic hepatic fatty liver presented a higher Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio, and those with type 2 diabetes displayed a significantly lower Faecalibacterium spp./Escherichia spp. ratio, due to an overrepresentation of the genus Escherichia spp. The presence of parasites was associated with variations in the richness, diversity and distribution of taxa in bacterial communities, confirming a gain in diversity associated with Blastocystis sp. and providing different functioning of the microbiota with a potential positive effect on comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. Future basic and clinical studies should assess the beneficial or pathogenic effect of these eukaryotes on obese subjects and focus on deciphering whether they may imply a healthier metabolic profile

Unravelling the composition of tap and mineral water microbiota: Divergences between next-generation sequencing techniques and culture-based methods

The complex and highly diverse microbial environment of drinking water, consisting mainly of bacteria at different metabolic states, is still underexplored. The aim of this work was to characterize the bacterial communities in tap water and bottled mineral water, the two predominant sources of drinking water in modern societies. A total of 11 tap water samples from a range of locations and distribution networks and 10 brands of bottled natural mineral water were analysed using two approaches: a) heterotrophic plate counts by matrixassisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass-spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) for the culturable heterotrophic communities, and b) Illumina amplicon sequencing for total bacteria including non-culturable bacteria. Culturable heterotrophic bacteria were isolated in WPCA (ISO) agar at 22 ± 2 °C for 72 h and 2046 isolates were identified using MALDI-TOF MS. The Bruker Daltonics Library and a previously customized library (Drinking Water Library) were used as reference databases. For the total bacteria fraction, DNA was extracted from 6 L of water and submitted to Illumina 16S rRNA sequencing of the v4 region. Significant differences were observed between mineral and tap water, with a general dominance of Alphaproteobacteria (mainly the genus Blastomonas) in tap water and Gammaproteobacteria in mineral water with Acidovorax being the dominant genus in 3 out of 7 mineral water brands. The bacterial communities in the different brands of mineral water were highly diverse and characteristic of each one. Moreover, the season in which the water was bottled also affected the species distribution, with some of them identified in only one season. Among the culturable bacteria, the most abundant phylum was Proteobacteria (around 85% of the isolates), followed by Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. Proteobacteria was also the most abundant phylum detected with Illumina sequencing (> 99% of the reads). The two methods gave distinct results at the different taxonomic levels and could therefore have a complimentary application in the study of microbiota in mineral water environments. MALDI-TOF MS is a promising method for the rapid identification of heterotrophic bacteria in routine water analysis in the bottling industry. Significance and impact of the study: The complementarity of MALDI-TOF MS and NGS in the assessment of bacterial community diversity has been demonstrated in water intended for human consumption. The two methods are suitable for routine use in the water industry for water quality management

Rapid and improved identification of drinking water bacteria using the Drinking Water Library, a dedicated MALDI-TOF MS database

According to the European Directives (UE) 2020/2184 and 2009/54/EC, which establishes the sanitary criteria for water intended for human consumption in Europe, water suitable for human consumption must be free of the bacterial indicators Escherichia coli, Clostridium perfringens and Enterococcus spp. Drinking water is also monitored for heterotrophic bacteria, which are not a human health risk, but can serve as an index of bacteriological water quality. Therefore, a rapid, accurate, and cost-effective method for the identification of these colonies would improve our understanding of the culturable bacteria of drinking water and facilitate the task of water management by treatment facilities. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is potentially such a method, although most of the currently available mass spectral libraries have been developed in a clinical setting and have limited environmental applicability. In this work, a MALDITOF MS drinking water library (DWL) was defined and developed by targeting bacteria present in water intended for human consumption. This database, made up of 319 different bacterial strains, can contribute to the routine microbiological control of either treated drinking water or mineral bottled water carried out by water treatment and distribution operators, offering a faster identification rate compared to a clinical sample-based library. The DWL, made up of 96 bacterial genera, 44 of which are not represented in the MALDI-TOF MS bacterial Bruker Daltonics (BDAL) database, was found to significantly improve the identification of bacteria present in drinking water

Revisiting ‘place’ in a realist novel: ‘Thinking space’ in Galdós’s Torquemada en la hoguera (1889)

Departing from the premise that Galdós’s close engagement with space and place deserves to be at the forefront of scholarly attention, this article provides an in-depth study of their significance in Torquemada en la hoguera. It begins by analysing the relationship between the novel’s locations and the real world, demonstrating that the author codes the city of Madrid to express social concerns and promote reader engagement. It then proceeds to examine the public and private spheres, before highlighting the “place of the imagination” in the novel. It reveals that, as in Galdós’s press articles, reality is used as a springboard in Torquemada en la hoguera and, drawing upon recent theories, it posits that places serve as a framework for engaging readers with contemporary concerns and as an imaginative springboard for Galdós. They trigger what is effectively a “thinking space” for the author and it is through unravelling their significance that we can fully appreciate Galdós’s psychological sensitivity, the novel’s modernity, its symbolic value, and imaginative depth. The article concludes by proposing that Galdós’s works deserve to be re-examined as “Novels of the Geographical Imagination” and urges readers to revisit the significance of space and place therein

¿Será ya todo solamente silencio?

La traición y el regicidio o crimen de Estado de Macbeth sirve de punto de partida para tratar del levantamiento militar de 1936 contra la legitimidad republicana y lo que siguió a abril de 1939: represión en el interior (cerca de doscientos mil fusilados republicanos) y el exilio (en un primer momento, medio millón). Esta tragedia colectiva y la necesidad de ser narrada, así como los problemas narratológicos que ello suscita, son cuestiones planteadas también en este artículo.Taking the perfidy and the regicide in Macbeth as a starting point, this paper centres on the military raising of 1935 against the republican legitimacy and the circumstances later to 1939: repression and exile. It also examines the need to relate this collective tragedy and the narrative problems caused bay this need

«Lo que le enseñó la guerra a Juan de Mairena»

Como ya han señalado Alberto Gil Novates, Manuel Tuñón de Lara, Antonio Sánchez Barbudo, Paul Aubert y José Luis Abellán, entre otros, hay, a la vez que una continuidad, una evolución en el pensamiento maireniano. Incidiré en esa línea crítica, centrando la atención en la evolución de Juan de Mairena durante la guerra y siguiendo muy de cerca la advertencia que hacía Antonio Sánchez Barbudo en un artículo de 1977: No hay duda... en cuanto a su lealtad constante a la República. Pero se podría ..