Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (September 29, 1864–December 31, 1936) was an essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher from Spain.

Introduction

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He was born in the medieval centre of Bilbao. As a young man, he was interested in the Basque language, and competed for a teaching position in the Instituto de Bilbao, against Sabino Arana. The contest was finally won by the Basque scholar Resurrección María de Azcue. Unamuno later doubted that Basque would endure another century, but the momentum given by Basque nationalism has in fact helped keep it alive, even though only 20% of Basques speak the language.

Unamuno worked in all major genres: the essay, the novel, poetry and theatre, and, as a modernist contributed greatly to dissolving the boundaries between genres. There is some debate as to whether Unamuno was in fact a member of the Generation of '98 (an ex post facto literary group of Spanish intellectuals and philosophers that was the creation of José Martínez Ruiz — a group that includes Antonio Machado, Azorín, Pío Baroja, Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Ramiro de Maeztu and Ángel Ganivet, among others). His philosophy perhaps foreshadowed the thinking of 20th century existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.

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