Tiempo de silencio and Its Cela-like Resonances of the Generation of 1898

Abstract

Tiempo de silencio has been shown to exhibit significant, independent similarities to El drbol de la ciencia and Troteras y danzaderas, in addition to Joyce's Ulysses. The situation becomes more complicated with the recognition that Martin-Santos's novel has additional similarities to Martinez Ruiz's La voluntad, Gutierrez- Solana's Madrid callejero, Valle-Inclhn's Luces de Bohemia and Tirano Banderas, as well as to Cela's La colmena. Of all the presences incorporated into Tiempo, Cela's is the most synthetic and instructive, because it shares and carries forward earlier echoes of the Generation of 1898. The recognition of this wide-ranging and pro- gressive re-elaboration invites reappraisal of Martin-Santos's contribution to twentieth-century narrative. Be- cause the reworked elements supply so much of Tiempo's material, it is evident that its most significant con- tribution is the massiveness of its shared framework, a massiveness of sharing that is the basis of so many subsequent contemporary novels.