Abstract

GONZALEZ BRIZ, María de los Ángeles. Life, father of all things: Manifestation of joy in Soldados de Salamina. Recial [online]. 2022, vol.13, n.21, pp.208-224.  Epub Sep 20, 2022. ISSN 2718-658X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.53971/2718.658x.v13.n21.37549.

The theorization of joy can guide the rereading of Soldados de Salamina (2001), by Javier Cercas. In the novel joy and happiness are explored in their personal and social dimensions, and are linked to reflections on life and death, the past and the present, and to memory and continuity. This paper builds upon the idea of ​​happiness developed by Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio: as an experience, it is a temporary, provisional and ephemeral state, which is only perceived a posteriori as a flowing moment of non-suffering. In the novel, joy is a manifestation of the present that projects itself onto to the communal dimension, a vital continuity that gives greater weight to the narrative over the course of many generations (History), and which in the end explains the title. Noting a connection between Soldados de Salamina and the ending of a later work by the same author, El monarca de las sombras (2017), I consider the relevance of joy as a manifestation of the pure shared present, as an affirmation, and as an impulse to the organic continuity of life.

Keywords : Soldados de Salamina; joy; collective happiness; memory and narration; Spanish Civil War.