The novel ‘Zumalacarregui’ by Benito Perez Galdos and transformations of historical myths in literature

The article studies the reflection of Carlist and ‘Liberal’ mythological concepts, formed in 1830s-1890s in Spain, in the novel Zumalacarregui by Benito Perez Galdos. There is given a brief overview of some previous research works concerning Galdos's National Episodes and the novel Zumalacarregui. The paper focuses on the ways of representation of general Tomas de Zumalacarregui (1788-1835) in the novel and shows the processes of creating the myths related to the general. In the 19-20th centuries, Zumalacarregui became a hero for the representatives of three different ideologies: Carlism, Francoism, and Basque Nationalism. It is shown that mythologization of the general began just after his death in 1835. Based on the text of the novel, there are made conclusions concerning the sources that Galdos used when creating it. The writer studied the most relevant memoirs about the First Carlist War. The paper shows how Galdos’s text was influenced by the memoirs of A. Sabatier, Ch. F. Henningsen, F. von Lichnowsky, J. A. Zaratiegui, F. Fernandez de Cordoba, and H. Du-Casse. It is also noted that Galdos could have been inspired by some pictures created in the traditions of ‘Carlist visual art’. It is concluded that the writer used both Carlist and ‘Liberal’ myths concerning Tomas de Zumalacarregui. The text of the novel is divided into two parts, ‘historical’ and ‘narrative’. The ‘historical part’, i. e. a general description of the First Carlist War military operations carried out in 1834-1835, is mainly based on Carlist sources. In this part, the general Zumalacarregui is described as a war hero. The ‘narrative part’ mainly refers to ‘Liberal’ sources. The author introduced in this part a fictional character, priest Jose Fago, being the general’s ‘double’. Through Fago’s moral doubts and hesitations Galdos showed the internal tension of Zumalacarregui.