Juan Benet y Julián Marías: contrapuntos estético-filosóficos de camino a la Transición

Abstract

This article proposes a comparative analysis of the literary and philosophical thought developed by two of the most important Spanish authors of the second half of the twentieth century: Julián Marías and Juan Benet. The analysis focuses on their ideas regarding the value of literature as a tool for “discovering” and “illuminating” reality, as well as on their own associated critiques of rationalism, thus showing how their visions represent a particular and mutually exclusive understanding of postmodernity during Spain’s path to the democratic “Transition”. While, on the outset, it may seem unusual to propose a comparative analysis between these two authors, this article also shows how the lack of more comparisons of this kind has to do with the interests and circumstances of historiography and literary criticism rather than with the ideas of these authors themselves, who may be working from entirely opposed positions but are nonetheless interested in the same topics and concepts.