Tigre Juan y El curandero de su honra de Ramon Perez de Ayala: el hombre espanol ante la modernidad y la tradicion literaria

In 1926, Ramon Perez de Ayala published his last two novels: Tigre Juan and El curandero de su honra. The connection with Pedro Calderon de la Barca's El medico de su honra has been discussed by critics. Without overlooking the fact that Tigre Juan, the protagonist of both novels, approves the atavistic Calderonian honor code, the focus here is on a less obvious connection: La vida es sueno. The Golden Age masterpiece tells of Segismundo, whose transformation resembles in some aspects that of Tigre Juan. Unlike Segismundo, however, Ayala's tragicomic character is able to overcome the Spanish man's dissociative nature, perhaps the strongest atavism preventing him, and in turn Spain, from becoming truly modern. It is suggested that this transformation remains problematic because dissociation is not a sign of a bygone era, but one inherent in modernity, as evinced by the two world wars bookending the Tigre Juan novels.