10 June 2009

Conferences

SAN FERMÍN CYCLE

Hemingway and the party

D. Pedro Lozano Bartolozzi
University of Navarra

Ernest Hemingway, an American writer, was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1899, and in 1953 he was awarded the awardNovel of Literature. He died tragically in 1961.

In 1926, he published a novel -The sun also rises- the second half of which is set during the Pamplona fiestas of the previous year. And this novel, read by millions of readers, made the capital of Navarre and its fiestas of San Fermín world famous.

He visited Pamplona on nine occasions during his lifetime, always for the Sanfermines and before the Civil War. The first visitwas in 1923, the same year that he had seen the bullfighting festival live at placein Madrid. He then repeated the trip every year from 1924 to 1927, taking a break the following year and returning in 1929 and 1931. The last dates on which he immersed himself in the Sanfermines, when he was already a famous writer, were 1953 and 1959.

Cover of "Fiesta" in the 1944 building.
 

Fiesta will be the definitive and universalised degree scrollof his novel set in the Sanfermines and part of Professor Lozano Bartolozzi's lecturewas devoted to its analysis and description. He brought up quotes from Angel María Pascual, José María Iribarren, Anthony Burgess, Romera and Domench and also read several significant texts from the famous work, beginning with the famous phrase "At midday on Saturday 6th July, the fiesta exploded. There is no other way of expressing it".

Hemingway with the bullfighter Antonio Ordóñez in the alley of a bullfighting ring, place, in the summer of 1959.

Hemingway's eventful biography staffwas also presented, as well as the main titles of his extensive literary work, highlighting books such as For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea.

Lozano denied that the American's writings were to blame for the deterioration of the Sanfermines, pointing to other factors such as their politicisation, overcrowding, lack of respect for their religious roots and the festive ceremonial, lack of respect for the fiestas and the lack of decorum, and vindicating the figure of Hemingway.

He recalled that Pamplona erected a monument to him at reportnext to the bullring placein 1968 and that this year, 2009, marks the fiftieth anniversary of his last visitand various commemorative events have been organised to mark the occasion.

Monument to Hemingway next to the placede Toros in Pamplona