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Abstract

This thesis focuses the phenomenon of self-creation (autocreación) of Ramón Gómez de la Serna (1888-1963), writer and precursor of modern art in Spain, with regard to the relevance of the Psychoanalysis theory by Sigmund Freud for this topic.

The dissertation focused three research questions. The first attended the way in which Gómez de la Serna created his own image, the second considered his rebel attitude as a hypothetical part of his self-creation and the third focused the writers relation to the theory of Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud and its creator himself.

We found that Ramón Gómez de la Serna, using his work in conjunction with his life, created an image, an idea of himself, in which he believed and which he carefully formed and remodeled, presenting it at the same time with pleasure to his contemporaries as a spectacle. We distinguished and analyzed the three most important facets of his self-creation image, containing the writer being the trendsetter of his time, a self-promotion manager and a self-proclaimed martyr, persecuted by critics and misunderstood by the public.

The analysis was also based on six different forms of Ramonian self-creation: conferences, participation in the gathering of the Sacred Crypt of Pombo, radio, photography, cinematography and fashion, such as on the four key elements of his self-projection: death, love, cosalogía and humor. Respecting the second investigation question, we determined that the author’s tendency to break with social norms and his aversion to traditional and institutional structures can be called his anti-creation and forms a relevant part of his self-created image. Finally, during analyzing the self-projection of Gómez da la Serna regarding the Freudian theories, we applied the Harold Bloom's theory of the Anxiety of Influence and stated that Ramón Gómez de la Serna was impressed by the achievements of Sigmund Freud and feared he might have had imitated his ideas, therefore, feeling threatened in his creativity and originality, he was regularly attacking psychoanalysis in his work.

Anyway, it has been found that, although the Spanish writer was affected by the shadow of Freudian influence, it cannot be denied that this same fear of not being able to match the psychoanalyst father, as well as the elements of Freud's theory such as the drives of life and death or the uncanny had an important role in the process of forming his own image by Gómez de la Serna, by reinforcing the key elements of his self-projection and anti-creation.