I never really liked Unamuno, although I like to teach his works: they are very teachable. I am not really an expert on Unamuno either, not having read Paz en la guerra and Amor y pedagogía. As a poet, Unamuno is not among the best, if you compare him to his contemporary Machado. I read his long poem El cristo de Velázquez and could not take it too seriously. He tries a Miltonic blank-verse, but it falls flat because he just doesn't have an ear for verse, sad to say. It is very innovative to do what he is doing, but it just doesn't work.
The poet Guillermo Carnero told me he has a four-part classification:
Me gusta y me interesa.
Me gusta pero no me interesa.
No me gusta pero me interesa.
Ni me gusta ni me interesa.
Unamuno has always been in the 3rd category for me. I don't like him but he interests me a great deal. His reactionary tendencies, his attitude toward women, his egoism, are very off-putting to me.
I struggled a lot with whether to include Unamuno in my Survey of literature course. From past experience I know that he is not an easy author to teach. Too much needs to be explained before students start getting into his texts. On the other hand, his writing style that he uses in writing essays is something that I want the students to be familiar with. Such beautiful writing is not always easy to find.
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