The intellectual before the worker movement in a Clarín tale, Analysis of "A Day-Laborer"

Abstract

In this article we analyze a story by Clarín entitled Un jornalero (‘A day-laborer’) from the perspective of the history of mentalities. The text is halfway between narrative, article and essay, so that it becomes a vehicle for the dissemination of the author's ideology. Focusing on the so-called "social question", Alas carries out an exercise in self-exploration that leads him to question the role of the intellectual in a society marked by inequalities. Compared to other stories featuring scholars, the author abandons his distancing and satire to proceed to an intimate and painful reflection in which he asks himself to what extent his work contributes, or not, to the construction of a fairer and more egalitarian society. We are thus offered a stark vision of the misunderstanding and suspicion that the figure of the intellectual can arouse, both among activists of the labor movement and among the authorities; even though the protagonist tries to present his work as that of a "day-laborer of the spirit".