Ernest Hemingway, Matador Without a Cape: The Influence of the Bullfight Upon the Writing of Ernest Hemingway

A basic premise of this paper is Hemingway\u27s definition of bullfighting as a tragic art form. Americans have been so conditioned to view any sort of contest as sport that it is virtually impossible for us to consider the bullfight in other terms. Once accepted as tragedy, however, the implications of the bullfight as an influence upon Hemingway become manifold. It must be understood that this paper is not meant to imply that the bullfight is the only influence, or even the most paramount, for it is to be recognized that any artist derives from many sources, both external and psychic. I will show that Hemingway was subjected to an intense association with the bullfight at an age and a period in his life when he would have been greatly impressed by the things he found there. To be an afficianado conveys more than interest. It has the connotation of passionate devotion. Becoming so concerned that one cannot talk to another on a lower plane. Hemingway was an afficianado. He probably holds the Anglo-Saxon record for watching bullfights-- some fifteen hundred over a period of ten years