Gómez de la Serna, Ramón

Gómez de la Serna, Ramón (rämōn` gō`māth dā lä sĕr`nä), 1888–1963, Spanish novelist, biographer, and critic, b. Madrid. One of the most prolific and imaginative of modern Spanish writers, Gómez de la Serna was a precursor of surrealism. He sought to express the subconscious and portrayed modern man as a mannequin. He invented the greguería, a kind of surrealist metaphor in epigram form combining humor and poetic insight. Two collections of these are his Flor de greguerías (1933) and Some Greguerías (tr. 1944). Gómez de la Serna is known simply as Ramón, and his mode of literary expression as ramonismo. Among his many works are an autobiography (1948), lives of El Greco and Goya, and the novels El doctor inverosímil (1921) and El torero Caracho (1926). Antología (1955) and Obras completas (1956) are later collections of his works.