In The Great Chiasmus, Paul R. Olson explores the use of thechiasmus in the work of Miguel de Unamuno. The chiasmus, a reversal in theorder of words or parts of speech in parallel phrases, appears on a variety oflevels, from brief microstructures (blanca como la nieve y como la nievefria), to the narrative structures of entire novel. Olsoneven suggests the chiasmus encompasses the stages in Unamuno's novelistic work, forming achiasmus that can be schematized as ABC:CBA. As a phenomenon of enclosure, thechiasmus is related to other enclosing phenomena such as the image of Chinese boxesand the mise en abyme. Thesestructures, three-dimensional version of the chiasmus, are also frequent inUnamuno?s texts.

The chiasmus is also found on the conceptual level, in whichUnamuno regards apparent contraries as freely reversible and thus identical.From early adulthood he was fascinated by the Hegelian idea of the identity ofpure Being and pure Nothingness, and that concept provides the structure underlyinga wide variety of his paradoxes and verbal conceits. In this connection,Unamuno explores concepts usually considered opposites, such as mind and bodyor spirit and matter. Olson's close readings of the texts in terms of thisstructure lead to observations on Spanish history, events in Unamuno's life,the psychological dimensions of his characters, and the authorial self that isfound within his texts.