CAHSS Faculty Articles

Género, Nación y Literatura: Emilia Pardo Bazán en la literatura gallega y española by Carmen Pereira-Muro

Publication Title

Letras Femeninas

ISSN

0277-4356

Publication Date

Winter 2013

Abstract

Grab any anthology on peninsular literature and you are likely to find a text by or a reference to the renowned nineteenth-century Spanish writer, Emilia Pardo Bazán. In effect, Pardos short stories remain required reading in countless undergraduate-level Spanish classes, and her narrative continues to be published today, almost a century since her death. No doubt that Pardo is one of Spain's most celebrated canonical writers yet also one of its most contradictory. Indeed, from the outset of her literary career, critics have sought to isolate her and her work contradictory. Indeed, from the outset of her literary career, critics have sought to isolate her and her work from Spain's national literature. In Gènero, Nación y Literatura: Emilia Pardo Bazán en la literatura gallega y Española, Texas Tech Professor Carmen Pereira-Muro, delves into the life and work of this complex literary figure. She turns to the work of George Mosse, who argued that all nineteenth century nationalist literary movements carry a masculinization process, to ask the following question: how is the 'nationalist' literary model affected when a feminist author, such as Pardo, chooses to write from within a nation-building movement? Pereira-Muro studies Pardos canonical and lesser-known narrative works and essays to contend that this familiar but often-misunderstood author's literature served as a catalyst for cultural nationalisms in both greater (national) Spain and her native (regional) Galicia.

Volume

39

Issue

2

First Page

275

Last Page

278

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