Negotiating Sainthood: Distinction, Cursileria and Saintliness in Spanish Novels

by Kathy Bacon

Overview

"This study demonstrates the previously unrecognised significance of discourses of saintliness for constructions of gender and national identity in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Spanish culture.a Kathy Bacons innovative approach to sainthood leads to fresh readings of texts by Spains three principal realist novelists: La familia de Leon Roch and Nazarin (Benito Perez Galdos, 1878 and 1895), La Regenta (Leopoldo Alas, 1884-85), and Dulce dueno (Emilia Pardo Bazan, 1911).a The author challenges the conventional distinction between anti-clerical and spiritual novels by these writers, and questions previous feminist assumptions about the negative role of religion for female identity.aSainthood emerges as a key theme through which texts grapple with Spains difficult transition to modernity."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781351195775
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/02/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	200
File size:	565 KB

About the Author

Kathy Bacon

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Note on the Texts x

Abbreviations xi

Introduction 1

1 Approaching Sainthood 5

2 Cursilería and the Field of Saintliness in Spain, 1860-1915 22

3 'Soberbia vestida de humildad': Laying Claim to Sainthood in La familia de León Roch 54

4 'Será como todas': The Unsustainability of Spiritual Distinction in La Regenta 91

5 'Yo no soy nadie, yo no soy santo': The Dynamics of Saintly Authority in Nazarín 125

6 'Mi espíritu no es como el de la muchedumbre': Re-reading the Virgin Martyr as a Search for Distinction in Duke dueño 151

Conclusion 176

Bibliography 181

Index 193