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This title explores the rich literary history of Spain which resonates with contemporary debates on transnationalism and cultural diversity. It introduces readers to the ways in which Spanish literature has been read in and outside Spain explaining misconceptions, outlining insights of scholarship and suggesting new readings.

This new interdisciplinary study argues that the late-nineteenth-century Spanish realist novel not only documents but also forms part of the contemporary nation-formation process. Drawing on a wide range of recent cultural theory from largely English- and French-language sources, it relatestheir insights to contemporary Spanish debates in the fields of economics, politics, medicine and town planning, showing that the cultural anxieties dominant in other western nations at the time found acute expression in Spain precisely because of the imperfect nature of the modernization process.In particular the book studies the ways in which women function in canonical Spanish realist texts as a cipher for anxieties about modernization, and especially about its conversion of reality into representation. the consequence is an intense self-reflexivity which mirrors contemporary critiques offlawed systems of monetary and political representation, as well as the emphasis by social reformers on self-making.

Jo Labanyi and Luisa Elena Delgado provide the first cultural history of modern literatures in Spain. With contributors Helena Buffery, Kirsty Hooper, and Mari Jose Olaziregi, they showcase the country’s cultural richness and complexity by working across its four major literary cultures – Castilian, Catalan, Galician, and Basque – from the eighteenth century to the present. Engaging critically with the concept of the “national”, Modern Literatures in Spain traces the uneven institutionalization of Spain’s diverse literatures in a context of Castilian literary hegemony, as well as examining diasporic and exile writing . The thematically organized chapters explore literary constructions of subjectivity, gender, and sexuality; urban and rural imaginaries; intersections between high and popular culture; and the formation of a public sphere. Throughout, readings are attentive to the multiple ways in which literature serves as a barometer of cultural responses to historical change. An introduction to major cultural debates as well as an original analysis of key texts, this book is essential reading for students and scholars with an interest in the literatures and cultures of Spain.

This volume brings together cutting-edge research on modern Spanish women as writers, activists, and embodiments of cultural change, and simultaneously honors Maryellen Bieder’s invaluable scholarly contribution to the field. The essays are innovative in their consideration of lesser-known women writers, focus on women as political activists, and use of post-colonialism, queer theory, and spatial theory to examine the period from the Enlightenment until World War II. The contributors study women as agents and representations of social change in a variety of genres, including short stories, novels, plays, personal letters, and journalistic pieces. Canonical authors such as Emilia Pardo Bazán, Leopoldo Alas “Clarín,” and Carmen de Burgos are considered alongside lesser known writers and activists such as María Rosa Gálvez, Sofía Tartilán, and Caterina Albert i Paradís. The critical analyses are situated within their specific socio-historical context, and shed new light on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Spanish literature, history, and culture. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

La tesis de este estudio interdisciplinar es que la novela realista española de finales del siglo XIX no sólo documenta el proceso de formación nacional de la época, sino que constituye una parte integral de éste. Utilizando una amplia gama de textos de la teoría cultural, sobre todo anglosajona y francesa, establece una conexión entre algunas de las percepciones de éstos y los debates españoles de la época en los campos de la economía, la política, la medicina y el urbanismo, para mostrar que las inquietudes culturales dominantes en otras naciones occidentales se expresaron de manera aguda en España precisamente debido al carácter imperfecto de su proceso de modernización. Más concretamente, se analiza el papel de las mujeres, en los textos realistas españoles canónicos, como emblema de las inquietudes ante la modernización y, sobre todo, ante su transformación de la realidad en representación. Jo Labanyi es Catedrática de Español en la New York University y Directora del King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center de la misma universidad.

Benito Perez Galdos has been described as 'the greatest Spanish novelist since Cervantes.' His work constitutes a major contribution to the nineteenth-century novel, rivalling that of Dickens of Balzac and making him an essential candidate for any course on the fiction of the period. Jo Labanyi's study is supported by a wide-rangting introduction, a section of contemporary comment, headnotes to each piece and helpful appendix material.