Semester of Graduation
May 2020
Degree
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Foreign Languages & Literatures
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
In this research, I utilize the works of Benito Pérez Galdós and Emilia Pardo Bazán spanning from 1882 to 1911. Each of the novels selected by these two authors shares the common theme of the crisis of masculinity in a slowly modernizing Spain. Galdós creates outdated Spanish gallants contrasted with young powerful women to expose the backwards ideals of Spain’s aging men. Pardo Bazán constructs her depiction of this crisis of masculinity through her naturalistic scope creating bleak and nihilistic characters whose anxieties towards the rapidly modernizing country result in an obsession with death. Both authors create their own image of the new Spanish man to represent the rising male generation; and as the country continues to modernize, the depiction of this man changes. Through the works El amigo Manso (1882); Tormento (1884), Tristana (1892); El abuelo (1897); La sirena negra (1908); and La quimera (1911), I am able to observe this crumbling masculinity timeline develop from its early stages after the Glorious Revolution, to the years right before the Cuban War of Independence in 1898, and in the devasting outcome of the war and the loss of Spain’s final colonies.
Recommended Citation
Abadin, Jorge, "CRUMBLING MASCULINITIES IN THE AGE OF EMPIRE AND MODERNIZATION, IMAGES OF MEN IN GALDÓS AND PARDO BAZÁN" (2020). LSU Master's Theses. 5097.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/5097
Committee Chair
Heneghan, Dorota
DOI
10.31390/gradschool_theses.5097
Included in
Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons, Spanish Literature Commons