Culture and Gender in Nineteenth-Century Spain

Abstract This book features a wide-ranging discussion on women's writing and representations of gender in Spanish literature and culture from the Romantic period to the fin de siècle. It is customary to regard gender roles and representation in 19th-century Spain as polarised and predictable. But in this volume, scholars from the United Kingdom and the United States discuss not only the patriarchal emphasis of Spanish culture, but also demonstrate that this was a period in which relations between men and women were being constantly negotiated, challenged, and redefined as part of an ongoing transformation of political and national identities. Contributions look at women's writing and the representation of women in canonical texts, the construction of both femininity and masculinity, issues of race and region, and popular fiction, journalism, and the visual arts. All quotations are given in Spanish with English translation.