Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Vernon, Kathleen | Charnon-Deutsch, Lou | Flesler, Daniela | Vialette, Aurélie | Tsuchiya, Akiko | Cameron, Bryan.
Date
2015-12-01
Keywords
Gender studies | 19th Century, Benito Pérez Galdós, Masculinities, Realist Novel, Spain, Spanish Literature | 19th Century, Benito Pérez Galdós, Masculinities, Realist Novel, Spain, Spanish Literature
Department
Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature.
Language
es
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77708
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
This dissertation contributes to the analysis of the representation of masculinity in the Nineteenth Century Spanish novel, an area still somewhat underdeveloped in Spanish Peninsular literature. Most studies have focused almost exclusively on the analysis of male characters that, in one way or another, challenged culturally produced sexual and gender norms and served as examples of alternative constructions to a normative male role. The proliferation of these types of characters has been explained by the perception that fin-de-siècle society as a whole was moving towards gender slippage and indifferentiation motivated by the changing roles of women, the collapse of the opposition between public and private spheres and the rising number of both men and women who rebelled against prevailing gender norms. These types of critical approaches, despite their undeniable relevance, offer a biased vision of masculinity. By analyzing a selection of novels by Spanish author Benito Pérez Galdós, I argue that ideal masculinity was not perceived at the time as a monolithic concept opposed to femininity, but rather was open to a much wider range of representations than has been to date recognized. Without denying the abundance and value of deviant male figures who pose a challenge to the heterosexual ideal of masculinity, the ‘effeminate’ or emasculated men, or those who embody otherwise conflictive and conflicted masculinities, my work attempts to broaden the spectrum of characters that have composed the corpus examined until now in order to expand what it meant in a variety of underexplored contexts to be a man in nineteenth century Spain. I analyze the representation of masculinity in Galdós’ novels from three perspectives. Chapter One looks at male characters in the public sphere, including their participation and behavior in places like the university, the stock market and Congress. The following chapter examines male roles within the private sphere of the home, especially as father, provider, and head of the family, along with their involvement in daily domestic life. The third and last chapter discusses the relationship between men and religion, in their capacity as priests and devotees along with the charitable work that they perform. In addition to Galdos’ novels, primary sources underpinning this work consist of documents from the period that gave shape to the bourgeois ideology and beliefs such as manuals of conduct, religious treatises and newspapers. This dissertation underscores the need to focus on masculinity in nineteenth-century Spanish literature from a perspective in keeping with current studies that depict masculinity as a social construct, consisting of multiple variations across a wide spectrum of possibilities that emphasize masculinity’s configuration from a number of contradictory realities. A comprehensive analysis of various masculinities, as put forth by Galdós in his novels and as I propose in my research, serves to call into question some of these previous conclusions by showing that the lack of conformity between these masculinities and the assumptions defining fin-de-siècle Peninsular masculinity are actually proof of the variety and contradictions of masculinity in nineteenth-century Spain. | This dissertation contributes to the analysis of the representation of masculinity in the Nineteenth Century Spanish novel, an area still somewhat underdeveloped in Spanish Peninsular literature. Most studies have focused almost exclusively on the analysis of male characters that, in one way or another, challenged culturally produced sexual and gender norms and served as examples of alternative constructions to a normative male role. The proliferation of these types of characters has been explained by the perception that fin-de-siècle society as a whole was moving towards gender slippage and indifferentiation motivated by the changing roles of women, the collapse of the opposition between public and private spheres and the rising number of both men and women who rebelled against prevailing gender norms. These types of critical approaches, despite their undeniable relevance, offer a biased vision of masculinity. By analyzing a selection of novels by Spanish author Benito Pérez Galdós, I argue that ideal masculinity was not perceived at the time as a monolithic concept opposed to femininity, but rather was open to a much wider range of representations than has been to date recognized. Without denying the abundance and value of deviant male figures who pose a challenge to the heterosexual ideal of masculinity, the ‘effeminate’ or emasculated men, or those who embody otherwise conflictive and conflicted masculinities, my work attempts to broaden the spectrum of characters that have composed the corpus examined until now in order to expand what it meant in a variety of underexplored contexts to be a man in nineteenth century Spain. I analyze the representation of masculinity in Galdós’ novels from three perspectives. Chapter One looks at male characters in the public sphere, including their participation and behavior in places like the university, the stock market and Congress. The following chapter examines male roles within the private sphere of the home, especially as father, provider, and head of the family, along with their involvement in daily domestic life. The third and last chapter discusses the relationship between men and religion, in their capacity as priests and devotees along with the charitable work that they perform. In addition to Galdos’ novels, primary sources underpinning this work consist of documents from the period that gave shape to the bourgeois ideology and beliefs such as manuals of conduct, religious treatises and newspapers. This dissertation underscores the need to focus on masculinity in nineteenth-century Spanish literature from a perspective in keeping with current studies that depict masculinity as a social construct, consisting of multiple variations across a wide spectrum of possibilities that emphasize masculinity’s configuration from a number of contradictory realities. A comprehensive analysis of various masculinities, as put forth by Galdós in his novels and as I propose in my research, serves to call into question some of these previous conclusions by showing that the lack of conformity between these masculinities and the assumptions defining fin-de-siècle Peninsular masculinity are actually proof of the variety and contradictions of masculinity in nineteenth-century Spain. | 261 pages
Recommended Citation
Souto Rumbo, Jose Ismael, "La medida de un hombre: Las representaciones de la masculinidad en las novelas de Benito Pérez Galdós | La medida de un hombre: Las representaciones de la masculinidad en las novelas de Benito Pérez Galdós" (2015). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 3499.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/3499