Research Catalog

Title

Under construction : the body in Spanish novels / Elizabeth A. Scarlett.

Author

Scarlett, Elizabeth A.

Publication

Charlottesville : University Press of Virginia, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

x, 232 pages; 24 cm.

Summary

• Our bodies constitute the most tangible link between who we are and what we experience in the world; for this reason a large corpus of literary and cultural studies has turned to the human body as a point of reference in the last few years. As Elizabeth Scarlett points out, "Modern Spanish literature is fertile terrain for the exploration of the body as textual marker.".
• Using modern feminist and narratological tools of analysis, Scarlett offers illuminating insights into the terms of embodiment in novels by Emilia Pardo Bazan, Rosa Chacal, and Merce Rodoreda, Carmen Martin Gaite, Soledad Puertolas, Camilo Jose Cela, Luis Martin Santos, Julio Llamazares, and Antonio Munoz Molina.
• Scarlett reveals significant correlations between gender and figurations of the female (and male) body and traces a history of the mind-body connection in Spanish novels from the late nineteenth century to the present.
• In the time-honored hierarchy that pits mind against body and privileges the more intangible of the two, woman is typically associated with the flesh and man with transcendence. Perhaps this is why, Scarlett observes, the body-as-text begins to make its most dynamic appearances in novels written by female authors.
• As one draws closer to the present, however, she notes that male as well as female writers problematize and protagonize the dichotomy of mind and body, constructing the body as situation or process rather than as object. Under Construction is the first sustained study of its kind. It provides original and compelling readings of Spanish novels, and it grounds theory in the changing specificities of literary movements, generational rivalries, and historical turmoil.

Series Statement

Feminist issues : practice, politics, theory

Uniform Title

Feminist issues (Charlottesville, Va.)

Subject

• Pardo Bazán, Emilia, condesa de, 1852-1921 > Criticism and interpretation
• Chacel, Rosa, 1898-1994 > Criticism and interpretation
• Rodoreda, Mercè, 1908-1983 > Criticism and interpretation
• Spanish fiction > History and criticism
• Spanish fiction > 20th century > History and criticism
• Spanish fiction > 19th century > History and criticism
• Catalan fiction > History and criticism
• Mind and body in literature
• Human body in literature
• Women in literature

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-226) and index.

Contents

1. The Body-as-Text in Emilia Pardo Bazan's Insolacion -- 2. Rosa Chacel. Estacion, Ida y vuelta: Chacel, Ortega y Gasset, and Bodily Discourse. Replacement of a Romantic Feminine Subjectivity: Teresa. The Uses of Seduction: Memorias de Leticia Valle and Later Novels -- 3. Merce Rodoreda. Sundered Maternal Bonds in La Placa del Diamant. Writing-on-the-Body in El carrer de les Camelies. The Matriarchal, Marvelous Dollhouse: Mirall trencat -- 4. Body Politics in Novels of Franco's Spain -- 5. Nomads and Schizos: Postmodern Trends in Body Writing.

ISBN

0813915325

LCCN

94021028

OCLC

• 30663688
• ocm30663688

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries