Marginal Subjects: Gender and Deviance in Fin-De-Siécle Spain

by Akiko Tsuchiya

Late nineteenth-century Spanish fiction is populated by adulteresses, prostitutes, seduced women, and emasculated men - indicating an almost obsessive interest in gender deviance. In Marginal Subjects , Akiko Tsuchiya shows how the figure of the deviant woman-and her counterpart, the feminized man - revealed the ambivalence of literary writers towards new methods of social control in Restoration Spain.

Focusing on works by major realist authors such as Benito Pérez Galdós, Emilia Pardo Bazán, and Leopoldo Alas (Clarín), as well as popular novelists like Eduardo López Bago, Marginal Subjects argues that these archetypes were used to channel collective anxieties about sexuality, class, race, and nation. Tsuchiya also draws on medical and anthropological texts and illustrated periodicals to locate literary works within larger cultural debates. Marginal Subjects is a riveting exploration of why realist and naturalist narratives were so invested in representing gender deviance in fin-de-siècle Spain.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2011

Reviews

[Violeta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un poco repetitivo. Pero es un análisis muy interesante de la literatura española al que al menos yo no había accedido antes. Bastante recomendable para aquellas interesadas en los estudios de género.