Constructing Spanish Womanhood

The first anthology in English on modern Spanish women's history and identity formation.

This book provides an up-to-date critical assessment of gender in Spain with reference to the key social and political fields. It addresses aspects of women's experience such as the public spheres of elective politics, public policy-making and the labour market. This is underpinned by an in-depth analysis of underlying dynamics and structures that contribute to shaping gender relations in Spain, including women's activism, the family and the state social security system.

"With an eye to the rather insular, particular development and definition of feminism in Spain, the author recognizes that the twentieth century has been a period of great change for peninsular women authors. Her study of the creative compromises wrought by severe oppression followed by relative liberation, all within the context of Spain's specific religious and regional influences, illustrates the unique positioning of these women writers as shown through their female characters. While this is reflection of the current scholarship in Women's Studies (examining the feminist resonance of the construction of female identity through texts written by women about women), it is one that is in its first stages of development in Spanish criticism and has been primarily author-specific. Ellen C. Mayock's research provides a more panoramic view, so to speak, facilitating an overview of progression between trends, as opposed to a singular progression of a single author within the context of era- a very positive move that allows for full comprehension."--BOOK JACKET.

A reading of women's post-war literary representations in terms of exemplarity. The effects of General Francisco Franco's authoritarian rule (1939-1975) on the production and reception of cultural texts can be gauged by the silence that now surrounds them. This is especially true of works which enjoyed considerable popularity when first published. Most of the novels in question belong to the sentimental genre known as novela rosa, whose authors-mostly women-and heroines Academe has consistently treated as literary pariahs. This volume represents the first serious effort to question the categories used to assess the value and meaning of texts previously presumed to be devoid of both. It does so by bringing to the fore the operative premise of Francoist cultural politics, wherein fictional works have the power to mould individual character and conduct. Narratives by Luisa-María Linares, Concha Linares-Becerra, Carmen de Icaza and María Mercedes Ortoll are thus examined in terms of the effects that they were expected to have on their readers, and the constraints that such expectations placed on the works' production and reception. The result is a paradox: while the study of women's bestselling novels is by definition a study of the constraints that shape them, careful reading reveals the limitations of those selfsame constraints. NINO KEBADZE is an Assistant Professor in the Hispanic Studies Department of the University of Massachusetts Boston.

First book in English to offer a thorough introduction to key concepts and figures in Spanish feminist thought. Major Concepts in Spanish Feminist Theory is the first book in English to offer a substantial overview of Spanish feminist thought. It focuses on six concepts—solitude, personality, social class, work, difference, and equality—and distinguishes Spanish feminist theory from that of other countries. Roberta Johnson employs a chronological format to highlight continuity and polemics in Spanish feminist thinking from the eighteenth century to the present. She brings together arguments from well-known names such as Benito Jerónimo Feijoo, Concepción Arenal, Emilia Pardo Bazán, María Martínez Sierra, Carmen de Burgos, and Carmen Laforet, as well as less familiar figures such as the Countess Campo Alange María Laffitte and Lilí Álvarez, who defied restrictions on feminist activity during the Franco dictatorship to publish feminist books. The topics of difference and equality are explored, and the book recounts the long tension between theorists of each persuasion—a tension that erupted publicly during Spain’s democratic era. Each theorist’s arguments are laid out in straightforward, non-jargonistic prose, making this book a useful classroom tool for courses on Spanish women writers, Spanish culture, and cross-cultural feminist studies. “This book is a significant overview of the theoretical concepts and authors that make up the history of Spanish feminism from the eighteenth century to the present. The organization of the book around concepts is not only its great strength but is also refreshing—a novel approach to a chronological history of Spanish feminism.” — Alda Blanco, San Diego State University

As in other countries, the effects of commercialization in Spain are changing the direction of publishing. Arguing that women face a particularly complex situation because the inclusion of their work is still considered a novelty in a male-dominated field, Christine Henseler examines the strategies of Spanish women authors in the face of market forces. In a consumer economy that places books in supermarkets and mega-bookstores and in which novels are promoted and read more for entertainment than for their literary merit, women's books tend to be more highly regarded when they cater to feminist, erotic, or commercial niche markets. Henseler examines the visual creation of the seductive female body inside and outside the texts and the verbal application of this female figure on a narrative level in the works of authors including Paloma Díaz-Mas, Lourdes Ortiz, Cristina Peri Rossi, Esther Tusquets, Almudena Grandes, and Lucía Etxebarría. She looks at novels of seduction, award-winning novels, and novels sold on the basis of an author's prior reputation, as well as advertisements, literary prizes, and reviews. She also draws on interviews with authors to provide insider views of contemporary Spanish publishing. Contemporary Spanish Women's Narrative and the Publishing Industry reveals the ways women writers are reacting -- both textually and promotionally--to the changing demands of the publishing industry and the construction of a literary canon.

This is the first essay collection to examine the relation between text and gender in Spain from a broad geographical, social and cultural perspective covering more than 300 years. The contributors examine women and the construction of gender thematically, dealing with the areas of politics, law, religion, sexuality, literature and economics, and in a variety of social categories, from Christians and Moriscas, queens and merchants, peasants and visionaries, heretics and madwomen. The essays cover different regions in the Spanish monarchy, including Andalusia, Aragon, Castile, Catalonia, Valencia and Spanish America, from the fifteenth century through to the eighteenth century. Women, Texts and Authority in Early Modern Spain focuses on two central themes: gender relations in the shaping of family and community life, and women's authority in spheres of power. The representation of women in a variety of texts such as poetry, court cases, or even account books illustrate the multifaceted world in which women lived, constantly choosing and negotiating their identities. The appeal of this collection is not limited to scholars of Spanish history and literature; it is deliberately designed to address the issue of how gender relations were constructed in the formation of modern society, and therefore will be of interest to scholars of women's and gender history generally. Because of the emphasis on how this construction occurs in texts, the collection will also be attractive to scholars interested in literary studies and/or print culture.

Beginning with a brief examination of the importance of the concept of happiness to the European Enlightenment as well as to the growing 18th -century interest in women, especially in Spain, this study focuses on the literary expressions of happiness by Spanish women as exemplified in the writings of three authors: essayist Josefa Amar y Borbon, poet Maria Gertrudis Hore and playwright Maria Rosa Galvez. Author Elizabeth Lewis traces the theme of 'happiness' through the texts, explicating how important the concept is for understanding eighteenth-century culture. Lewis shows how happiness for women could be considered subversive, associated as it was (among other things) with the freedom to make lifestyle choices, with a sense of harmony that extended far beyond the domestic sphere, and with a feminine virtue that defied traditional notions of fidelity to God and husband, and instead encouraged responsibility to other women, especially to future generations.