| "Haunting Modernity" reappraises the fantastic short fiction of four prominent Spanish authors writing in the second half of the nineteenth century: Pedro Antonio de Alarcon (1833-1891), Gustavo Adolfo Becquer (1836-1870), Benito Perez Galdos (1843- 1920), and Emilia Pardo Bazan (1851-1921). It seeks to dispel three popular myths surrounding the fantastic in Spain: that Spain's literary tradition has always been markedly Realist, particularly in the nineteenth century; that the Spanish fantastic arises in imitation of foreign models; and most importantly. that fantastic storytelling produces writing of little consequence. This project combats such erroneous ideas by establishing the fantastic stories under study as part of a continuous body of uniquely Spanish work and demonstrating how these texts engage meaningfully with the rapidly-changing social reality of nineteenth-century Spain.;Throughout the 1800s, Spaniards experienced continuous political upheaval and a halting process of modernization that resulted in urban renewal, but also a diminished respect for the past and a resounding religious crisis. The sought-after progress of the nineteenth century brought with it numerous complications, which arc not only reflected in Realist literature, but also in the fantastic writing of the age. While "Haunting Modernity" examines the works of Alarcon, Becquer, Galdos, and Pardo Bazan in relation to each other and to an overarching Spanish tradition, each chapter focuses on one author, and explores how his or her fantastic work dramatizes a single challenging aspect of the modernization process in Spain.;Chapter One examines how Alarcon gives shape to a uniquely Spanish fantastic, drawing upon the themes and tropes of Spanish literary tradition to combat the waning idealism of the nation, particularly in the political arena, in the 1800s. Chapter Two focuses on the manner in which Becquer's Leyendas depict the artist and artwork in supernatural terms to call for an increased awareness of their importance, as both were often trivialized by contemporary society. Chapter Three looks at the changing Spanish cityscape as Galdos's principal concern, and analyzes how the author depicts a capital made uncanny through modernization. Chapter Four delves into Pardo Bazan's Cuentos sacro-profanos, which use the fantastic mode, with its uneasy co-existence between doubt and belief to promote renewed spirituality in a society defined by the so-called problema religioso.;To fully appreciate the richness of each story analyzed, "Haunting Modernity" complements an understanding of the socio-historical moment in which the story was conceived with a close reading of the text itself This two-pronged approach allows for commentary on each author's individual adaptation of the fantastic mode while simultaneously facilitating a broader discussion of how the works under study jointly reflect upon. and engage with, the literary currents and social landscape of a tumultuous period in Spanish history. "Haunting Modernity" establishes the existence of a corpus of fantastic short stories written in the nineteenth century whose discourse not only reflects, but reflects upon, a particular moment of societal transition. |
