The unseen spectre: The Gothic mode in nineteenth century Spanish narrative (Jose Espronceda, Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, Jose Zorrilla y Moral, Enrique Ramirez de Saavedra Cueto Remirez de Baquedano y Ortega, 4. duque de Rivas)

Although the Gothic mode was a significant movement in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary production which had widespread influence, there has been almost no recognition of Gothic works produced in Spain. This dissertation investigates the Gothic mode in Spanish nineteenth-century narrative.; Our study is conducted in two stages, definition and analysis. Chapters One and Two define the Gothic as a literary mode and delineate its fundamental traits. Using the model created by Alistair Fowler in Kinds of Literature , Chapter One clarifies the distinction between literary genre and mode, and applies the latter definition to the Gothic. It also outlines the Gothic's original philosophy: its attack on rationalism, its manipulation of emotion, its call for an active reader and its essence as literary nightmare. Chapter Two identifies the fundamental traits of the mode: dynamic atmosphere, presentation of excess, and a conflict-centered structure.; The second stage of this dissertation is a series of textual analyses of works from the Spanish Romantic movement. In Chapter Three studies Espronceda's "El estudiante de Salamanca", highlighting its Gothic atmosphere, the juxtapositon of its central characters, Felix and Elvira, and the protagonist's strange quest. Chapter Four explores the borderland between the Gothic and the Romantic in Rivas's "Una antigualla de Sevilla" and Zorrilla's "El capitan Montoya" and "Para verdades tiempo y para justicia Dios", texts which blend Gothic style with a Romantic message. The two final textual analyses are devoted to Becquer's prose leyendas, the most complete examples of Spanish Gothic. Chapter Five examines Becquer's use of Gothic atmosphere while Chapter Six scrutinizes his characterization techniques and the use of dread and terror. The principal legends examined are "La ajorca de oro", "Los ojos verdes", "El miserere" and "El monte de las Animas".; The dissertation concludes with a response to prior scholarly commentaries on the Gothic in Spain which have minimized or disavowed the mode's presence, and gives a final appraisal of the unique nature of Spanish Gothic.