Film representation of Galdos' female character in 'Nazarin' (1962), 'Tristana' (1969), 'Fortunata y Jacinta' (Film: 1969, television series: 1987) and 'El abuelo' (1998)

In my doctoral dissertation I focus on the study of the presentation of various female characters in the following novels of Benito Perez Galdos: Nazarin, Tristana, Fortunata v Jacinta and El abuelo. With these works constituting the primary focus, I establish certain parallels between the women characters. In these novels and those of their film counterparts in the versions of Nazarin and Tristana by Luis Bunuel, Fortunata y Jacinta by Angelino Forts, the television version of Fortunata y Jacinta by Mario Camus and finally, El abuelo by Jose Luis Garci.;Having analized how Galdos presents and utilizes these female characters, I address their respective film roles. In this way, I provide a multi-perspective "reading" of Galdos in both film and novel, a reading achieved only through the plurality of the different artistic voices of the film directors, each of whom has realized his or her own personal reading of Galdos.;One of the initial problems in beginning my study consisted of classifying the abundant criticism written on the work of Galdos and selecting only that which is truly relevant to my thesis: those studies which treat women. In comparison to this plethora of criticism on Galdos, there are no studies that record film portrayals of his female characters. I complement the existing literary criticism on female characters with my analyses of the same element in the films.;Film criticism on Galdos' work focuses on two movies by Luis Bunuel: Nazarin and Tristana. I analyze each of the films in question, using comparative criteria that incorporates film terminology. From this perspective, I incorporate the studies of two interrelated disciplines, literature and cinema, in order to achieve a more thorough technical understanding of the multiple readings of female Galdosian characters.