UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Weird Women, Strange
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Weird Women, Strange Times: The Representation of Power Through Female Gender Portrayals in 19th and 20th Century Iberian Literature A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Spanish by Rachel Anna Neff June 2013 Dissertation Committee: Dr. David K. Herzberger, Chairperson Dr. James A. Parr Dr. Raymond L. Williams Copyright by Rachel Anna Neff 2013 The Dissertation of Rachel Anna Neff is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements First and foremost, I wish to thank my kind and patient dissertation director, Dr. David K. Herzberger. I stopped counting the number of drafts he read and commented on, because I’m fairly certain the actual number would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. I am so grateful for the time and care he invested in my candidacy; I hope to one day be even half the mentor he has been to me. I would like to thank Dr. James A. Parr for serving on my committee, guiding me through several independent studies to improve my written Spanish, and for leading the amazing study abroad program in Spain where I worked at the Biblioteca Nacional. On a more personal note, I always appreciated how he shared his apple slices with me whenever I stopped by his office. I also wish to thank Dr. Raymond L. Williams for serving on my committee, advising me on independent study projects, and introducing me to Twitter. The topics in his courses were always fascinating, and the discussions inspiring. The end of the seminar dinners at his house are something I wish to do for my mentees in the future. I extend my gratitude to Dr. Marta Hernández-Salván for serving on my long paper committee and for introducing me to UC-Cuba. Even though I ultimately decided to study other countries, the experience doing archival research with the grant was invaluable for this project. Although not part of my committee, I wish to thank Dr. Freya Schiwy for letting me explore topics for my long paper and for permitting me to write a significant portion iv of what became the fourth chapter of my dissertation as final papers in her courses, in addition to teaching me how to properly incorporate endnotes. I thank my parents, Timothy and Bernadette Neff. For my father for saying that quitting was easy, things in graduate school would be hard, and that I would just have to stick them out. For my mother for saying when I started graduate school that it was time to make my own decisions and live with them. Thank you for believing in me. I wouldn’t have finished this without you. Thanks to my sister and brother, Samantha and Spencer, who mean the world to me. My thanks and gratitude to my maternal grandmother, Beverly Dawes, for being a constant source of love and support. Matthew Larson, thank you for being my partner and best friend for the past seven years. You truly are my media naranja . Your love, kindness, encouragement, and small gifts of chocolate have gotten me through this entire graduate school experience. You are the wheel to my barrow. To Amber Parrish, my dear friend, for writing letters and supporting me throughout all the ups and downs of the past decade of friendship. Thank you to everyone in the Department of Hispanic Studies who became like an extended family over the past several years, but particularly: J’Leen, Jennifer, Alexandra, Alexander, Brian, Cinthia, Judy, Dulce, Raquel, Ruby, Diana, Liesder, Karen, Suria, Claudia, Yenisei, Enrique, and Luz. v To the good friends I made outside my department: Dr. Tony Yang, Alex Cortez, and Dr. Jim Burnette III. Thank you for the company at meals and for encouraging me throughout the thesis writing process. I will miss you all terribly. A researcher is nothing without a good library, and for that reason, I wish to thank the following institutions for their collections: the University of California at Riverside, Princeton University Library Special Collections, Biblioteca Nacional de España, the Library of Congress, Auburn University, and Columbus State University. Lastly, I wish to thank the informal dissertation writing support group that revolved around #phdchat on Twitter. It was great to meet other scholars and build a community during the writing process. vi Dedication I dedicate my dissertation to the family, friends, and mentors who encouraged my intellectual curiosity and supported me throughout this experience. I especially want to single out my late paternal grandmother, Dorothy Jane Hanson, who I promised on her 87th birthday that I would complete my PhD. Sorry you left before I finished. vii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Weird Women, Strange Times: The Representation of Power Through Female Gender Portrayals in 19th and 20th Century Iberian Literature by Rachel Anna Neff Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Spanish University of California, Riverside, June 2013 Dr. David K. Herzberger, Chairperson Examining the power dynamics present in the family unit, inverted portrayals of power dynamics with respect to socially constructed gender roles serve to deconstruct the idealized institution and, in turn, also reflect the political milieu of the nation. Starting with Valle-Inclán’s “Tula Varona” (1895), we see how a failed courtship serves as the allegorical relationship between Spain and its colonies. Next, Unamuno’s Tres Novelas Ejemplares y un Prólogo (1920) and La tía Tula (1921) illustrate how maternal relationships in the stories reflect a nation that is also reeling from political and economic instability. Third, the chica rara in Nada (1944) by Carmen Laforet, Primera memoria (1959) by Ana María Matute, and Julia (1970) by Ana María Moix reveals dysfunctional viii families. Through these unhealthy family relationships, each of the authors subtly critiques the ideal family that the Franco regime strategically used to reinforce its legitimacy. Fourth, the children who attempt to poison their female caregivers in the films De eso no se habla (1993), Cría cuervos (1976), and El verano de la señora Forbes (1989) reconstruct the metaphor of the nation as family by connecting an authoritarian government to the role of parent and the passive resistance to the children’s behavior. Lastly, the novel La sombra del viento (2001) and the movie Biutiful (2010) show how families in contemporary fiction and film reflect the national trauma of the Spanish Civil War. The original contribution to the importance of gender and power with respect to the family as nation allegory demonstrates how the masculine portrayal of gender breaks the taboo of biological sex rather than overtly questioning the abuses of government and power. ix Table of Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................................... 18 Wild Women of the West: Courtship in Valle-Inclán’s “Tula Varona”(1895) ............ 18 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................... 45 Blood, Birthright, and Inheritance: Unamuno’s Portrayal of Mothers, Aunts, Wives, and Sisters in Tres Novelas Ejemplares y un Prólogo (1920) and La tía Tula (1921) . 45 Devilish Desire and Maternal Madness: Dos madres and La tía Tula ......................... 57 Marital Melodrama: El marqués de Lumbría and Nada menos que todo un hombre ... 82 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 101 Chapter 3 ......................................................................................................................... 107 Fear and the Fractured Family: Motherless Daughters in Three Postwar Spanish Novels ......................................................................................................................... 107 Chapter 4 ......................................................................................................................... 142 Poisonous Progeny: Children Confronting Authoritarianism in Three Films ............ 142 Poison as revenge: A failed attempt in Cría Cuervos y El verano de la señora Forbes ..................................................................................................................................... 162 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 175 x Chapter 5 ......................................................................................................................... 180 Bestselling Barcelona: National Trauma and its Connection to Family in La sombra del viento (2001) and Biutiful (2010) ................................................................................ 180 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 210 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 213 xi Introduction The use of family in literature has a rich tradition. Stories and tales often revolve around leaving and returning home, parents and children, and major life events. Further, we frequently see protagonists in terms of their relationship to their family or their lack thereof. Indeed, representations of the family form the underpinning