The Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese FRAMING THE NATION: THE FAMILY AS A MODEL FOR NATION BUILDING IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY SPANISH AMERICAN NOVEL A Dissertation in Spanish by Bonnie Loder © 2015 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2015 ii The dissertation of Bonnie Loder was reviewed and approved* by the following: Julia Cuervo Hewitt Professor of Spanish Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Fernando Operé Professor of Spanish University of Virginia Special Committee Member Thomas O. Beebee Professor of Comparative Literature Mary E. Barnard Professor of Spanish Guadalupe Martí-Peña Senior Lecturer of Spanish Giuli Dussias Department Head *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT In this dissertation, I explore how novelistic representations of the family, family ties, and domestic spaces provided a framework through which nineteenth-century Spanish American writers mapped out their visions for the nations when these were politically, culturally, and geographically divided. By examining seven novels from Argentina, Peru, and Cuba between the years 1839 and 1889, I analyze how the literary representation of the family and domestic spaces allowed writers to unite readers and incorporate them into what Benedict Anderson has termed an “imagined” national community. At the same time, the literary representation of the family and domestic spaces also provided fertile sites for dialogues regarding the political order, social hierarchy, and gender in the new nation and was capable of accommodating different visions for the newly-emerging national communites. By examining the families presented in nineteenth-century Spanish American novels, their structure, and the way they interact with the fictional society developed in the novel, I compare, as well as contrast, the way that nineteenth-century writers from Argentina, Peru, and Cuba writers envisioned the nation through the family. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... vi Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Nineteenth-Century Spanish American Literature Overview .......................................... 8 The Family as a Model for the Nation ............................................................................. 14 The Rise of the Affective Family in Europe ............................................................ 14 The Function of Literary Representations of the Family in Nineteenth-Century Spanish America ............................................................................................... 20 Chapter Summaries .................................................................................................................. 27 Chapter 1 The Family and Domestic Spaces as Sites of Nation Building in the Nineteenth-Century Argentine Novel .............................................................................. 37 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 37 The “Woman Question” in Nineteenth-Century Argentina ..................................... 44 Sarmiento’s Facundo: Divided Families and Anarchic Domestic Spaces as Metaphors of National Crisis ................................................................................... 52 Sarmiento’s Allegories of Caudillismo in Facundo ................................................. 56 The Construction of “Civilized” and “Barbarous” Domestic Spaces in Facundo ... 62 José Mármol’s Amalia: A Nation of Brothers-In-Arms ................................................... 65 Heroic Revolutions and Forging the Fraternal Nation-Family in Amalia ................ 70 The Role of Women in Amalia ................................................................................ 77 Eduarda Mansilla’s El médico de San Luis ...................................................................... 81 Critical Reception of El médico de San Luis ............................................................ 84 The Family as a Microcosm of the Nation in El médico de San Luis ...................... 87 The Family as an Instrument of Homogenization in El médico de San Luis ........... 88 Mansilla’s Representation of Women in El médico de San Luis ............................. 93 Patriarchal Values in El médico de San Luis ............................................................ 97 Chapter 2 The Family and Nation Building in Two Nineteenth-Century Peruvian Novels: Luis Benjamín Cisneros’s Edgardo o un joven de mi generación and Clorinda Matto de Turner’s Aves sin nido ................................................................................................. 101 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 101 Luis Benjamín Cisneros’s Edgardo o un joven de mi generación: Scenes of Family and Nation Building ................................................................................................. 116 The Feminocentric Family as Symbolic Ideal for the Peruvian Nation ................... 125 The Ethnic Other in Edgardo ................................................................................... 132 Clorinda Matto de Turner’s Aves sin nido: Inclusive Models of Family and Nation ...... 137 The Educated Republican Mother as Leader of the Nation-Family in Aves sin nido ................................................................................................................... 145 Chapter 3 The Family and Domestic Spaces as Sites of Nation Building in the Nineteenth-Century Cuban Novel .................................................................................... 152 v Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 152 Elements of Subversion in the “Ever Faithful Isle” ................................................. 157 The Havana Literary Circle and the Genesis of a Cuban National Literature ......... 161 Sab and the Representation of the Idealized Nation-Family .................................... 165 Gender and Race in Nineteenth-Century Cuban Literature ..................................... 166 Anselmo Suárez y Romero’s Francisco: Corroded Families and Unstable Domestic Spaces as Metaphors of National Crisis ................................................................... 171 The Slave-Owner’s Home as a Cradle of Vice ........................................................ 175 The Place of the Mother in Francisco ...................................................................... 184 Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab: The Collapse of the Ideal Cuban Nation- Family ....................................................................................................................... 188 Absent and Symbolic Maternal Figures in Sab ........................................................ 200 Slavery and Female Oppression as Obstacles to a United Nation-Family in Sab .... 205 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 213 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 217 Primary Texts ................................................................................................................... 217 Secondary Texts ............................................................................................................... 220 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the members of my dissertation committee, Mary Barnard, Guadalupe Martí-Peña, Thomas Beebee, and Fernando Operé for their insight and their encouragement. I am especially grateful to my dissertation advisor and chair, Julia Cuervo Hewitt. Julia’s willingness to talk through my ideas from the earliest stages of this project allowed me to see the first glimpses of the final product, while her insistence on teasing out the relationship between language, text, and context pushed me to expand upon my initial vision and explore dimensions I had not previously seen. Thank you for understanding the nature of the writing process, for your feedback on innumerable drafts, and for your consistent encouragement. I am also grateful to María Antonio Borroto from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Camagüey, Cuba, for her friendship and guidance. Because of the support of my family over the past seven years, I never felt that I was alone in this project. To my sister-in-law, Raquel Carbonari, thank you for your love and encouragement; I still remember seven years ago when you stayed up all night to help me with my application documents. Thank you Kelley Loder, my sister and my best friend since childhood, I would never have been able to do this without you! Mom, you not only supported me through the dissertation, but you have made me so proud by going back to get your Masters. I will always remember you driving up with Arthur to see my defense, even though it was postponed for snow and you were not able to be there. Thank you to Carlo Rázuri, my best friend and travel companion in several unforgettable journeys since the days of Washington College. Here’s

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