In Search of the Promised Land: the Travels of Emilia Pardo Bazan
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IN SEARCH OF THE PROMISED LAND: THE TRAVELS OF EMILIA PARDO BAZAN Maria Gloria MUNOZ-MARTIN, University College London, Ph.D. in Spanish and Latin-American Studies, 2000 ProQuest Number: U642760 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest U642760 Published by ProQuest LLC(2015). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT The object of this thesis is to explore Pardo Bazan's approach to travel as an aesthetically rewarding experience and also as a soul-searching exercise in which she voices her opinions and concerns with regard to the state of late nineteenth-century Spain and compares it to some other European countries. Indeed, in the Galician author's chronicles, which reveal her versatility and multifaceted interests as a travel writer, the journey itself takes second place to cultural, social, political, artistic, religious, and intellectual considerations. Another aspect of Pardo Bazan's travel works that this study will develop is her uneasy stance with regard to progress, technological advancement, and modern civilization, as illustrated, principally, in her foreign chronicles. For it is her apprehension and at times aversion to modern technology that place her in an anachronistic position in relation to some of the events and places covered in her travel accounts. Pardo Bazan's obsessive longing for the past, as well as her generalized rejection of the aesthetic canons and artistic achievements of the nineteenth century (a period she regarded as lacking in spiritual and religious values), will also be revealed as playing a significant part in her approach to travel writing. In addition, the author's ambivalent attitude to France will be considered, together with her internationalism (which was never at odds with her Spanishness), and the progressive 3 and painful realization that, in the social, industrial, and cultural spheres, her country lagged well behind most of its European neighbours. Overall, this thesis will trace Pardo Bazan's journeys through her homeland and elsewhere in Europe as she attempts to identify the ills that beset turn-of-the- century Spain, suggest some possible solutions, and ultimately seek out among the advanced European nations she visited a role model worthy of emulation by her own country. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 7 1. The Making of a Travel Writer 7 2. Some Feminist Concerns 17 3. Approaching Pardo Bazan's Travel Works 24 4. Secondary Sources 26 5. Justification of Approaches Adopted 31 CHAPTER 2 EARLY SKETCHES: DE MI TIERRA 42 1. Introduction 42 2. The Travel Experience 44 3. Train Travel 46 4. The Autobiographical Element in De mi tierra 50 5. Spain's Artistic Heritage 55 6. The Sublime and the Prosaic, Folklore, and Local Colour 58 7. Progress versus Tradition 62 8. Mother Nature, Paganism, and Romanticism 64 9. The Past 69 10. The Patria. Reaionalism, and Separatism 71 11. Conclusions 74 CHAPTER 3 MI ROMERIA: PARDO BAZAN'S POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS AND ARTISTIC PILGRIMAGE 77 1.Introduction 77 2. The Recording of the Travel Experience and its Depiction in Mi romeria 79 3. The Religious and the Mystical Experience in Mi romeria 97 4. Christianity versus Paganism 101 5. The Nineteenth Century 110 6. The Political Theme in Mi romeria 113 7. Conclusions 123 CHAPTER 4 A MONARCHIST AT A REPUBLICAN CELEBRATION: AL PIE DE LA TORRE EIFFEL 127 1. Introduction 127 2. The Sense of Travel and Place, and Some Thoughts on Spaniards in Paris 129 3. The Political Implications of the 1889 Universal Exhibition 134 4. Spain at the Universal Exhibition: Politics, Economics, and Culture 140 5. Progress, Machinery, Art, Nature, and Spiritual Purification 145 6. Pardo Bazan’s Belligerence and the Spanish Military 154 7. The Monarchy 158 8. Pardo Bazan's Attitude to France 162 9. Conclusions 164 CHAPTER 5 IN SEARCH OF A ROLE MODEL FOR SPAIN: POR FRANCIA Y POR ALEMANIA 169 1. Introduction 169 2. Technological Advancement, Progress, and Modern Civilization 170 3. The 1889 Universal Exhibition 174 4. Spain’s Glorious Past and the Conquistadors 178 5. Journeying on 181 6. Pardo Bazan and Travel Writing 192 7. Pardo Bazan vis-à-vis France 197 8. Conclusions 200 CHAPTER 6 A JOURNEY TO SPAIN'S ARTISTIC AND HISTORIC PAST: POR LA ESPANA PINTORESCA 203 1. Introduction 203 2. The Travel Experience in Por la Espaha pintoresca 204 3. Santander and its Province 213 4. Castile 228 5. Galicia 241 6. Conclusions 248 CHAPTER 7 ANOTHER DISASTER FOR SPAIN: CUARENTA DIAS EN LA EXPOSICION 256 1. Introduction 256 2. The Travel Experience 258 3. The 1900 Paris Exhibition: An Overview 263 4. Spain at the 1900 Universal Exhibition 274 5. The Colonial Issue and the "Disaster" of 1898 290 6. Latin America and its Representation at the 1900 Exhibition 296 7. Pardo Bazan's Attitude to France 300 8. Conclusions 304 CHAPTER 8 "ME DUELE ESPANA": POR LA EUROPA CATOLICA 309 1. Introduction 309 2. Travel and Spain's Europeanization 311 3. On the Way to Belgium 320 4. Belgium 322 5. France 338 6. Portugal 340 7. Castile 345 8. Aragon 357 9. Catalonia 361 10. Conclusions 370 CONCLUSION 374 WORKS CONSULTED 384 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. The Making of a Travel Writer Emilia Pardo Bazan (1851-1921) was one of the most prolific writers of nineteenth-century Spain. In a career which spanned over forty-five years, Pardo Bazan wrote nineteen novels, twenty-one novelas breves, well over five hundred short stories, many monographs and articles on a wide variety of subjects, two cookery books, and seven travel works. It could also be added that she was the most travelled writer of nineteenth-century Spain, with the possible exception of Juan Valera, who was in the diplomatic service. Between 1871 and 1874, in what was to be her first European tour, Pardo Bazan visited Paris, Vienna, Venice, Verona, Geneva, and London. Between December 1887 and January 1888, the author travelled to Rome as a correspondent for the Madrid newspaper, El Imparcial. Her first travel work, entitled Mi romeria. in which she recounts her journey to and experiences in the Italian capital, appeared in book form in 1888. That same year she published De mi tierra, a collection of travel pieces and essays on the folklore and art of her native Galicia. A1 pie de la torre Eiffel and Por Francia v por Alemania. in which Pardo Bazan narrates her experiences at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889 and related travels, appeared in 1889 and 1890 respectively. Por la Espaha pintoresca. published in 1895, is a compilation of some travel 8 pieces written by Pardo Bazan following trips taken between 1889 and 1893. In 1900, her articles on the Paris Universal Exhibition of that year appeared in book form under the title of Cuarenta dias en la Exposicion. The impressions collected during her travels through Belgium, France, Portugal, and parts of Spain were published in 1902 in Por la Europa catolica. Judging by her comments in the "Apuntes autobiograficos" which prefaced the first edition of Los pazos de Ulloa (1886), it seems that Pardo Bazan's first attempts at travel writing were made during her European tour of 1871-74, accompanied by her parents and husband. In 1871, after the election of Amadeus of Savoy as King of Spain and the demise of the Progressive Party to which Pardo Bazan's father belonged, the entire family moved to Paris in order to escape the turmoil that occurred in the wake of the Revolution of 1868. During her travels through France, Italy, and Austria she wrote her first passages of prose in the form of a travel journal, which she then decided was not worthy of publication: Sobre las mesas de las fondas, sobre mis rodillas en el tren, con plumas comidas de orin y lapices despuntados, tracé mis primeras paginas de prosa; el indispensable Diario de viaie. que no se me ocurrio publicar, ni lo merece. (Pardo Bazan, 1973: 709) And it was during her stay in Paris in 1871 that she obligingly performed her first duties as the "parfait voyageur", which later, in 1906, she summarized as follows: Ces devoirs [. .] consistent à visiter les monuments un par un, ce qui est très ennuyeux et non moins inutile. Je ne l'ai plus refait depuis. Je vais où il me plaît, et je 9 plains sincèrement ceux qui s'obligent à admirer à jour fixe, à heure fixe, telle ou telle vieillerie, alors qu'il y a tant de belles choses qu'aucun guide n'indique. (Gômez Carrillo, 1906: 458) After her return to Spain, Pardo Bazan became acquainted with Francisco Giner de los Rios who introduced her to Krausismo. the German philosophy in vogue at the time amongst many Spanish intellectuals. Although Pardo Bazan never embraced Krausismo. apparently preferring to occupy her time in the reading of "sounder" philosophers, such us Schelling, Fichte, Kant, Hegel, Saint Thomas, Descartes, Plato, and Aristotle (Pardo Bazan, 1973: 711), she did strike a close and long-lasting friendship with Giner, who was to become her mentor and adviser. In an article published in La Ilustracion Artistica of 1 March 1915, Pardo Bazan paid homage to the recently deceased Giner, and noted how he would urge her to enhance her writing career and broaden her horizons through travel and through contact with foreign places so that practice would contribute to increasing her Spanishness, her casticismo: Era Giner partidario de que el escritor se hiciese intime de si mismo; de que penetrase en su santuario y no renegase del manantial en que acostumbraba a beber: pero también de que recorriese el mundo, viajase, recibiese las influencias del aire exterior, y por ellas se hiciese doblemente castizo.