A Transatlantic Study of the Vampire As an Expression of Ideological, Political, and Economic Tensions in Late 19Th and Early 20Th Century Hispanic Short Fiction

BLOOD DISORDERS: A TRANSATLANTIC STUDY OF THE VAMPIRE AS AN EXPRESSION OF IDEOLOGICAL, POLITICAL, AND ECONOMIC TENSIONS IN LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY HISPANIC SHORT FICTION A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Megan L. DeVirgilis December 2018 Examining Committee Members: Hiram Aldarondo, Advisory Chair, Department of Spanish and Portuguese José Manuel Pereiro-Otero, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Víctor Pueyo-Zoco, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Ángel Esteban del Campo, External Member, Department of Spanish Philology, University of Granada, Spain © Copyright 2018 by Megan DeVirgilis All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT This dissertation explores vampire logic in Hispanic short fiction of the last decade of the 19th century and first three decades of the 20th century, and is thus a comparative study; not simply between Spanish and Latin American literary production, but also between Hispanic and European literary traditions. As such, this study not only draws attention to how Hispanic authors employed traditional Gothic conventions—and by extension, how Hispanic nations produced “modern” literature—but also to how these authors adapted previous models and therefore deviated from and questioned the European Gothic tradition, and accordingly, established trends and traditions of their own. This study does not pretend to be exhaustive. Even though I mention poetry, plays, and novels from the first appearance of the literary vampire in the mid-18th century through the fin de siglo and the first few decades of the 20th century, I focus on short fiction produced within and shortly thereafter the fin de siglo, as this time period saw a resurgence of the vampire figure on a global scale and the first legitimate appearance in Hispanic letters, being as it coincided with a rise in periodicals and short story production and represented developments and anxieties related to the physical and behavioral sciences, technological advances and urban development, waves of immigration and disease, and war. While Chapter 1 establishes a working theory of the vampire from a historical and materialist perspective, each of the following chapters explores a different trend in Hispanic vampire literature: Chapter 2 looks at how vampire narratives represent political and economic anxieties particular to Spain and Latin America; Chapter 3 studies newly married couples and how vampire logic leads to the death of the wife—and thus iii the death of the “angel of the house” ideal—therefore challenging ideas surrounding marriage, the family, and the home; lastly, Chapter 4 explores courting couples and how disruptions in the makeup of the public/private divide influenced images of female monstrosity—complex, parodic ones in the Hispanic case. One of the main conclusions this study reaches is that Hispanic authors were indeed producing Gothic images, but that these images deviated from the European Gothic vampire literary tradition and prevailing literary tendencies of the time through aesthetic and narrative experimentation and as a result of particular anxieties related to their histories, developments, and current realities. While Latin America and Spain produced few explicit, Dracula-like vampires, the vampire figures, metaphors, and allegories discussed in the chapters speak to Spain and Latin America’s political, economic, and ideological uncertainties, and as a result, their “place” within the modern global landscape. This dissertation ultimately suggests that Hispanic Gothic representations are unique because they were being produced within peripheral spaces, places considered “non-modern” because of their distinct histories of exploitation and development and their distinct cultural, religious, and racial compositions, therefore shifting perceptions of Otherness and turning the Gothic on its head. The vampire in the Hispanic context, I suggest, is a fusion of different literary currents, such as Romanticism, aesthetic movements, such as Decadence, and modes, such as the Gothic and the Fantastic, and is therefore different in many ways from its predecessors. These texts abound with complex representations that challenge the status quo, question dominant narratives, parody literary formulas, and break with tradition. iv In loving memory of my brave and beautiful grandmother, Bertha Riera Luaces, who never doubted me, and who gave me many wonderful gifts, two of the most significant being her memories and her language. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many important people I would like to acknowledge and thank for their support while writing this dissertation. Firstly, my dissertation advisor, Dr. Hiram Aldarondo, whose classes on Latin American literature are the reason I even began to consider a graduate degree, and whose continued support of me in all things academia and beyond has been nothing short of a blessing. Secondly, I am deeply grateful to my committee members, Dr. Víctor Pueyo-Zoco and Dr. José Manuel Periero-Otero, for their suggestions and contributions to the corpus and bibliography, for always lending an ear and answering my questions, and for reassuring me when I needed it. I would also like to thank Dr. Ángel Esteban del Campo for taking the time to serve on my committee. I am also deeply grateful for the financial support I have received outside my department. Firstly, to the College of Liberal Arts for granting me a 2016-2017 Advanced Scholar Award, which, as a mother who struggled to find time to write outside of teaching responsibilities, allowed me to focus exclusively on my dissertation and complete the majority of this project. Secondly, Temple University’s Writing Center for funding many of my writing retreats, which proved extremely beneficial as I neared the end. I would like to personally thank Lorraine Savage, Associate Director of the Student Success Center, for her visceral and heartfelt encouragement, and Dr. Leslie Allison, former Assistant Director of the Writing Center, for listening when I expressed concerns over one of my chapters, and suggesting theory that ultimately helped me strengthen my argument and avoid a nervous breakdown. I would also like to thank my graduate colleagues in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese for both challenging me and encouraging me along this journey. To my vi cohort, Erica O’Brien, Manuel Malia, Angel Díaz-Dávalos, Gabriela Díaz-Dávalos, Dr. Kathleen Cunniffe and Dr. John Cunnicelli, thank you for the note and information sharing, study sessions, editing, class debates, and friendship. Also, to Raquel Mattson- Prieto and Brendan Spinelli for being my unofficial dissertation partners, and to Dr. Moira Álvarez and Dr. Theresa Warner, who have long since moved on from Temple, but whose friendship and support continue to mean so much to me. Lastly, I would like to thank my family. In particular, my mother, Bertha Luaces Weldon, for her support and for always putting my education first. Also, my husband, J. DeVirgilis. I am beyond grateful to have had him as a partner during this process, for his sacrifices and his encouragement, for his patience and reasoning, his cooking, and his ability to seamlessly step into more parental responsibility when my writing oftentimes kept me away. And lastly, my daughter, Lola Rose, who is in everything I do, and who has made even the most challenging days of this process magical. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION .........................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................... vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ...................................................................................x PROLOGUE .......................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .....................................................................1 The Enlightenment and its Dark Side ..........................................................1 The Gothic ...................................................................................................8 The Vampire ..............................................................................................25 2. BLOOD MONEY: VAMPIRE LOGIC AS AN EXPRESSION OF ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION AND POLITICAL ANXIETY ....................45 Introduction ................................................................................................45 “La exangüe,” Emilia Pardo Bazán ...........................................................58 “El vampiro,” Horacio Quiroga .................................................................77 Conclusions ................................................................................................97 3. BLOOD STAINS ON THE LINENS: THE VAMPIRE AS AN EXPRESSION OF THE VULNERABILITY OF THE PRIVATE SPHERE .........................................................................................................100 Introduction ..............................................................................................100 “Vampiro,” Emilia Pardo Bazán ..............................................................103 “La granja blanca,” Clemente Palma .......................................................125 viii “El almohadón de

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