Back from Oblivion: Society and Literature in Ventura Ruiz Aguilera's
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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2017 Back from Oblivion: Society and Literature in Ventura Ruiz Aguilera’s Ecos nacionales and Proverbios ejemplares Bruce Milton Cole University of Tennessee, Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Spanish Literature Commons Recommended Citation Cole, Bruce Milton, "Back from Oblivion: Society and Literature in Ventura Ruiz Aguilera’s Ecos nacionales and Proverbios ejemplares. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2017. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/4615 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Bruce Milton Cole entitled "Back from Oblivion: Society and Literature in Ventura Ruiz Aguilera’s Ecos nacionales and Proverbios ejemplares." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Modern Foreign Languages. Álvaro Ayo, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Nuria Cruz-Cámara, Oscar Rivera Rodas, Nancy E. Henry Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Back from Oblivion: Society and Literature in Ventura Ruiz Aguilera’s Ecos nacionales and Proverbios ejemplares A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Bruce Milton Cole II August 2017 DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my parents Theresia Annette Cole Jones and Bruce Milton Cole Sr. Without their unwavering support, I would not have had the will to take on such an arduous task, let alone complete it. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my dissertation director, Dr. Álvaro Ayo, whose guidance and knowledge throughout this investigation has been invaluable. Thank you for setting me on the path to success. Your influence on my academic and personal development goes far beyond this dissertation, and I am truly unworthy. I express tremendous gratitude to the committee members, Dr. Cruz-Cámara, Dr. Rivera Rodas, Dr. Nancy Henry, and Dr. Nuria Novella for their time and dedication in the improvement of my work. I would like to give special thanks to Dr. Rivera Rodas for both his inspiration and contribution in the shaping of my vision and passion for literature. If I grow to be even half the scholar that he is, it will be because of the many classes that I sat in just to hear his lectures. Few professors have acted as a mentor in the way Dr. Cruz- Cámara has, and to you, I am also grateful. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge professor emerita of Spanish Dr. Judith Rusciolelli and Dr. Nuria Novella from Middle Tennessee State University, not only for allowing me to see and carry out my potential, but also for being true role models. iii ABSTRACT Ventura Ruiz Aguilera (1820-1881) enjoyed great popularity and influence throughout the mid- 19th century in Spain. He was most famous for his book of poems Ecos nacionales (1849), which was inspired by the people. Although he continued to attract attention amongst literary critics, shortly after his death Aguilera’s popularity declined. This investigation explores the representation of society in both Aguilera’s Ecos nacionales and his prose collection Proverbios ejemplares (1864). By reexamining these two texts, I reveal how Aguilera’s works partake in discussions of both literary and social issues with an emphasis on progress and modernity. When Aguilera published Ecos nacionales, he found inspiration in traditional forms, particularly the romance, and infuses in it elements of the European ballad to create a contemporary and innovative venue for the representation of Spanish issues. I show that Ecos communicates and seeks change by airing social ills in the voice of the Spanish masses. The inclusion of the masses aims to democratize Spanish poetry by giving a presence to marginalized groups who did not have a role in the representation of the nation at the time of the publication of Ecos. This investigation also explores Aguilera’s representation of the middle class in Proverbios ejemplares as well as this work’s contribution to the development of Spain’s modern novel. Aguilera is one of the first Spanish authors to integrate in prose fiction representation of middle- class life and values, which would come to be the focus point of the Realist novel. I show how this depiction of the middle class displays the problematic relation between modernity and tradition in Spanish society. I discover that Aguilera, writing against an imposition of modernity from outside, aims to give modernity in Spain a Spanish face from within. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 1. FROM SUCCESS TO OBLIVION: LIFE & WORKS OF AGUILERA .................................. 6 1.1 LIFE & LITERARY BEGINNINGS OF THE “SPANISH BERANGER” .............................................. 7 2. CRITICAL RECEPTION OF AGUILERA ............................................................................. 25 2.1 A JURY OF HIS PEERS: CRITICISM ON AGUILERA (UNTIL 1881) ............................................ 26 2.2 REVIEWS CONDUCTED BY LITERARY CRITICS ...................................................................... 29 2.3 CRITICISM BEYOND AGUILERA’S DEATH (1881-1980) ........................................................ 33 2.4 AGUILERA: A CENTURY AFTER HIS DEATH ......................................................................... 50 3. SOCIETY IN ECOS NACIONALES (1849) ............................................................................. 55 3.1 EARLY CRITICISM AND LO POPULAR ..................................................................................... 56 3.2 THE SOCIAL, HISTORICAL, AND INTELLECTUAL CONTEXTS OF ECOS NACIONALES ................ 61 3.3 THE INFLUENCE OF THE BALLAD AND THE ROMANCE ........................................................... 76 3.4 POPULAR ECHOES ................................................................................................................. 83 4. THE WORKINGS OF ORAL TRADITION: PROVERBIOS EJEMPLARES (1864) ........... 127 4.1 LITERARY CLIMATE SURROUNDING PROVERBIOS ............................................................... 128 4.2 SEEKING LO ESPAÑOL IN PROVERBIOS .................................................................................. 140 4.3 COSTUMBRISMO AND CUENTO IN PROVERBIOS ..................................................................... 155 4.3.1 Defining cuento and novela corta .............................................................................. 158 4.3.2 Defining costumbrismo ............................................................................................... 164 4.4 PROVERBIOS AND COSTUMBRISMO ....................................................................................... 167 CONCLUSIONS & RESEARCH AGENDA ............................................................................. 192 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 198 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................ 211 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................. 212 APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................................. 213 APPENDIX C ............................................................................................................................. 214 VITA ........................................................................................................................................... 215 v Introduction Ventura Ruiz Aguilera (1820-1881) “I hoped to be a singer of the present without, however, turning my eyes from the horizon, to see if there loomed even a beam that would let me sense what the times would bring with them.” “Yo pretendí ser cantor del presente, sin apartar, empero, los ojos del horizonte, por ver si vislumbraba en él un rayo siquiera que me hiciese presentir lo que los tiempos habrían de traer consigo” (Ecos nacionales 157). 1 “Incomplete would be the literature of a people, in a given epoch, if it did not respond to the dominant spirit, if it did not portray (although fleeing from servile imitation) the different stages that characterize it and give it its own physiognomy” (Ruiz Aguilera, Inspiraciones 1865).1 With these words of Ventura Ruiz Aguilera (1820-1881) in mind, this dissertation seeks to shed light on his literary work, which has not received proper attention. Several reasons point to the limited study of this author’s oeuvre. The first reason is that Aguilera wrote during a period of Spanish literary