Beyond the Material Energy, Work and Movement in the Cultural Imagination of Restoration Spain
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Beyond the Material Energy, Work and Movement in the Cultural Imagination of Restoration Spain Óscar Iván Useche Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Art and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 © 2014 Óscar Iván Useche All rights reserved ABSTRACT Beyond the Material: Energy, Work and Movement in the Cultural Imagination of Restoration Spain Óscar Iván Useche This dissertation examines how authors textually and semiotically appropriated the dynamics of industrialization to propose new interpretations of society. Through the analysis of the rhetorical use of three images central to industrial progress: energy, work, and movement, the study focuses in particular on the symbolic and material impact of the railroad and mining boom at the turn from nineteenth to twentieth century in Spain. Symbolically, the two phenomena contributed to the reformulation of social, political, and religious tensions. Materially, they generated new forms of perception by redefining notions of time and space. I suggest that these transformations produced a paradigm shift in the conceptualization of national identity by complicating the conditions of possibility through which authors attempted to reconcile past and present in the conflict-riddled ideological transition between the remnants of the Ancien Régime and the modern State. By reformulating the idea of national modernization as an uneven or incomplete process, this research demonstrates that the concepts of nation and identity are dynamic paradigms whose continual adjustments end up being resolved in the sphere of discourse. Chapter 1, “New Conceptual Metaphors: Tradition and Progress as Part of Industrial Symbolization,” provides a set of critical and theoretical tools through which to understand how the transformations of industrialization were symbolized in textual production. I examine how writers, intellectuals, and politicians used different mechanisms of metaphorization as related to the ideological framework within which they debated the future of the country. I suggest that cultural change produced by modernization was often represented in discourse through a rhetoric built on the images of energy, work, and movement I will call the social foundry. This analytic provides the elements to understand the complex dialogue between material development and cultural production that takes place during this period in the peninsula. Taking into account that through out the Restoration the most prominent figures of the Spanish intelligentsia held multifaceted roles as politicians, journalist, writers, and even scientists, in Chapter 2, “Scientific Thought: Energetics as Social Rhetoric in José Echegaray and Lucas Mallada,” I explore both authors’ work as platforms for the diagnosis of the difficulties in the country’s modernization process, and as spaces for the formulation of possible solutions to the perceived maladies of Spain. This chapter approaches the symbolic utilization of a particular rhetoric of energy in several of the most prominent speeches and essays of these two prolific authors to show how their social foundry produced specific ideas about social integration and cooperative interaction in the country. In Chapter 3, “Iron Fever: The Labors of Identity in the Context of the Mining Industry and the Railroad,” I examine different literary approaches to industry and its social mechanism, in order to show an ideological evolution in the processes of codification and interpretation of society as a big and complex machine. Assuming the physical and symbolic dimensions of material modernization as a powerful device for the production of meaning, I study how new dynamics of labor in industry and the railroad not only complicates the tension between rural and urban spaces, but also poses new questions about the relationship between past and present. Exploring the specific interpretations writers give to social change in the context of modernization, I analyze their ideas about nation and national identity. This section focuses on works by José Ortega Munilla, Benito Pérez Galdós, Armando Palacio Valdés y Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. Finally, in Chapter 4, “The Dynamics of Train Traveling: Railroad and Nation in Movement,” I study the symbolic and material effects of the railroad operation on the perceptions of time and space. The alteration of the senses derived from speed and movement produces a new understanding of the tensions between past and present, rural and urban spaces, and, ultimately, tradition and progress. By approaching train traveling as a symbolic appropriation of national identity in these terms, I do a close reading of different fiction and nonfiction written accounts of railroad experiences, paying special attention to the specific reflections on modernization and society these displacements produced. Following the texts’ incorporation of symbolic references related to industrial development to explain society, I cover the work of authors as Benito Pérez Galdós, Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, and Emilia Pardo Bazán. By discursively appropriating the industrial phenomenon, different writers of the period offered new visions of the nation. Considering these complexities, this dissertation advances the foundations of a new critical approach that will allow cultural critics to better interpret the ambiguities and contradictions of a decisive period of political, social, and economic consolidation that was crucial to the creation of cultural imaginaries that have persisted into the structures of contemporary Spain. TABLA DE CONTENIDOS AGRADECIMIENTOS III DEDICATORIA IV INTRODUCCIÓN 1 CAPÍTULO 1 27 NUEVAS METÁFORAS CONCEPTUALES: RETOS DE SIMBOLIZACIÓN DE LA TRADICIÓN Y EL PROGRESO EN EL MARCO DE LA INDUSTRIALIZACIÓN PARTE 1: EL CAMPO MATERIAL: CONVERGENCIA DE LA INDUSTRIALIZACIÓN Y LOS MECANISMOS DE REPRESENTACIÓN 36 PARTE 2: AVANCE CIENTÍFICO, DESARROLLO INDUSTRIAL Y CULTURA: LA TERMODINÁMICA COMO METÁFORA LITERARIA Y NACIONAL EN LA SOCIEDAD DE FIN DE SIGLO EN ESPAÑA 47 PARTE 3: LA INDUSTRIALIZACIÓN Y EL ASALTO A LOS SENTIDOS: CAMBIOS EN LA PERCEPCIÓN DE LA REALIDAD Y PRODUCCIÓN DISCURSIVA 70 CAPÍTULO 2 91 PENSAMIENTO CIENTÍFICO: LA ENERGÉTICA COMO RETÓRICA SOCIAL EN JOSÉ ECHEGARAY Y LUCAS MALLADA PARTE 1: JOSÉ ECHEGARAY: RIGOR CIENTÍFICO, TRABAJO Y ENERGÍA EN LA DEFINICIÓN DE LA IDENTIDAD 105 PARTE 2: LUCAS MALLADA: HACIA UN ESTUDIO GEOLÓGICO DEL POTENCIAL NACIONAL 126 CAPÍTULO 3 145 FIEBRE DE HIERRO: LAS LABORES DE LA IDENTIDAD EN EL CONTEXTO DE LA MINERÍA Y EL FERROCARRIL PARTE 1: BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS: CEGUERA, REALIDAD Y REPRESENTACIÓN EN MARIANELA 152 PARTE 2: JOSÉ ORTEGA MUNILLA: INFELICIDAD Y MUERTE EN LAS RUTAS DEL PROGRESO, UNA LECTURA DE EL TREN DIRECTO 167 PARTE 3: ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS: EVOLUCIÓN DEL IMAGINARIO MINERO EN LA ALDEA PERDIDA 186 PARTE 4: VICENTE BLASCO IBÁÑEZ: METÁFORAS DEL ANTICLERICALISMO Y LA CUESTIÓN SOCIAL EN EL INTRUSO 204 i CAPÍTULO 4 223 DINÁMICAS DE VIAJE: EL TREN Y LA NACIÓN EN MOVIMIENTO PARTE 1: LA IDENTIDAD NACIONAL EN MOVIMIENTO 227 PARTE 2: BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS: ENCUENTROS CON LA REALIDAD TECNOLÓGICA EN ROSALÍA 239 PARTE 3: PEDRO ANTONIO DE ALARCÓN: REDESCUBRIENDO LA NACIÓN A TRAVÉS DEL VIAJE 255 PARTE 4: EMILIA PARDO BAZÁN: LAS REALIDADES DE UNA ESPAÑA IMAGINADA 269 CONCLUSIÓN 282 OBRAS CONSULTADAS 293 APÉNDICES RESUMEN 320 INTRODUCTION 323 CONCLUSION 348 ii Agradecimientos Este trabajo no habría sido posible sin el apoyo incondicional de mi mentora, colega y amiga Wadda Ríos-Font, quien desde una etapa muy temprana del proyecto incentivó la investigación permitiéndome ver los posibles caminos a seguir en su desarrollo. Su generoso aporte como directora de esta disertación, su lectura minuciosa de múltiples versiones del manuscrito y sus innumerables recomendaciones fueron fundamentales y determinantes para obtener los resultados que aquí se presentan. Debo agradecer igualmente a los profesores Alberto Medina, Jo Labanyi, Carlos Alonso y Ronald Briggs por haber aceptado ser parte del comité que evaluó esta disertación. Sus comentarios a versiones previas del trabajo y su colaboración en los diferentes tribunales en los que se leyó parte o la totalidad del proyecto fueron una guía esencial en la consolidación de las ideas que lo conforman. Quiero mencionar aquí también a algunos de mis compañeros en el programa doctoral de Columbia por su continuo e incondicional apoyo: a Ana Méndez, Olga Rodríguez, Pedro Valero y Noel Blanco, mis más sinceros agradecimientos. Por último, quiero agradecer a mi familia por haber creído posible el sueño de darle un giro completo a mi vida cuando ya parecía tarde, y a Allison, mi compañera, por su delicada energía y soporte durante los momentos más decisivos de todo este proceso. A todos ellos, y a quienes no he mencionado por un descuido inexcusable, gracias. iii Dedicatoria To Allison for her support and encouragement beyond the imaginable iv Introducción En un corto pero simbólico acto, el 18 de diciembre de 2010 Su Majestad el Rey Juan Carlos I de España inauguró la línea de trenes de alta velocidad entre las ciudades de Madrid y Valencia. Colofón de un trabajo continuado de expansión y mejora de las redes ferroviarias en la península, la puesta en operación de este servicio demostraba una vez más el interés del Estado en mantener los vínculos económicos y culturales de la nación. De ahí que muchas de las reflexiones que hicieron parte del discurso con el que el monarca oficializó la finalización de las obras resaltaran precisamente