DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE: ISABEL ALLENDE’S POPULARITY FROM A READERSHIP PERSPECTIVE MARÍA COVADONGA FANJUL FANJUL A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Nottingham Trent University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2010 This work is the intellectual property of the author, and may also be owned by Nottingham Trent University. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the first instance to the author. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS When one lives with a thesis for eight years, the list of people who have offered encouragement, support and assistance is endless. To every single one of them I feel indebted for their interest and contribution to this thesis. The successful completion of this project would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of my supervisory team. I wish to express my most sincere gratitude to Dr. Mercedes Carbayo-Abéngozar, Professor Richard Johnson and Dr. Adrian Pierce for their unlimited patience, assistance and expertise during the course of this thesis. I am also grateful to the readers, whose passion and love for reading brought this project to life and to the ‘accomplices’ who helped me willingly contacting and arranging the reading group meetings. A word of thanks to my friends and colleagues in Modern Languages at Nottingham Trent University for their constant encouragement and support throughout this research journey. Last, but most definitely not least, I thank George for his unending patience and love, and to my parents for having shown an interest in my studies as long as I can remember. iii ABSTRACT The primary aim of this thesis is to explore and critically interrogate Isabel Allende’s popularity cross-culturally in Britain and Spain. It analyses readers’ responses to Allende’s works as well as the discourses surrounding her public representation, an approach that is ‘readerly’ but must also take account of production and text. This approach is intended to further the understanding of Allende’s work which so far has always been analysed from a textual perspective. However, the relationship between Allende’s popularity, her texts, public representation and readers has not been yet analysed in detail. This thesis is innovative in other ways too. Methodologically, it approaches readers through the under studied cultural form of the reading group. It also incorporates a comparative dimension by looking at the reception of Allende in two different cultural contexts: the British and Spanish respectively. Finding out about Allende’s popularity has involved asking readers about their reading experiences as well as analysing the production of discourses around her public representation. Paul Ricoeur’s (1984, 1988) perspective on authorial intentions and readers’ responses to texts helps in understanding the intricacies surrounding what is involved in reading any text. It draws attention to Allende’s and her publishers’ authorial strategies, her ‘strategies of persuasion’ and the specificity of the lives and contexts of British and Spanish reading publics. Equally, this ‘readerly’ approach draws on feminist audience research and primarily on the work of Ien Ang and Janice Radway. Their work with viewers iv and readers respectively is particularly useful in establishing and developing methodological parameters for the study of reading groups. As a whole, this thesis contributes to the understanding of Allende’s cross-cultural popularity by situating readers at the centre. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................1 ORIGINALITY ...............................................................................................................................8 CHAPTER RATIONALE ...............................................................................................................10 CHAPTER ONE WHY IS ISABEL ALLENDE SO “POPULAR”? THEORETICAL ELABORATIONS ON THE RESEARCH QUESTION .........................................................15 INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................15 EXPLORING THE TERM “P OPULAR ”...........................................................................................16 WHAT IS INVOLVED IN READING ?.............................................................................................22 FROM THEORY TO RESEARCH : FROM ENCODING /D ECODING TO THE ‘NATIONWIDE ’ AUDIENCE ..................................................................................................................................................28 A) IEN ANG : WATCHING ‘D ALLAS ’: SOAP OPERA AND THE MELODRAMATIC IMAGINATION ...........30 B) JANICE RADWAY : READING THE ROMANCE ............................................................................31 CULTURAL CONSUMPTION IN CONTEXT (S): AUDIENCES AND THEIR EVERYDAY LIVES ............34 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................37 CHAPTER TWO RESEARCHING READERS: FROM READING TO NEGOTIATING NEW IDENTITIES.....................................................................................................................38 INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................38 LOCATING THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGICALLY .....................................................................39 ALLENDE ’S READERS , WHERE ARE YOU ? ................................................................................40 READING GROUPS AND THEIR METHODOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS ............................................47 a) Choosing Reading Groups as Method.............................................................................47 b) Choosing which Allende Book to Read............................................................................49 c) Overcoming Initial Methodological Dilemmas: The Work of Ang, Radway and Stacey.53 d) Reading Groups and Me..................................................................................................55 THE USE OF QUESTIONNAIRES AS METHOD ..............................................................................60 BRITISH AND SPANISH READING GROUPS ’ SPECIFICITY BASED ON RESPONSES GIVEN BY THE GROUP QUESTIONNAIRES ..........................................................................................................62 KEEPING A RECORD OF READING GROUPS ’ DISCUSSIONS .........................................................77 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................80 CHAPTER THREE ISABEL ALLENDE’S POPULARITY FROM AN ‘EXTRA- LITERARY’ PERSPECTIVE ...................................................................................................82 INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................82 CONSTRUCTING ALLENDE ’S PUBLIC DISCOURSES THROUGH THE BRITISH AND SPANISH PRESS ..................................................................................................................................................83 a) Allende’s Commercialised Production............................................................................83 b) Early Socio-historical Factors Contributing to Allende’s Transnational Success..........85 c) Isabel Allende: The Woman Novelist...............................................................................88 d) Isabel Allende: The Political Activist ..............................................................................97 e) Isabel Allende: An Ambiguous Relationship with the Canon and the Academy............103 CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................110 CHAPTER FOUR BRITISH AND SPANISH READERS’ RESPONSES TO ISABEL ALLENDE’S FICTIONAL CHARACTERS..........................................................................111 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................111 THE EXTRA -ORDINARY VERSUS THE ORDINARY ....................................................................112 TOO MANY CHARACTERS : A HINDRANCE TO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT ............................117 READERS ’ INVOLVEMENT WITH ALLENDE ’S CHARACTERS .....................................................121 CENTRAL FEMALE CHARACTERIZATION VERSUS PERIPHERAL MALE CHARACTERIZATION ....127 vi CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................137 CHAPTER FIVE THREE CASE STUDIES: SPANISH AND BRITISH READERS’ RESPONSES TO ESTEBAN TRUEBA, CLARA DEL VALLE AND ELIZA SOMMERS .....................................................................................................................................................140 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................140