The Development of Realism and Naturalism in Emilia Pardo Bazan: A Study of the First Six Novels (Spain, Galicia)

320 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1984.This study, working within the framework of traditional literary analysis, examines specific aspects of Emilia Pardo Bazan's first six novels to provide a greater understanding of each of the individual works and of the complexities and development of her novelistic production from 1879 to 1887, with special emphasis on the meaningful development of the realistic and naturalistic tendencies of these works. In Chapter One, as groundwork for the task, the literary movements involved are looked at in some detail--their socio-economic, political, and philosophical origins; their thematic and formal characteristics; and their manifestations in Europe, the United States, and Russia. The second chapter is an inquiry into Pardo Bazan's own critical concept of realism and naturalism based on La cuestion palpitante (1883) and the "Coletilla a La cuestion palpitante" (1884, publ. 1892).The novels themselves are studied as follows: Chapter Three, The Early Novels (Pascual Lopez: Autobiograf(')ia de un estudiante de medicina {1879} and Un viaje de novios {1881}); Chapter Four, La Tribuna (1882); Chapter Five, El Cisne de Vilamorta (1884); and Chapter Six, The Ulloa Novels (Los pazos de Ulloa {1886} and La madre Naturaleza {1887}). In each work the narrative method and literary-stylistic techniques are treated, as well as the content and characterization. The latter discloses Pardo Bazan's eclectic approach to literature and, in particular, the roles she attributed to heredity and the environment in character formation. Also of interest is her social-moral criticism. Significant critical reaction is brought to bear where pertinent.A few realistic aspects are present in the author's first novel; naturalistic elements--the emphasis on environmental influences, violence, and distasteful descriptions--are added in her second work. Her tendency towards realism and naturalism is manifested even more clearly in La Tribuna, in which there is abundant use of the documentary technique of direct observation, detailed accuracy of unpleasant descriptions, and an extremely vivid audio portrayal of childbirth. Yet, the fullest expression of her unique mixture of realism and naturalism--one which is compatible with her Catholic faith because it refuses to fully accept determinism--is delayed until the Ulloa novels, generally considered her best.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD