“El medio es el mensaje”: De la comunicación a la literatura epistolar en el siglo XIX

This study focuses on the Spanish literature of the second half of the nineteenth century in order to contribute to a greater understanding of epistolary fiction and epistolary discourse. Contrary to the common belief which has routinely maintained that the epistolary genre declined on the 19th century, this study will prove that letter writing was very much employed by such canonical authors as Emilia Pardo Bazán, Juan Valera, and Benito Pérez Galdós, writers regarded as the best of the period. This will be revealed by an examination of real and fictional letters both as single units and as interpolated letters within the novel, as well as epistolary novels, ultimately disclosing a fascinating intertextuality between personal correspondence and fictional letter exchanges. Furthermore, a reading of letters by Pardo Bazán on controversial issues as well as a diverse sample of epistolary fictions, including Pepita Jiménez by Valera, La incógnita, Tristana, and La estafeta romántica by Galdós, will demonstrate a transformation and a renewed interest in the genre, which anticipates 20th century modern narrative developments. The study of both fictional and actual letters written by these authors suggest a constant combination between reality and fiction, a mix between the personal and the fictive, and between personal correspondence and fictional letters. Pardo Bazán used the epistolary genre in an essay form in order to address pressing issues and to discuss the condition of women in a male dominated world. Addressing both the epistolary medium and its messages, and by drawing on both communication and literary theory, as well as on the history of the epistolary genre, this research goes beyond the specifics of Spanish 19 th century literature contributing more broadly to the study of letter writing and fiction, and to an understanding of the metaphors and paradoxes of epistolary discourse