A Stranger in My Own Land

Kirsty Hooper

Description

This is the first in-depth analysis of the works of the Galician-Spanish expatriate writer Sofía Casanova (1861-1958), a transnational poet, novelist, journalist, playwright, campaigner, translator, historian and intellectual, and one of the first Spanish women to support herself as a professional writer. Casanova, born in Galicia in rural northwest Spain, married a Pole and spent over seventy years traveling between Spain and Poland. A challenging writer and thinker who witnessed the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the rise of Franco at first hand, moved in the highest political and intellectual circles on both sides of Europe and blazed a trail as one of Spain's first female foreign correspondents, her remarkable achievements were gradually sidelined at home in increasingly reactionary Spain until, by the time of her death, she was remembered only as a perfectly patriotic wife and mother and icon of Francoist femininity.

This study addresses the scandalous disappearance of Casanova and her female contemporaries from accounts of the emergence of the modern Spanish nation. Arguing that women's perceived silence during this critical period in the formation of modern Iberian identities has significant repercussions even today, it takes her works as a case study for modeling a radical rethinking of the way we teach and research the crucial years around the turn of the twentieth century. The first study of Casanova's radical and compelling, but now forgotten, early narrative, it explores the Galician, Polish and Spanish context of her work, arguing that her transnational career demonstrates the inadequacies of existing models of national literary history. At the same time, recognizing Casanova's innovative and strategic use of literary genres and techniques traditionally denominated as "feminine" (and therefore excluded from discussions of "serious" national literature), it provides a model for re-evaluating the vast cultural store of popular and sentimental literature as a key part of the debates about the transition to modernity, in Spain and beyond.

Sujets

• Women's Studies
• Literary Criticism
• Literature
• Spanish
• Portuguese
• European

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 29 décembre 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826592514
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A STRANGER IN MY OWN LAND

Kirsty Hooper

Sofía Casanova, a Spanish Writer in the European Fin de Siècle

A Stranger in My Own Land

A Stranger in My Own Land

Sofía Casanova, a Spanis Writer

in te European Fin de Siècle

Kirsty Hooper

Vanderbilt University Press Nasville

©  by Vanderbilt University Press Nasville, Tennessee  All rigts reserved

         

his book is printed on acid-free paper made from % post-consumer recycled paper. Manufactured in te United States of America

Publication of tis book as been supported by a generous subsidy from te Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United States Universities.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hooper, Kirsty. A stranger in my own land : Sofía Casanova, a Spanis writer in te European fin de siècle / Kirsty Hooper. p. cm. Includes bibliograpical references and index. ISBN ---- (clot : alk. paper) ISBN ---- (pbk. : alk. paper) . Casanova, Sofía, –—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PQ.AZ  ’.—dc 

In memory of Dr. G. Clive Jones, wo started it all

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Contents

Acknowledgments ix

“Like Atlantis Swallowed Up by te Sea”: he Vanising of Spain’s Early Twentiet-Century Women Writers 

Poland–Russia–Lituania:El doctor Wolski: Páginas de Polonia y Rusia() 

Andalusia–Madrid–Africa:Lo eterno() 

Poland–Madrid–Poland:Más que amor: Cartas() 

Madrid–Galicia:Princesa del amor ermoso() 

Madrid–London–St. Petersburg–Galicia–America: El pecado() andEl crimen de Beira-mar() 

Conclusion 

Appendix I: Complete Bibliograpy of Sofía Casanova’s Publised Works 

Appendix II:Más que amor(): Index of Letters

Notes 

Works Cited 

Index 

Acknowledgments

I tank te many people and organizations tat ave elped me in various ways during te writing of tis book: he Arts and Humanities Researc Board, te Newby Trust, Oxford University (troug te Laboucere and de Osma Funds), te government of Poland, te Xunta de Galicia, Hertford College Oxford (including te Starun Fund), te Queen’s College Oxford (including te Laming Fund), Merton College Oxford, and te University of Liverpool all provided financial and material support. Gerald Stone, my master’s supervisor, introduced me to Polis studies and started me down te long road in searc of Casanova. Jon Ruterford, my doctoral supervisor, not only elped me reac te end of tat road but also introduced me to Gali- cia and Galician studies—I could not ave asked for a more inspiring guide. Caterine Davies and Jacqueline Rattray constructively and encouragingly examined te doctoral tesis on wic tis book is based. For teir love and teir confidence, I tank my usband, Steven Barge, and my parents, An- gela and Keit Hooper, wo listened to, read, and lived wit tis proect for nearly a decade. Friends and colleagues in Oxford, Liverpool, and elsewere wo contributed moral and intellectual support include Nina Taylor-Terlecki, Manolo Puga Moruxa, Núria Martí i Girbau, Nuria Capdevila Argüelles, Lourdes Lorenzo García, Claire Williams, Katy Bacon, and Ana Louis. I am grateful to Ofelia Alayeto, Casanova’s first biograper, for er generosity; to te Vanderbilt University Press reviewers for teir constructive readings of te manuscript; and to Betsy Pillips at Vanderbilt University Press for bring- ing te proect to life.  Sections of Capter  first appeared as “Las Autoras de unas Novelitas? Spanis Women Writers, –,” inMaking Waves Anniversary Volume: Women in Spanis, Portuguese and Latin American Studies,by Ann edited Davies,ParKumaraswami,andClaireWilliams([Newcastle:Cambridge

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