Abstract

Emilia Pardo Bazán, a Feminist Writer in Nineteen-Century Spain

Emilia Pardo Bazán, one of the most remarkable Spanish intellectuals of the nineteenth century, was born in 1851 in the Atlantic seaport of La Coruña, Spain. She was the only child of wealthy aristocratic parents, who provided their precocious offspring with a splendid education. In her almost 600 short stories and 18 novels she experimented with different narrative strategies and approaches to literature. The purpose of this research project is to analyze a selection of Pardo Bazán’s short stories with a feminist lens. Pardo Bazán considered herself a “radical feminist” at a time in Spain when women were limited to their roles as mothers and wives. The lack of education for women deepened this limitation. Pardo Bazán used her novels and short stories to incite a feminist conscience in the Spanish public. She believed that “all the rights that men possess, women should possess them as well”. Her representations of the situation of Spanish women in the nineteenth century in stories such as “El encaje roto,” “Champagne,” “Feminista,” and “La boda” provoked scandal and criticism among the literary circles, and it also affected her personal life. Her husband separated from her because her literary reputation scandalized him. Emilia Pardo Bazán was a woman ahead of her time, and her feminist ideas highlight the struggles and gender limitations of Spanish women in the nineteenth century.