Marginal Subjects
Gender and Deviance in Fin-de-siècle Spain
Format:Hardback
Publisher:University of Toronto Press
Published:30th Apr '11
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
'Featuring impeccable writing and analysis, Marginal Subjects is an impressive examination of gender deviance in nineteenth-century Spanish literature. Akiko Tsuchiya, who shows an expert knowledge of the topic, develops and contextualizes her arguments carefully and commendably. An excellent example of how close readings of literary texts can be combined with cultural analysis, Marginal Subjects is a major contribution to research in the field of nineteenth-century European literature and Gender studies.' -- L. Elena Delgado, University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)
In Marginal Subjects, Akiko Tsuchiya shows how the figure of the deviant woman—and her counterpart, the feminized man - revealed the ambivalence of literary writers towards new methods of social control in Restoration Spain.
Late nineteenth-century Spanish fiction is populated by adulteresses, prostitutes, seduced women, and emasculated men - indicating an almost obsessive interest in gender deviance. In Marginal Subjects, Akiko Tsuchiya shows how the figure of the deviant woman—and her counterpart, the feminized man - revealed the ambivalence of literary writers towards new methods of social control in Restoration Spain.
Focusing on works by major realist authors such as Benito Pérez Galdós, Emilia Pardo Bazán, and Leopoldo Alas (Clarín), as well as popular novelists like Eduardo López Bago, Marginal Subjects argues that these archetypes were used to channel collective anxieties about sexuality, class, race, and nation. Tsuchiya also draws on medical and anthropological texts and illustrated periodicals to locate literary works within larger cultural debates. Marginal Subjects is a riveting exploration of why realist and naturalist narratives were so invested in representing gender deviance in fin-de-siècle Spain.
‘Impeccably researched and illuminating study of representations of gender deviance in late nineteenth-century Spanish literature and culture… Marginal Subjects is an outstanding piece of scholarship and required reading for specialists in nineteenth-century Peninsular literature and culture, particularly those concerned with questions of gender.’ -- Jennifer Smith * Anales Galdosianos; vol 47:2012 *
‘Tsuchiya’s excellent study makes a thorough use of primary sources relating to nineteenth-century prostitution, hygiene, and other issues that impacted social perceptions of gender deviancy in nineteenth-century European society.’ -- Lou Charnon-Deutsch * Hispanic Review: winter 2012 *
‘The book also stands out for the thoroughness of the 'close readings' that brilliantly combine literary and cultural analysis, all of which is rendered in a prose that is both precise and elegant ... The author's reading always enriches the myriads of interpretation that are possible for each text.’ -- Toni Dorca, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 36.3 (2012)
‘Marginal Subjects constitutes an essential contribution to studies on Spanish modernity and is indispensable to specialists in Peninsular culture, gender studies and the nineteenth-century novel….Rare are books that offer academic and theoretical rigor, at the same time as the pleasure of a provocative reading which the reader faces under Akiko Tsuchiya's pen.’
-- Vialette, Aurélie * Revista de Literatura (Madrid). Vol. 75: 149: 2013 *‘Tsuchiya’s style of writing is lucid, devoid of jargon, and negotiates the complicated steps from text to context with precision and finesse…This book will be indispensable to teaching and to research on the literature and culture of late nineteenth century Spain.’
-- Harriet S. Turner * Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies Volume 16, 2012 *ISBN: 9781442642942
Dimensions: 238mm x 161mm x 24mm
Weight: 580g
256 pages