Wan Sonya Tang – författare

Specters, Monsters, and the Damned examines a rich selection of Spanish fantastic literature to illustrate how the language of the supernatural expresses the fears of complex societies beset by dizzying change and perceived decline. Throughout the nineteenth century, amid governmental upheavals and imperial losses, Spain’s dominant political, legal, and scientific voices constructed the prototypical citizen as male, middle‑class, and “ethnically pure.” The role of realist novels by canonical authors like Benito PÉrez GaldÓs, Emilia Pardo BazÁn, and Leopoldo Alas in forging this Spanish identity has been meticulously examined over the last half century, to the exclusion of many other genres. This book complements existing scholarship by demonstrating how a neglected corpus of late nineteenth‑ and turn‑of‑the‑century fantastic short fictions, many by the same canonical authors, engages with processes of national identity formation in unexpected and ambiguous ways.Tang offers innovative readings of eleven fantastic short stories and one novella as they first appeared, some serialized and others illustrated, in Spanish periodicals from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Drawing on original archival research, she demonstrates how these stories—in which the everyday is suddenly and inexplicably disrupted by the supernatural—often employ gothic imagery (specifically that of the specter, the monster, and the curse) to depict as threatening those who deviate from cultural norms in terms of class, gender, and race. Tang argues, however, that these unsettling, open‑ended narratives likewise allow readers to question how and why certain designated groups are privileged by society. She contends that the fantastic depiction of reality as unstable in these works ultimately facilitates an interrogation of those values that are accepted as natural by the reigning social order, gesturing toward the inhumanity not of the marginalized, but of the dominant group.

Specters, Monsters, and the Damned examines a rich selection of Spanish fantastic literature to illustrate how the language of the supernatural expresses the fears of complex societies beset by dizzying change and perceived decline. Throughout the nineteenth century, amid governmental upheavals and imperial losses, Spain’s dominant political, legal, and scientific voices constructed the prototypical citizen as male, middle‑class, and “ethnically pure.” The role of realist novels by canonical authors like Benito PÉrez GaldÓs, Emilia Pardo BazÁn, and Leopoldo Alas in forging this Spanish identity has been meticulously examined over the last half century, to the exclusion of many other genres. This book complements existing scholarship by demonstrating how a neglected corpus of late nineteenth‑ and turn‑of‑the‑century fantastic short fictions, many by the same canonical authors, engages with processes of national identity formation in unexpected and ambiguous ways.Tang offers innovative readings of eleven fantastic short stories and one novella as they first appeared, some serialized and others illustrated, in Spanish periodicals from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Drawing on original archival research, she demonstrates how these stories—in which the everyday is suddenly and inexplicably disrupted by the supernatural—often employ gothic imagery (specifically that of the specter, the monster, and the curse) to depict as threatening those who deviate from cultural norms in terms of class, gender, and race. Tang argues, however, that these unsettling, open‑ended narratives likewise allow readers to question how and why certain designated groups are privileged by society. She contends that the fantastic depiction of reality as unstable in these works ultimately facilitates an interrogation of those values that are accepted as natural by the reigning social order, gesturing toward the inhumanity not of the marginalized, but of the dominant group.

Essays on teaching the Spanish author Benito Pérez Galdós The Spanish author Benito Pérez Galdós (1843–1920) produced an immense oeuvre of novels, stories, plays, and journalism that addressed the political, social, and aesthetic questions of his time. This volume will give any instructor interested in teaching Galdós, including those who want to teach the works in translation, exciting ways of exploring his writing with their students. Galdós's concerns included the emergence of feminism, religion's power, the rising middle class, Spain's declining empire, increasing autocracy, and social conflict. Some essays in this volume discuss more familiar works, such as Marianela and Tristana, whereas others introduce little-known texts. Some approaches are designed for students new to textual analysis and others for students who are eager for theoretical frameworks, including food studies, medical humanities, adaptation studies, celebrity studies, and activities such as theater games and microblogging. From literary history to cultural studies, this volume's subjects are appropriate for courses in diverse settings and disciplines. This volume contains discussion of the following works by Galdós: "El cólera y la política," La desheredada, Doña Perfecta, Electra, "La especulacion del miedo," Fortunata y Jacinta, Marianela, "Precauciones sanitarias," Tormento, Torquemada en la hoguera, Tristana, and "Tropiquillos." It also discusses Galdós adaptations and tributes such as the graphic novels 1892, by Antonio Becerra Bolaños and Alberto Hernández Rivero, and Nela, by Rayco Pulido Rodríguez; the telefilm Prim, el asesinato de la calle del Turco, written by Nacho Faerna and Virginia Yagüe; and the film Doña Perfecta, directed by Alejandro Galindo.

Essays on teaching the Spanish author Benito Pérez Galdós The Spanish author Benito Pérez Galdós (1843–1920) produced an immense oeuvre of novels, stories, plays, and journalism that addressed the political, social, and aesthetic questions of his time. This volume will give any instructor interested in teaching Galdós, including those who want to teach the works in translation, exciting ways of exploring his writing with their students. Galdós's concerns included the emergence of feminism, religion's power, the rising middle class, Spain's declining empire, increasing autocracy, and social conflict. Some essays in this volume discuss more familiar works, such as Marianela and Tristana, whereas others introduce little-known texts. Some approaches are designed for students new to textual analysis and others for students who are eager for theoretical frameworks, including food studies, medical humanities, adaptation studies, celebrity studies, and activities such as theater games and microblogging. From literary history to cultural studies, this volume's subjects are appropriate for courses in diverse settings and disciplines. This volume contains discussion of the following works by Galdós: "El cólera y la política," La desheredada, Doña Perfecta, Electra, "La especulacion del miedo," Fortunata y Jacinta, Marianela, "Precauciones sanitarias," Tormento, Torquemada en la hoguera, Tristana, and "Tropiquillos." It also discusses Galdós adaptations and tributes such as the graphic novels 1892, by Antonio Becerra Bolaños and Alberto Hernández Rivero, and Nela, by Rayco Pulido Rodríguez; the telefilm Prim, el asesinato de la calle del Turco, written by Nacho Faerna and Virginia Yagüe; and the film Doña Perfecta, directed by Alejandro Galindo.

This edited volume examines the historical, political, cultural, and aesthetic implications of re-visiting Restoration Spain (1874-1931) in television costume dramas produced since 2000.