Munoz-Martin, Maria Gloria; (2000) In search of the promised land: The travels of Emilia Pardo Bazan. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The object of this thesis is to explore Pardo Bazan's approach to travel as an aesthetically rewarding experience and also as a soul-searching exercise in which she voices her opinions and concerns with regard to the state of late nineteenth-century Spain and compares it to some other European countries. Indeed, in the Galician author's chronicles, which reveal her versatility and multifaceted interests as a travel writer, the journey itself takes second place to cultural, social, political, artistic, religious, and intellectual considerations. Another aspect of Pardo Bazan's travel works that this study will develop is her uneasy stance with regard to progress, technological advancement, and modern civilization, as illustrated, principally, in her foreign chronicles. For it is her apprehension and at times aversion to modern technology that place her in an anachronistic position in relation to some of the events and places covered in her travel accounts. Pardo Bazan's obsessive longing for the past, as well as her generalized rejection of the aesthetic canons and artistic achievements of the nineteenth century (a period she regarded as lacking in spiritual and religious values), will also be revealed as playing a significant part in her approach to travel writing. In addition, the author's ambivalent attitude to France will be considered, together with her internationalism (which was never at odds with her Spanishness), and the progressive and painful realization that, in the social, industrial, and cultural spheres, her country lagged well behind most of its European neighbours. Overall, this thesis will trace Pardo Bazan's journeys through her homeland and elsewhere in Europe as she attempts to identify the ills that beset turn-of-the-century Spain, suggest some possible solutions, and ultimately seek out among the advanced European nations she visited a role model worthy of emulation by her own country.

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