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THERE-CREATIONOFTHEAUTHORINTHENARRATIVEOFCLARIN By ERICL.REINHOLTZ ADISSERTATIONPRESENTEDTOTHEGRADUATESCHOOL OFTHEUNIVERSITYOFFLORIDAINPARTIALFULFILLMENT OFTHEREQUIREMENTSFORTHEDEGREEOF DOCTOROFPHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITYOFFLORIDA 1996 Copyright 1996 by Eric L. Reinholtz V. M. Qu'un ami veritable est une douce chose! II cherche vos besoins au fond de votre coeur, II vous epargne la pudeur De les lui decouvrir vous-meme. --La Fontaine ACKNOWLEDGMENTS While it would be impossible to recognize all of the individuals who have helped me to arrive at this point, I feel I owe a particular debt of thanks to the following persons: Professor Edward Baker, whose scholarly expertise and tremendous patience has made the preparation of this dissertation possible; Professor Terry Palls, who first introduced me to the study of Spanish at New College; Professor Geraldine Nichols, without whose encouragement I would have never embarked on my doctorate in Spanish literature; the administration, faculty, and students of Miami Country Day School; and my very dear friends Samuel M. Howell and J. Victor McGlone, Ph.D. In addition, I would like to offer very special thanks to my godmother Sue Butler-Hannifin. Finally, I cannot even begin to express my gratitude to my parents, Theodore and Mary Reinholtz. While I will not miss their weekly inquiries on the progress of my dissertation, at the same time, I cannot conceive of having arrived at this point without their constant support. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv LIST OF FIGURES vi ABSTRACT CHAPTERS 1 THE ENIGMA OF THE "VARIOS CLARIN" 1 2 JUAN RIJTZ AND THE LARRIAN FANTASY OF AUTHORSHIP 42 3 PRESS, UNIVERSITY, AND THE EMERGENCE OF "CLARIN" 83 4 GALDOS, NATURALISM, AND THE MEANS TO CONSECRATION 123 5 CONSECRATION OF THE CRITIC AND CONQUEST OF THE FIELD 160 6 TRANSCENDENCE AS TRIUMPH: THE ABDICATION OF THE FIELD 208 7 CONCLUSION: THE EVOLUTION OF CLARIN AND THE ARCHEOLOGY OF AUTHORSHIP 257 BIBLIOGRAPHY 274 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 285 V LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 1 The Literary Field in 19th Century France 20 2 The Literary Field in Restoration Spain 21 vi Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy THE RE-CREATION OF THE AUTHOR IN THE NARRATIVE OF CLARIN By Eric L. Reinholtz December 1996 Chairman: Edward Baker Major Department: Romance Languages and Literatures The multiplicity of discursive practices found in the literary production of Leopoldo Alas "Clarin"--journalism, scholarship, political commentary, short story, novel, literary criticism, drama--has led to a scholarly debate over which of these "many Clarins" represents the writer's true professional inclination. A possible solution to this problem is suggested in the reinterpretation of Alas•s work within the framework of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's concept of cultural production. Central to this theoretical model is the notion of the prise de po.gifinn or position- taking: a discursive stance on the part of a writer in Vll . relation to the dynamics of the broader literary field with the purpose of resolving the conflicting principles of autonomy (artistic consecration) and heteronomy (economic market success). For Alas, this conflict may be framed as the desire to maintain a bourgeois existence from writing without becoming a "bourgeois writer" Given the shifting . dynamics of the field caused by both internal (artistic movements) and external (political and economic) factors, the attempt at maintaining such a balance would necessitate a constant process of re-creating the author in the Clarinian text The analysis of these position-takings begins with an assessment of Alas's changing status within the literary field, and then focuses on certain key texts illustrative of the discursive shifts in question: Alas's adolescent vision of the Larrian journalist in "El caramelo" from Juan Ruiy.: the rejection of journalism in favor of academia in "Estilicon", an early short story published in El Solfeo : the influence of Galdos and Naturalism as a model of and means to consecration, respectively, in "Pipa"; the consecration of the literary critic in Apolo en Pafosr and the symbolic abandonment of the literary field in the viii . novella Supercheria and the stories "Cambio de luz" and "Vario". Each text is examined not as a reflection of historical reality, but rather (following Jameson's model in The Political Unconscious) as a symbolic resolution of the autonomous-heteronomous dialectic ix . CHAPTER 1 THE ENIGMA OF THE "VARIOS CLARIN" ...No entrare en el estudio integral del caracter literario de Clarin, como creador de obras tan bellas en distintos ordenes del arte y como infatigable luchador en el eterno critico. Su obra es grande y rica, y el que esto escribe no acertaria a encerrarla en una clara sintesis, por mucho empeno que en ello pusiera (1989, 14) --Benito Perez Galdos Nearly a hundred years after his death, Leopoldo Alas remains one of the great enigmas of nineteenth century Spanish literature. While perceptions of and attitudes toward Alas have changed dramatically since Galdos thus characterized his friend, the problematic presence of not one, but what Guillermo de la Torre has called "varios Clarin" (1984, ix), both continues to fascinate and to frustrate critics of his work. While Alas was known during his lifetime primarily as a literary critic, and during the latter half of the twentieth century principally through his "masterpiece," La Regenta, his status as a writer continues to be redefined by modern scholarship which, in giving long- 1