The Visage of a Dream: Culture, Commodity and Affect in Rosalia de Castro's El caballero de las botas azules (1867). Issue 5 (1st May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: O'DWYER, MANUS
• Is Part Of: Bulletin of Hispanic studies. Volume 99:Issue 5(2022)
• Page Start: 455
• Page End: 469
• Publication Date: 2022-05-01
• Subjects: Spanish philology -- Periodicals; Portuguese philology -- Periodicals; Spain -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Latin America -- Civilization -- Periodicals; 860.5
• DOI: 10.3828/bhs.2022.29
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1475-3839

Abstract

Abstract : Critics of the work of Rosalía de Castro (1837–1855) have noted the difficulties her novel El caballero de las botas azules (1867) poses for both Spanish and Galician literary historiography. A metafictional satire written in Spanish and set in Madrid, it is difficult to place within narratives of Galician literary history that imagine Rosalía as a saintly founding mother, as well as within narratives of Spanish literary history that imagine a teleological development of the novel from Romantic to Realist forms. This article will situate El caballero as a hinge text, a farewell to a Romantic poetics of melodrama and named emotions and a move towards a modern literature of affect, a transition that is inflected by a profound meditation on the role of literature within a world of increasing consumerism and commodification. The discussion will be framed in terms of the twin themes of hysteria and dandyism.