Imágenes de la Edad Media: La mirada del realismo by Rebeca Sanmartín Bastida, Ángel Gómez Moreno

Abstract

MLR, I03.2, 2oo8 571 Imagenes de laEdad Media: lamirada del realismo. By REBECA SANMARTINBASTIDA. Prologue by ANGEL GOMEZ MORENO. (Anejos de Revista de Literatura, 56) Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Instituto de laLengua Espafiola. 2002. 637 pp. ?38.20. ISBN 978-84-oo-o80gg-o. Rebeca Sanmartin Bastida's book seeks to refute the idea that interest in the Middle Ages vanished inSpain with thearrival ofRealism. This initialpremiss raises thorny problems of literaryperiodization, inparticular the definition ofRealism and its se paration fromRomanticism. Sanmartin Bastida opts forwhat is a rather arbitrary timescale, i.e. the years I860-90, and is thus led to include treatments ofmedieval topicswhich do not, strictlyspeaking, belong toRealism. Her research isnot limited, meanwhile, to the field of literature, since the book contains chapters on historio graphy,philology, poetry, narrative prose, theatreand music, visual arts and architec ture,and thought, togetherwith an epilogue about the impact of the I898 disaster. This diversity ofmaterial is accompanied by a diversity of approaches. Whereas she reliesmainly on contemporary reviews for music and the arts, Sanmartin Bastida analyses directly a series of creativeworks byRealist writers. These include twopoets, Nuniez de Arce and Ferrari, but inevitably the lion's share goes toprose writers, with Coloma, Blasco Ib'aiiez, and Pardo Baz'an receiving attention as authors of both short and long fiction. Sanmartin Bastida highly values Blasco Iba?iez's medieval stories, omitted fromhis complete works and hitherto ratherneglected; inmy opinion, they show above all thatBlasco Ibnfiez, in several respects a still underrated writer, was schooled in thefolletin.The truism still holds that some towering figuresof Spanish literature between i86o and I890, such as Galdos and Clarin, paid scarce attention to thedistant past in comparison with theirEuropean peers, who during thisperiod more regularlyventured into the Middle Ages, the most important example probably being Stifter's Witiko. The historical novel is especially relevant, because the novel was the dominant genre during Realism even though the historical subgenre was a legacy ofRomanti cism. In Spain, one of theRomantics' favoured settings had been theMiddle Ages (the historical novels of Larra, Espronceda, Martinez de laRosa, and Gil yCarrasco belying thenotion that theRomantic interest in that timewas exclusively conserva tive). The principal example ofRealist historical fiction,on the other hand, was the firstseries ofGaldos's Episodios nacionales, set in theNapoleonic Wars, as Scott's in fluence yielded to thatofTolstoy. The paradox is that the initial series of theEpisodios became Gald6s's most popular work because of the public's thirst for a heroic past (even ifhis depiction of thatpast was not especially glossy), while the author himself viewed thatperiod as thebirth of contemporary Spain. Sanmartin Bastida studies medieval elements in Spanish Realist theatre through the analysis of plays by Gald6s, Valera, and Acufia. The value of some is doubtful, at least to the present reviewer. Gald6s's juvenilia prove the survival of Romantic theatre and the lack of a real alternative until the arrival of Ibsen; more indicative of his mature thinking is his review of 28 June I894 inArte y critica, inwhich he praised Dutch and Flemish masters who stuck to genre painting without indulging in thehistorical foraysofVelazquez or Rembrandt. The mentioned writers are just a few among the corpus studied by Sanmartin Bastida, who leaves no stone unturned and largely proves her case thanks to the book's catholic and inclusive inclination. Her book is themost complete guide to treatments of theMiddle Ages in Spain during the period I860-90, and, although some readers will miss an index, itsdivision into chapters according togenre will be useful to those interested only in specific aspects of the cultural scene. UNIVERSITY OF EXETER JUAN CARLOSBAYO ...