The Marketing of Cecilia Böhl von Faber: Gender, Economy, and the Professionalization of the Artist

Abstract

Studies on Cecilia Bohl von Faber have tended to examine her work in relationship with the nationalist project of Spanish conservatives or with the gender politics that constrained her writings. Through an analysis of the letters of Cecilia Bohl von Faber, this article presents a previously neglected influence on her writings: her participation in the developing literary market. At a time in which women entered the public lettered sphere restricted by their gender yet enabled by the authorial possibilities opened up by economic modernization, Bohl von Faber began publishing several works that she had penned years ago. She frequently argued that she was driven to publication by her dire financial situation although her letters reveal that the commodification of her works acted as a liberating force allowing her to justify what she saw as an act of gender transgression. This article also explores how her insertion in the market played a crucial role in shaping her literary trajectory. Not only did she strive to reconcile her gendered identity with her condition as a professional author, but she also felt inhibited by the economy of the literary market and struggled with her self-presentation as an artist and her reality as a cultural producer subject to consumer's demand. Through the case of Bohl von Faber, this article elucidates the pressures of the unfolding cultural industry upon artistic creation and suggests that this exerted a fundamental impact in Bohl von Faber's literary choices.