Asian as seen by a spanish intellectual : Pardo-Bazán

Abstract

A quarter of a century ago, the author of this article led the movement to recognize the extraordinary talent of Emilia Pardo-Bazin (1851-1921), Until then the was dismissed as a prolific writer, only two of whose novels, Los Pazos de Ulloa and La Madre Naturaleza, had survived the test of time. In fact, her enormous literary production is all worth studying. She was an extraordinarily intelligent, albeit not very profound woman. Her view of the world was jaundiced because she, a proud liberal Catholic Spaniard, saw her country defeated at the hands of a Protestant great power which suddenly emerged on the world scene in 1898. It seemed as though the Protestant Anglo-Saxons were destined to enjoy world hegemony, white once imperial Spain and indeed the whole "Latin'' world, to use a term then becoming fashionable, were condemned to a secondary role, We must remember this when we read Pardo Bazin's articles on world history and culture. Her attacks on England and the United States were., as is so often the case, a reflection of het despair and pessimism. and indeed an expression of envy. While making then due allowance for this, we should realize that probably no Spaniard of her time had such a wide view of world culture and history. She introduced Russian literature to the Spanish-speak ing world. We should not attach an absolute value to her judgments, but rather regard them as an expression of the Spanish response to a preculiar set of world circumstances. In any case, what she wrote was invariably lively and interesting.