Cultivating Madrid : Public Space and Middle-Class Culture in the Spanish Capital, 1833-1890

by Frost, Daniel (NA)

• ISBN13: 9780838756799
• ISBN10: 0838756794
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-08-31
• Publisher: Associated Univ Pr

Summary

"This book delves into the gardens of nineteenth-century Madrid, investigating how parks and public landscapes come to represent, even cultivate, the moral, social, and aesthetic ideals of a developing Spanish middle class. From Enlightenment-era calls to "conquer the obstacles" that nature posed to capitalist development, to love scenes set among the parks and promenades of the late nineteenth-century novel, public landscapes figure significantly in ideas of Madrid as the capital of a modern state. Drawing together literature and urban reform, Cultivating Madrid argues that gardens and garden imagery trouble the distinction not only between nature and artifice, but also between reality and representation in general, and are thus critical to understanding realism and the process of modernization in Spain."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

Daniel Frost earned a BA in comparative literature from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and a doctorate in Hispanic Literatures at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As assistant professor of Spanish at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, he teaches peninsular and Latin American literature and culture along with Spanish language courses. His work on public space and urban design in Madrid has appeared in MLN and the Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies. His research interests include modern Spanish and Argentine literature, and in particular, the treatment of the land as an expression of regional and national identity. He lives in Worcester with his wife Susan and two sons. Cultivating Madrid is his first book.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. 9
Introduction: The Culture of the Improver	p. 13
A Public for the Garden: Planning, Costumbrismo, and Public Diversion 1833-1849
The Public Landscapes of Ramon de Mesonero Romanos	p. 29
Otro terreno mas propio del dia	p. 29
Avatars of the Reformist Voice	p. 37
The Education of don Periquito: Public Gardens and Metropolitan Manners in Larra	p. 67
Don Periquito	p. 67
Anticipatory Tendencies	p. 73
La tendencia enteramente nueva	p. 81
Medio saber	p. 94
Public Gardens and Private Affairs in the Spanish Realist Novel, 1881-1889
Madrid and the Nature of Adultery	p. 101
<$$$>Adonde iriamos en Madrid ...?	p. 101
El inmenso imperio de la opinion	p. 119
Paris or Vallecas? Uncertain Relationships on the City's Outskirts	p. 127
Como quien se contempla en un espejo ... (Paris)	p. 139
One Last Look	p. 150
Epilogue	p. 157
Conclusion	p. 166
Notes	p. 175
References	p. 198
Index	p. 208
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