Negotiating Sainthood

This study demonstrates the previously unrecognised significance of discourses of saintliness for constructions of gender and national identity in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Spanish culture. Kathy Bacon's innovative approach to sainthood leads to fresh readings of texts by Spain's three principal realist novelists: La familia de Leon Roch and Nazarin (Benito Perez Galdos 1878 and 1895) La Regenta (Leopoldo Alas 1884-85) and Dulce dueno (Emilia Pardo Bazan 1911). The author challenges the conventional distinction between anti-clerical and spiritual novels by these writers and questions previous feminist assumptions about the negative role of religion for female identity. Sainthood emerges as a key theme through which texts grapple with Spain's difficult transition to modernity.