Literary naturalism, within the Hispanic context, has traditionally been read as a graphic realist school or movement linked predominantly to late nineteenth century literary production. The essays in Au Naturel: (Re)Reading Hispanic Naturalism-written by scholars from different generations, nationalities and ideological backgrounds-propose a major revisionist contribution to the study of Hispanic naturalism. Based on a theoretical proposal that re-semanticizes naturalismo as a diachronic counter-metanarrative phenomenon that transcends the chronological and geographic limitations imposed by traditional criticism on naturalism, the collection provides new readings of traditional naturalist fare as well as re-readings of works that have not been read, within the bounds of conventional criticism, as naturalist. Re-read within the proposed theoretical framework, its essays demonstrate the countless ways in which Hispanic naturalist texts-literary and more recently, filmic-continue to frankly engage the societal problematics that has impeded true social, political, economic and cultural progress from taking place in the Hispanic world from the turbulent fin-de-siecle period of the nineteenth century through the present day, globalized context. Au Naturel: (Re)Reading Hispanic Naturalism is thus also an open invitation to the scholarly community to re-consider other socio-critical works within the Hispanic naturalist context that observe and reflection upon social issues that continue to plague Hispanic society today.
About the Author: J.P. SPICER-ESCALANTE is Associate Professor of Nineteenth Century Hispanic American Literature and Culture at Utah State University (U.S.A) and a Visiting International Scholar at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of Visiones patologicas nacionales: Lucio Vicente Lopez, Eugenio Cambaceres y Julian Martel ante la distopia argentina finisecular, has edited critical editions of works by Argentine authors Eugenio Cambaceres and Eduarda Mansilla, and is Founding Co-Director and Managing Editor of Decimononica: Revista de Produccion Cultural Hispanica Decimononica. His essays on Hispanic naturalism, Avant-garde, and travel writing have appeared in Revista de Critica Literaria Latinoamericana, Excavatio and Brujula, amongst other scholarly venues. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Excavatio and of the Advisory Board of Stockcero, Inc., Spanish & Latin American Literature Publishers. LARA ANDERSON is Convenor of Spanish Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She is the author of Allegories of Decadence in Fin-de-siecle Spain: The Female Consumer in the Novels of Emilia Pardo Bazan and Benito Perez Galdos as well as articles on Spanish culinary nationalization, gender and the nation. Some of her most recent essays have appeared in History of European Ideas, Romance Studies and Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispanicos. She is also a member of the editorial board of IXQUIC: Revista Hispanica Internacional de Analisis Literario y Cultural.