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2018 | 45 | 2 | 51-63

Article title

De la zarzuela a la ciencia ficción: El anacronópete, de Enrique Gaspar. Expansión de los límites de lo fantástico en la coyuntura del nacionalismo

Content

Title variants

EN
From Zarzuela to Science Fiction: Enrique Gaspar’s El anacronópete. An Expansion of the Limits of the Fantastic through Conjunction with Nationalism

Languages of publication

ES

Abstracts

ES
This article addresses Enrique Gaspar’s novel El anacronópete (1887) by means of the articulation of the fantastic genre and nationalism. The nineteenth century witnessed a powerful scientific and technological development, which introduced economic, political and social changes. This can be traced in literature, especially in the second half of the century: for example, in the antagonistic positions between Emilio Ferrari and Gaspar Núñez de Arce in the field of poetry, or novels by Benito Pérez Galdós as Doña Perfecta (1876), in which the tension between the countryside and the city is compared to that existing between tradition and modernity. In this context, the value of Gaspar's novel surpasses the anecdote of presenting the first time machine in literature, eight years before Wells’s. Its value lies in the way in which, starting from the articulation of scientific and literary discourse, it expands the limits of the fantastic while using the procedure to address the question of national identity. The action takes place during the International Exhibition in Paris in 1878. The novel shows the popularity of the “famous Jules Verne” in Spain, whose “marvelous hypotheses” will be considered “children's toys in the face of the magnitude of the real invention of the modest Zaragoza neighbour of Spain”. More than a science fiction novel, the text calls for the incorporation of concepts related to the process of creation of national identities from such disciplines as history and sociology.
EN
This article addresses Enrique Gaspar’s novel El anacronópete (1887) by means of the articulation of the fantastic genre and nationalism. The nineteenth century witnessed a powerful scientific and technological development, which introduced economic, political and social changes. This can be traced in literature, especially in the second half of the century: for example, in the antagonistic positions between Emilio Ferrari and Gaspar Núñez de Arce in the field of poetry, or novels by Benito Pérez Galdós as Doña Perfecta (1876), in which the tension between the countryside and the city is compared to that existing between tradition and modernity. In this context, the value of Gaspar's novel surpasses the anecdote of presenting the first time machine in literature, eight years before Wells’s. Its value lies in the way in which, starting from the articulation of scientific and literary discourse, it expands the limits of the fantastic while using the procedure to address the question of national identity. The action takes place during the International Exhibition in Paris in 1878. The novel shows the popularity of the “famous Jules Verne” in Spain, whose “marvelous hypotheses” will be considered “children's toys in the face of the magnitude of the real invention of the modest Zaragoza neighbour of Spain”. More than a science fiction novel, the text calls for the incorporation of concepts related to the process of creation of national identities from such disciplines as history and sociology.

Year

Volume

45

Issue

2

Pages

51-63

Physical description

Dates

published
2018-07-09

Contributors

  • Universidad de Buenos Aires

References

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  • Archilés, F. & Martí, M. (1999). La construcción de la Nación española durante el siglo XIX: logros y límites de la asimilación en el caso valenciano. Ayer, 35, 171-190.
  • Archilés, F. & Martí, M. (2005). Una nació fracassada? La construcció de la identitat nacional espanyola al llarg del segle XIX. Recerques, 51, 141-163.
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  • Culler, J. (2003). Anderson and the Novel. En J. Culler & P. Cheah (eds.), Grounds of Comparison. Around the work of Benedict Anderson (pp. 29-52). Nueva York: Routledge.
  • García, A. M. (1993). Antecedentes literarios y estéticos del “naturalismo galdosiano”: La desheredada. En J. Bombín Quintana (coord.), Actas del Cuarto Congreso Internacional de estudios galdosianos (1990) (pp. 439-456). Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Ediciones del Cabildo Insular de Gran Canaria.
  • Gaspar, E. (1884). El Anacronópete: zarzuela: viaje atrás verificado en el tiempo desde el último tercio del siglo XIX hasta el caos y dividido en tres jornadas y trece cuadros. [Manuscrito digitalizado]. Consultado el 11 de septiembre de 2017 en http://bdhrd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000014484&page=1
  • Gaspar, E. (1887). El Anacronópete. Viaje a China. Metempsicosis. Barcelona: Daniel Cortezo y Cª.
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  • Pérez Galdós, B. (1878). Doña Perfecta. Madrid: Imprenta de la Guirnalda.
  • Pérez Galdós, B. (1888). Marianela. Madrid: Imprenta de la Guirnalda.
  • Pérez Garzón, J. (1999). El nacionalismo español en sus orígenes: factores de configuración. Ayer, 35, 53-86.
  • Riquer, B. de (1994). La débil nacionalización española del siglo XIX. Historia Social, 20, 97-114.
  • Santiáñez-Tió, N. (1995). De la luna a mecanópolis. Antología de la ciencia ficción española (1832-1913). Barcelona: Quaderns Crema.
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Document Type

Publication order reference

Identifiers

YADDA identifier

bwmeta1.element.ojs-doi-10_14746_strop_2018_452_004
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