Some courting plots. The rich girl falls for the bad boy of humble origins. The rich man comes rescues a poor woman from poverty, like Pygmalion. Juanito Santa Cruz and Fortunata: In Galdós's novel Fortunata y Jacinta the wealthy man falls in with a group of shady characters (with Andalusian accents?) and they have all-night parties (juergas). One of the women he meets in the sordid environment is Fortunata. I don't remember if they are doing cante jondo or not, but the narrator notes "Las crudezas de estilo popular y aflamencado que Santa Cruz decía alguna vez..." There is an article I haven't read about Galdós as an anti-flamenco guy, as many intellectuals have been. Of course, there is Merimée's Carmen.
Class differences are sexualized in these plots. Burke mentions some D.H. Lawrence. There is Juan Marsé's Últimas tardes con Teresa, with the charnego seducing the bourgeoise university student.
3 comments:
I thought the aflamencado wasn't cante jondo or even real flamenco, but some kind of poppy drivel. If it's waxes maudlin about Santa Cruz then it's this genre I think
Here it is an adjective meaning flamenquified. Flamenco was big in 19th century Spain and the major realists like Galdós, Clarín and Pardo Bazán were anti-flamenquistas. Harriet Turner says Fortunata is half gypsy but I haven't found that in the novel yet. The closest social type is the "chula madrileña." Juanito is the señorito of the juerga, the one who pays for it, essentially. But we don't get to see those close up. We see his language and his clothing from the point fo view of Barbarita, his mother. After dumping Fortunata, he gets married off to his cousin, Jacinta. Then he narrates his affair with Fortunata to Jacinta on their honeymoon.
Yes, flamenquified. I really have to reread this novel, I did so nominally in school, read the words, but so much happened in it that I don't think I ever really put it together as a whole.
This is interesting about anti-flamenquismo.
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