Visions of Filth: Deviancy and Social Control in the Novels of Galdós - Softcover

Fuentes, Teresa Peris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 085323728X ISBN 13: 9780853237280

Publisher: Liverpool University Press, 2003

Synopsis

This book explores how notions of deviancy and social control are dramatized in the novels of the late nineteenth-century Spanish realist author Benito Pérez Galdós. Galdós’s treatment of prostitutes, alcoholics, beggars and vagrants is studied within the context of the socio-cultural and medical debates circulating during the period. Drawing on Foucault’s very specific conceptualization of the idea of control through discourses, the book analyzes how Galdós’s novels interacted with contemporary debates on poverty and deviancy – notably, discourses on hygiene, domesticity and philanthropy. It is proposed that Galdós’s view of marginal social groups was much more open-minded, shrewd and liberal than the often inflexible pronouncements made by contemporary professional voices.

About this title

About the Author

Teresa Fuentes Peris is a lecturer in Spanish at Leeds Metropolitan University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 085323728X
• ISBN 13: 9780853237280
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 228