ABSTRACT
In Mater dolorosa: la idea de España en el siglo XIX, José Álvarez Junco gives a critical evaluation of the nation-building process that takes place in Spain during the 1800s. Particular to that century, Álvarez Junco explains, is the codification by the political and intellectual elites of a nationalizing discourse that permeates all areas of academic inquiry, culture, and the arts: “poesía, novela, historia, pintura, música y, por supuesto, investigación científica en muy diversos campos” (195; poetry, the novel, history, painting, music, and, of course, scientific research in many different fields). Within this variety of manifestations, Benito Pérez Galdós’s literature is of paramount importance not only for its literary and artistic value but also for its focus on the intersection of nation and class. Hence, the preeminence Galdós gives to “la patria en su conjunto” (Aguilar 609; the nation in its totality) incarnates in the struggles of the members of the middle class to show their allegiance to the nation and to affirm their identity as productive citizens.
