In the late nineteenth century, some of Spain's most prominent male writers shared a fascination with the dual nature of blood as matter and metaphor. In a hybrid (in-person and live-streamed) Chats in the Stacks book talk, Julia Chang, assistant professor of Hispanic Studies in the Department of Romance Studies, discusses her new book Blood Novels: Gender, Caste, and Race in Spanish Realism (University of Toronto Press, 2022), which examines the cultural and literary significance of blood and challenges the dominant assumption that, eclipsed by race and sexuality, blood no longer played a decisive role in social hierarchies in late nineteenth-century Spain. While engaging with feminist theory, theories of race and whiteness, literary criticism, and medical literature, Chang makes a case for treating blood as a critical analytic tool that challenges our understanding of gendered and racialized embodiment in Spain.

This book talk is hosted by Olin Library.