"Esa Segunda Nación": The Colonial Logic of Galdós's Doña Perfecta

• Main Author: Castroverde, Aaron
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2024
• Subjects: the novel; José Rizal; Philippines; Spain; world literature
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss37/17; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/kk/article/1888/viewcontent/KK_2037_2C_202021_2017_20Forum_20Kritika_20on_20Spanish_20Literature_20on_20the_20Philippines_20__20Castroverde.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

This article will analyze the role of colonialism in Benito Pérez Galdós’ novel Doña Perfecta by putting it into dialogue with the work of José Rizal. By examining the two writers side by side, we will see how the logic of colonialism manifested itself in the formal aspects of their work. Galdós will show us how the internal contradictions of metropolitan Spain during the Carlist Wars obeyed the same logic as the governing of the remaining overseas empire. Meanwhile, Rizal’s first novel, Noli me tángere, reveals how those same contradictions were equally complicit in the colonial project. Colonialism, while not explicitly mentioned by Galdós, manifests itself in the formal aspects of the novel, revealing a logic shared by internal as well as colonial contradictions. Noli me tángere, while thematically similar to Doña Perfecta, goes farther than Galdós in problematizing the Spanish liberal position, especially towards colonialism. While the realist novels of Galdós are an important window into 19th century Spain, Rizal’s work pushes those contradictions, thus revealing more fully the cultural logic of late imperial Spain.