2026-09-23T15:06:12Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/110667 2023-07-11 col_2142_5131 col_2142_14848 com_2142_5130 com_2142_9408 com_2142_8903

The student, Iker Garcia Plazaola, accepted the attached license on 2021-04-14 at 10:12. The student, Iker Garcia Plazaola, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2021-04-14 at 10:20. This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2021-04-18 at 14:14. Tolliver, Joyce Tolliver, Joyce Micale, Mark Littlefield, Melissa Irigoyen-Garcia, Javier Garcia Plazaola, Iker 2021-09-17T02:34:26Z 2021-09-17T02:34:26Z 2023-09-17T02:34:57Z 2021-04-18 2021-05 This dissertation analyses uses of cerebro (brain) in Spanish narrative fiction of the period 1870-1900, with a focus on the realist novels La Regenta (“The Judge’s Wife”) (1885) by Leopoldo Alas “Clarín” (1852-1901) and Fortunata y Jacinta (“Fortunata and Jacinta”) (1887) by Benito Pérez Galdós (1843-1920). More than a linguistic reflection of neurological advances placing the brain and the nervous system at the center of scientific and philosophical debates, cerebro recurrently used to denote a site of psychological rather than physiological activity was a reflection of, and simultaneously a contribution to, a paradigm shift in the understanding of the mind or selfhood, through which a centuries-old tradition of spiritualism and dualism was replaced with a materialist conception of the mind as ultimately identifiable with the brain. In reconstructing this materialist shift taking as my textual basis uses of cerebro in fiction, as well as a variety of neurological, psychological, and philosophical sources, I argue for a connection between neurology and literature going beyond a passive reflection of the former in the latter. At the same time that unprecedented neurological progress during the 19th century resulted in the definitive case for the materially embodied nature of the mind in the brain, the development of the realist novel, and particularly of the psychological realist novel, brought about an unprecedented growth in extension and autonomy of the minds of fictional characters. This growth was accompanied by a correlative expansion of the discursive resources used to linguistically represent those minds, a significant aspect of which is words for denoting the mind in narrative discourse in Spanish. Therefore, advances in both science and literature favored the normalization of uses of cerebro with a psychological denotation in fiction, a discursive praxis that contributed to the visibility of the notion that the mind is material, a naturalistic view that in turn contributed to the secularizing project of Spain’s liberal nation-state. Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2023-05-01 DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #16320 on 2021-09-16 at 17:03:04 Made available in DSpace on 2021-09-17T02:34:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 GARCIAPLAZAOLA-DISSERTATION-2021.pdf: 989877 bytes, checksum: dcc3af4c7c57a71298b9b443808112c2 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4217 bytes, checksum: e981877f9cd615256432c718403499bf (MD5) PROQUEST_LICENSE.txt: 4563 bytes, checksum: e62e235954e88b28827e4c9d1cec5718 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2021-04-18 Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 118510 Lift date: 2023-09-17T02:34:57Z Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system U of I Only application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110667 en Copyright 2021 Iker Garcia Plazaola Neurology, Fictional Mind, Narrative Fiction, Spain, Realism, 19th Century Ideas in 19th-century cerebros: Neurology and the fictional mind, Spain 1870-1900 text Thesis Spanish and Portuguese Spanish University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Dissertation Ph.D.