Title of translation: 
“Torn Lace” and “Native Plant”
Original title: 
"El encaje roto" y "Planta montés"
Original author: 
Emilia Pardo Bazán
Country of origin: 
Spain
Translator: 
Francisca González Arias
Date of source text publication: 
1890
Date of translation publication: 
2021
Abstract: 

"The two stories published here represent different facets of Emilia pardo Bazán's narrative work. “El encaje roto (1897) —translated into English as “Torn Lace”— is set within the upper-class society that the author herself frequented. Its themes highlight female agency and the double standard which prevented women like the protagonist Micaelita from enjoying the same freedoms as her fiancé. This short story also alludes to the issue of domestic violence, which Pardo Bazán portrayed throughout her narrative work as pervasive and transcending social class. “Planta montés” (1890)  takes place in Marineda, doña Emilia’s fictional name for A Coruña, and as such it belongs to the author’s cycle of Galician stories. The narrator, an educated woman, an urban dweller who traces her family’s origins back to the land, is a study in contrasts. While she readily displays her familiarity with contemporary pedagogical theories (Friedrich Fröbel was a founder of modern early education and created the concept of the “kindergarten”), she also defends “the lost tradition” of service originating in the medieval foro, the contract between landowners and the peasants who rent and labor on their land." --Francisca González Arias, the translator

Genre: 
Narrativa / Narrative
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