Rebecca (Becky) Fell
College:
Clare College
Research:
The objective of my research project is to explore the role of 鈥榞ossip鈥� in late 19th Century and early 20th Century Hispanic literature, in particular in the later novels of Emilia Pardo Baz谩n and Clar铆n鈥檚 La Regenta and Jos茅 Rizal鈥檚 Noli me听tangere.听Jos茅 Rizal was a contemporary of Clar铆n and Pardo Baz谩n in the Philippines. In its most obvious form, gossip operates as a thematic device for plot construction and internal 鈥榗ommentary鈥� on the nature and behaviours of characters in realist literature of the time.听 However, I would also like to explore gossip as a metaphor for the medium of the novel of this period, with a view to seeing what this lens, and theories on the psychology of gossip, might reveal. 听Considering the etymology of听the word听鈥榞ossip鈥� and its Spanish equivalents, I have categorised my research into three, interdependent strands: gossip as dialogue, gossip as catechism and gossip as discourse. 听Sub-strands include (i) exploring听gossip as a gender-neutral, positive exchange, for example, a mode for settling up imagined communities, (ii) gossip听as the handmaid/manservant of the听鈥橲ymbolic鈥� in novels of the period and (iii) gossip听as double-voiced discourse, its economics crossing the border between symbolic and social capital, feeding and/or eroding them both.
