Michael W Stannard
Department Affiliations
Narrative
The Naturalist novel of the 1880s was uniquely influenced by huge changes in scientific and biological thought which overturned the traditional ways in which men and women saw themselves. Multiple discourses about the human condition which followed the publication of "On the Origin of Species" problematized prevailing positivist ideas. Degeneration theory evolved to enable thinkers of the time (many of them doctors) confront the upheavals of life in the great cities, which threatened to undermine the precarious stability of Restoration society. My project is to study the way in which Galdós portrayed aspects of society stereotyped as being degenerative, and how the theme of degeneration theory appeared in his work.
Specialties
- Nineteenth-Century Peninsular Spanish Literature
- Iberian History
- Nineteenth-Century Evolutionary Thought
- Nineteenth-Century Medicine
- Degeneration Theory
Educational Background
- B.Sc.: Physiology, University of London (U.K.), London Hospital Medical College, 1963.
- M.B., B.S.: Medicine, University of London, London Hospital Medical College, 1966.
- M.A.: Spanish, Texas A&M University, Commerce, 2001.
Research Activities
- Ph.D. Dissertation: Degeneraton in the Naturalist Novels of Galdós, 2007
Awards
- Paul Barrus prize for the best graduate student in Spanish, 2000
Alternative Output Formats