Aesthetic paradoxes and vital reparations in Valera (Criticism, American epistolary, Juanita la Larga)

Abstract

Juan Valera forcefully disdained and chastised realist and naturalist novels, particularly concerning their desire to incorporate all aspects of life, regardless of how repugnant, obscene, and pitiful they were. However, there is a section in his oeuvre, the vast body of his correspondence, that could be read as a narrative imbued of naturalist undertones. In this essay I propose an intratextual dialog, or better yet an argument, between Valera´s work as a literary critic and one of his most famous epistolary exertions: the letters he wrote during his tenure as Spanish ambassador in Washington. Additionally, the essay tests the hypothesis that his later novel Juanita la Larga works as an aesthetic retort to that naturalist text and as personal reparation for his misdeeds and miseries during his stay at Washington.