Science, sex, and the foreign: Sexology and representations of sexual practices in the Spanish fin de siglo

Sexology emerged as a scientific discourse in Spain during the second half of the 19th century. Texts associated with this new “science” drew on previous discourses of hygiene and were concerned with managing and controlling the body and sexual practices. These were hybrid texts in several ways. Graphic descriptions of sexual practices were overlaid with supposedly scientific discourse drawn from the emerging science of ethnography; translation of foreign texts melded with interventions from the translator; multiple citations of supposed experts were juxtaposed with personal comments from the authors. Sexology serves as a framework to understand many of the underlying anxieties regarding national identity and modernity in the fin de siglo period in Spain. This can be observed both in sexological manuals as well as in the literature of the period. I analyze texts published between 1854 and 1917, by hygienists Pedro Felipe Monlau, sexologists like Amancio Peratoner, and literary authors, Carmen de Burgos, and Antonio de Hoyos. The dissertation analyzes the instrumentalization of foreign authority to frame pornographic writing under the guise of science. Although with different approaches, scientific translation is used to create a national identity and strengthen dominant ideas about sex in Spain, while at the same time allowing the authors a legitimization to explicitly discuss sex. Literature dismantles the notion that sexology and science are not socially constructed, and thus it makes us reflect on the manner in which objectivity, authority and respectability are achieved. Both types of texts constructed notions about acceptable and “deviant” sexual practices in the nation in a context of increasing modernity. My analysis of literary and sexological texts in dialogue with each other explores their mutual influence and shows that both types of texts were concerned with the establishment of authority, objectivity, and respectability.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Spanish

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Vicente Urrutia, Jone

Contributors dc:contributor

• Tolliver, Joyce L
• Delgado, Luisa-Elena
• Jones, Jamie L
• Martínez-Quiroga, Pilar

• Sexology
• Queer Studies
• Fin de Siglo
• Amancio Peratoner
• Antonio de Hoyos
• Sex
• Body studies
• Translation
• Science Translation
• 19th Century
• National Identity
• Spain
• Hygiene

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Jone Vicente Urrutia

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115386

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115386