SOURCE: "Naturalism in the Short Fiction of Emilia Pardo Bazan," in Hispanic Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, Fall, 1981, pp. 73-85.

In the following excerpt, Charnon-Deutsch explores the influence of Emile Zola on Pardo Bazán's short fiction.

Naturalism was debated in Spain even before translation of Zola's works appeared, but it was not until Emilia Pardo Bazán published her controversial La cuestión palpitante (1882-83) that critics began lining up in earnest on either side of the issue which bore so many sociological and ethical overtones. The series of articles that make up La cuestión failed to convince the Spanish readership that the experimentation being carried on by Zola and his followers was of any aesthetic or moral value. What irritated Spanish readers of Zola (and a great deal of non-readers who gathered their secondhand information from periodicals) was the attitude towards determinism which the new school accepted...