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Abstract
This dissertation analyzes the feminist ideas that are manifest in the essays and short stories of Emilia Pardo Bazán. The first chapter examines the construction and propagation of the angel in the house paradigm in XIX-century Spain. During the exploration of this feminine ideal of virtue the social, economic and political forces at work are analyzed. The second chapter studies the feminist essays of Emilia Pardo Bazán. Three central issues are highlighted as the Countess's primary concerns about the status of women in society: (1) the improvement of educational opportunities for women; (2) the recognition of women as autonomous social individuals, independent of their roles as wife and mother; and (3) the admittance of women to the professions. Chapters three and four study the degree to which the short stories of Emilia Pardo Bazán engage with a feminist ideology. Through the close analysis of various narrative techniques such as direct address to the narratee, framed narrations, narrative ambiguity and indirect free style, Pardo Bazán succeeds in offering a feminist message in her short narratives in a very subtle or veiled way.