O pensamento pedagóxico de Emilia Pardo Bazán e José Rodríguez Carracido: dúas novelas para a educación dun novo século

Abstract

Both Emilia Pardo Bazán and José Rodríguez Carracido have written works with students at Santiago University as main characters. This coincidence responds to a common interest in pedagogical concerns that are also expressed in other non-fiction writings of both. Despite the differences between gender and class, there are some notable shared elements in their positions: the defense of the vocation against external impositions; the critique of superficial, mechanical, memoristic, and overly specialized learning; the defense of the need for theoretical nowledge and practical application to converge. Starting from the consideration of their works within the general framework of the Bildungsroman, Pascual López. Autobiography of a Medical Student (1879) and La muceta roja (1890) agree in presenting, through their arguments, examples of failed formations. This casts a revealing contrast with the successful end of the best-known novel by the group to which they belong, La casa de la Troya (1915), by Alejandro Pérez Lugín or, in the broader framework of the Bildungsroman, with Arredor de sí (1931), by Ramón Otero Pedrayo. The frustrated formations of Pascual and Jacobo point, allegorically, to what the community loses, suggesting the opportunity that would open up with an education conceived in a different way.