The Theme of Degeneration in the Work of Benito Perez Galdos Michael W. Stannard

As he wrote his Naturalist novels, Galdos was much influenced by Emile Zola and the French author's vision of determinism and degeneration that he developed as a result of his study of Darwin, Benedict Morel, Moreau de Tours and Prosper Lucas, also owing much to Comte's positivism and to Taine's social determinism. In addition, degeneration theory entered Spain from France and England in medical discourse, though there are examples of degenerationist thinking in Spain preceding the major influx from France in the 1870s. Galdos interpreted the Naturalist vision with humour and irony using little of the detached "scientific" narrative of the French model. A vein of degenerationist determinism can be perceived in his writing, especially as he portrays the great "degenerative social diseases" of alcoholism, syphilis, tuberculosis and madness. Such an interpretation of these infirmities was common among Spanish physicians as they confronted these conditions of epidemic magnitude that... Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге The Theme of Degeneration in the Work of Benito Perez Galdos (Michael W. Stannard)