Restriction: Must be a SPAN graduate student or have permission of the instructor to enroll.

The self-described "Radical Naturalists" were a group of young Spanish writers who worked to achieve the culmination of Emile Zola's literary project and to reject the mainstream Catholic Naturalism dominating the Spanish literary scene in the 1880s and 1890s. We will explore the principal concerns and motives for writing in their novels, which manifested reactions to public discourse related to communal hygiene initiatives, the body, women's status, the nature of sexuality, and scientific debates on evolution, determinism, and experimental medicine. We will study, discuss, and apply current critical and theoretical approaches to the primary texts we read.