Modernity and Madrid

Ambiguity, contrast, paradox. These descriptors have been employed by cultural critics and theorists alike to describe both the often ineffable concept of modernity and the mercurial development and urbanization of the Spanish capital city of Madrid. This descriptive overlap is not surprising, given that the urban experience of the metropolis has been inextricably linked to both modernity and its literature. ¹ But the Spanish capital is unlike any other European city, exhibiting an ‘unlikeness’ or ‘quirkiness’ that inevitably surfaces in the works of those who attempt to recreate this urban space through writing. ² In tracing a historical narrative of Madrid’s progression through modernity, Deborah Parsons captures the paradox and contradiction of life in this particular Spanish city, a crossroads of ‘confusion and fascination, produced by a clash of traditional local colour and sporadically energetic modernization’. ³ This urban milieu of ambiguity, contrast and rapid growth is indeed a fitting stage for a modern novel; the cultural production created by city-dwelling Spaniards during the early twentieth century reflects these unbalanced and even unstable historical and cultural conditions. This chapter focuses on Carmen de Burgos’ 1917 novel La rampa (The Ramp), ⁴ given that professional women like Burgos – and her fictional, working-class female protagonist – themselves occupied a paradoxical, even ambiguous space within Madrid’s modernizing urban cartography. As Madrid expanded and transformed into a modern, commercial centre, its rapid growth afforded aspiring writers (like Burgos) and working-class women (like the fictional Isabel) new opportunities for employment in the public sphere – a liberating sense of anonymity that was impossible to experience in small rural towns. ⁵ Having relocated to Madrid from provincial Almeria in 1901 to escape an unhappy marriage and abusive husband, Burgos initially found work in the city as a teacher before moving on to work for a newspaper, becoming one of the first female journalists in Spain. ⁶ She eventually found her niche among many of the most influential, male-dominated literary and intellectual circles of the city. ⁷ But her success did not come without gossip or speculation about her personal life and relationships that her male contemporaries did not have to contend with. ⁸