Resumen de María Carbonell Sánchez y los comienzos de los estudios femeninos de Cervantes: las mujeres escritoras, las Escuelas Normales y el tercer centenario de Don Quijote (1905)

Ricardo Castells

• Don Quixote’s third centenary of 1905 represents a celebration of Spanish national unity following the Disaster of 1898. More than a century later, the year 1905 is mostly remembered for the writings of male authors such as Unamuno, Azorín, and Menéndez y Pelayo. Nevertheless, the centenary is also an important celebration for women writers such as Concha Espina, Paz de Borbón, and Carmen de Burgos. Moreover, the teachers and students in female normal schools participate actively in this commemoration. María Carbonell Sánchez of Valencia is the best example of this cultural phenomenon, as her “Las mujeres en el Quijote” affirms not only the necessity of female interpretations of the novel, but more importantly presents Cervantes—perhaps for the first time—as a specifically feminist writer.