“¡Pobre pierna que sólo sirve para andar!” Female (Dis)empowerments, (Dis)ability, and Space in Literary and Filmic Tristana

This current study explores the function of physical space as a metaphor for freedom and sexual expression in Benito Pérez Galdós’s novel Tristana (1892) and Luis Buñuel’s loose filmic adaptation (1970). The female walk, a foundational activity in the formative process of the subject, will serve Tristana as a path towards emancipation and freedom, and as an access to dangerous physical and social spaces. Tristana embodies a deviation from the “women belong in the home” cultural logic that existed in the late-nineteenth century and still prevailed in the first half of the twentieth century. The amputation marks a decisive turning point in the development of Tristana’s journey. However, as I show, the powerful relation between the female and her dwelling space pre- and post-amputation, along with the role of disability, establish significant differences—explained to a certain extent by the historical conditions—between the literary and filmic enunciations: while for Galdós, deviance and restraint go together and disablement serves to incapacitate the able-bodied female and wed her to a life of domesticity, Buñuel enables the disability to provide an empowering physical and social environment and challenge the traditional order.