Medio, Laforet, Moix and Martín Gaite, or forging the feminine novel on the threshold of the new millennium: A Bakhtinian perspective

Char Prieto, Purdue University

Abstract

This project investigates the linkage between four books by four female Spanish writers: Dolores Medio's Nosotros los Rivero (1953), Nada (1944), written by Carmen Laforet, Julia (1968), whose author is Ana María Moix and El cuarto de atrás (1978), authored by Carmen Martín Gaite. These works, whose plots are about different decades and by writers who belong to various regions of Spain, could be considered the genesis of the Spanish feminine novel on the threshold of the twenty-first century. The books opened the door to subsequent literature written by women. Innovative themes, perspectives, and techniques distinguish the ‘boom’ of feminine writing in the 1980s and 1990s. It is also characterized by writers who speak in their own voices, capable of self-determination, autonomous definition and freedom of action. This dissertation demonstrates that the books formerly mentioned influence this type of literature. The authors broke the restraint model established by a fascist regime, not only by writing, but also by exposing a society surrounded by a totalitarian power and by rejecting the aesthetic of the Francoist canon. These books are a novelty in the cultural context of Franco's Spain because all of them refuse to accept the subjugation of women and subverted the repressive discourse of patriarchy. All four works insist on a feminine protagonist who expresses and represents the problems within their country with a female voice. The context of sociopolitical criticism produced by the authors of these novels, along with an interest in a critical discourse, gives them a certain standing and makes them atypical of Spanish culture during the Francoist period. For this reason it could be said that the books represent the origins of Spanish feminine literature on the verge of the new millennium. This project is also devoted to building upon the theoretical works of Bakhtin and his concepts about the chronotope, polyphony, heteroglossia and the novel of development. It also presents the idea of fictional autobiographical genre in relation to the works of Medio, Laforet, Moix, and Martín Gaite.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Flory, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Romance literature|Womens studies

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