An analysis of texts representing multiple regional cultures within Spain while examining the Gothic haunting motif in post-Franco Spanish literature.
Employing a theoretical framework in memory and trauma studies and placing emphasis on the inclusion of women's voices that are frequently left out of Spanish Gothic scholarship, Spectral Spain is the first study to provide an in-depth study of spectrality and haunting in the Gothic literature of contemporary Spain. Through close readings of eleven main texts, Dr. Heidi Backes examines haunting as the perfect motif for Spanish authors to portray the tension between modernity and the imposition of a nationalized tradition throughout the twentieth century—noting not just the trauma of the civil war and the resulting dictatorship of Franco, but also the continuing and widespread disenchantment during and after the transition. It is a study of multiple manifestations of individual and collective trauma in texts written after the transition, which will assist readers' understanding of the relationships between Gothic fear, trauma, and spectrality.
By:
Heidi Backes
Imprint: University of Wales Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
Spine: 18mm
ISBN: 9781837721269
ISBN 10: 1837721262
Series: Gothic Literary Studies
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 18 August 2024
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: No Longer Our Product
Series Editors’ Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction: Spectral Spain Part One: Haunted Houses. Introduction. 1 A Ghost in the Looking Glass: Reflections on Women’s Autonomy and Catalan Independence in Mercè Rodoreda’s A Broken Mirror 2 Shifting Borders: Race, Class and the Phantasmagoric Other in Bene by Adelaida García Morales 3 A (Haunted) Room of One’s Own: The Evolution of Gender Roles and Female Sexuality in Adelaida García Morales’s Aunt Águeda and Elisa’s Secret 4 War at Home: The Haunted House as Battlefield in Ana María Matute’s Family Demons Part Two: Silent Spaces. Introduction. 5 The Ghost Howls at Night: Silence, Death and the Politics of Fear in Julio Llamazares’s Wolf Moon 6 Life in a Ghost Town: Gothic Landscapes, Rural Memory and the Silence of Loss in Julio Llamazares’s The Yellow Rain 7 Unspeakable Truths: Silence, Spectrality and the Artifacts of Memory in Cristina Fernández Cubas’s The Swing Part Three: Traumatic Memories. Introduction. 8 Violent Childhood: Dark Imagination and the Trauma of Progress in Espido Freire’s Irlanda 9 The End of Innocence: Childhood Fantasy and Monstrous Reality in Ana María Matute’s Uninhabited Paradise 10 As the Ghost Speaks: Bearing Witness to Fascist Horror in Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Prisoner of Heaven Conclusion Notes Bibliography
Dr. Heidi Backes is an associate professor of Spanish at Missouri State University, where she specializes in contemporary Spanish fiction, with her latest research focusing on the neo-Gothic movement in Spain.
