Keywords

Bustelo, Gabriela, Veo veo criticism and interpretation, Feminism and literature in Spain, Spanish fiction, subjectivity in literature, Women and literature

Abstract

One of the most salient features of contemporary Spanish fiction is the solid participation of women in literary creation, particularly that of novels. While in the 1970s there were isolated figures, in the 80s and with the consolidation of democracy, the number grew sharply; in the 90s, they multiplied their presence and their quality continues to be outstanding. In spite of the prejudices of sexist power, a good segment of the critics accepts that today a wider and more valuable group of female novelists has been capable of constructing themes, techniques and discourses differing from the predominant one. It is not about claiming that there exists an incompatibility between male and female literature, nor that there are two literatures; rather, it is about the development of individual strategies of permanence and about the persistence of different perspectives within the same human activity. In order to understand the argument raised, chapter I of the present work is set historically in Spain following the fall of the Franco dictatorship, the context of literature and the birth of the new narrative. It is not only within the local national frame that postmodern narrators are involved. It becomes just as important to consider the fall of old regimes throughout the world, the end of the Cold War and the death of communism, on one side; on the other, the phenomenon of economic globalization and the unavoidable transnational vision of cultural movements, which elements travel across the oceans and meet in a discourse about "the end of utopias." Within this framework, female writers have had the incentive of the advent of democracy in Spain, its social consequences, the social acquiescence of "la Movida" and the progress of the conquers of women. The process of cultural change in Spain is being analyzed from the field of cultural studies. However, and serving as a portrait of postmodern fragmentary thought, it is now possible to inscribe a generation of writers that have incorporated elements of audiovisual language and rock music, as well as other elements of popular culture as fundamental substance for fiction, which demands for a new critical reflection. This group has been convened under the label of Generation X. Within this emerging generation, emphasis will be made on the consolidation of female writers in the Spanish cultural setting of the XXI century. Chapter II will delve into the new literary spaces in Spain, their recent legacy, clashing points of views of literary critics and the referential frame of postmodern philosophical thought, all which is conjugated with the appearance of third-wave feminism. Chapter III analyzes the novel Veo Veo, by Gabriela Bustelo, and how it relates to the theoretical postulates of new feminism. The study of the text finds a relationship between the various perspectives taken by the narrator-protagonist in the process of searching for her identity and constructing the female subject according to difference feminism. Finally, this approach to one of the texts and one of the authors of the wide spectrum of contemporary Spanish female writers, attempts to expose that through their innovating fiction and the preponderant role and attention given to their female characters, a contribution is made from literature towards the reflections on the multiple ways in which the female subject paves its way across patriarchal society.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2011

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Nalbone, Lisa

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

Foreign Languages and Literatures

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0004019

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0004019

Language

Spanish

Release Date

August 2011

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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