Spectral Spain
Haunted Houses, Silent Spaces and Traumatic Memories in Post-Franco Gothic Fiction
Published on 15. May 2024
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-1-83772-126-9 (ISBN)
Description
Spectral Spain examines the Gothic haunting motif in post-Franco Spanish literature. With a theoretical framework in memory and trauma studies, and a particular emphasis on the inclusion of women's voices, this book is the first to provide an in-depth study of spectrality and haunting in the Gothic literature of contemporary Spain. Through close readings of eleven main texts, the author examines haunting as the perfect motif for Spanish authors to portray the tension between modernity and the imposition of a monocultural, nationalised tradition throughout the twentieth century - noting not just the trauma of the civil war and resulting dictatorship of Franco, but also the continuing and widespread disenchantment during and after the Transition. Through its references to the contemporary debate surrounding historical memory, Spectral Spain demonstrates the relevance of the Gothic in Spanish literature, and the continued ghostly returns of the past in the socio-political anxieties of the present.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Wales
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
470 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83772-126-9 (9781837721269)
DOI
10.1234/b11557
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Heidi Backes
Spectral Spain
Haunted Houses, Silent Spaces and Traumatic Memories in Post-Franco Gothic Fiction
E-Book
05/2024
1st Edition
University of Wales Press
€32.49
Available for download
Person
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.
Content
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 Merce Rodoreda's A Broken Mirror
2 Shifting Borders: Race, Class and the Phantasmagoric Other in Bene by Adelaida Garcia Morales
3 A (Haunted) Room of One's Own: The Evolution of Gender Roles and Female Sexuality in Adelaida Garcia Morales's Aunt Agueda and Elisa's Secret
4 War at Home: The Haunted House as Battlefield in Ana Maria 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 Fernandez 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 Maria Matute's Uninhabited Paradise
10 As the Ghost Speaks: Bearing Witness to Fascist Horror in Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Prisoner of Heaven
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography?
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 Merce Rodoreda's A Broken Mirror
2 Shifting Borders: Race, Class and the Phantasmagoric Other in Bene by Adelaida Garcia Morales
3 A (Haunted) Room of One's Own: The Evolution of Gender Roles and Female Sexuality in Adelaida Garcia Morales's Aunt Agueda and Elisa's Secret
4 War at Home: The Haunted House as Battlefield in Ana Maria 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 Fernandez 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 Maria Matute's Uninhabited Paradise
10 As the Ghost Speaks: Bearing Witness to Fascist Horror in Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Prisoner of Heaven
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography?