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1

“Esa historia no puede contarse”. La dificultad de representar el pasado en dos novelas de Javier Cercas

100%

Potok M.

Studia Romanica Posnaniensia

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2013

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vol. 40

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issue 2

133-142

EN

In two novels based on the subject of war: Soldados de Salamina (“Soldiers of Salamis”) (2001) and Velocidad de la luz (“the Speed of Light”) (2005), Javier Cercas raises the problem of recuperation of a traumatic past through literary discourse. The questions which these novels discuss and which we want to examine here concern complex relations between fiction and reality, history and memory (individual and collective), guilt and responsibility. In order to confront the historical reality from the contemporary perspective, from postmemory, Javier Cercas proposes a narrative with a clear metafictional dimension creating interferences in distinct narrative levels.

2

Pensar a través de la ciudad: La trabajadora de Elvira Navarro y Lectura fácil de Cristina Morales

87%

Potok M.

Studia Romanica Posnaniensia

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2022

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vol. 49

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issue 1

53-66

EN

In so-called “crisis novels” that appeared in Spain following the economic collapse of 2008, the city comes to represent not only the scene of the explicit dramatic situations of the characters (poverty, precarity, unemployment, evictions, homelessness, occupy movement, street protests, or gaps in social services) but also the imagery of decay and conflict. The city comes across as an uncomfortable space, characterised by inhospitable peripheries and abandoned constructions, which is consonant with the sense of helplessness and extreme loneliness of the protagonists. However, in contrast to the paralysis and the nervous breakdown evident in La trabajadora (2014) by Elvira Navarro (alienating perspective), Cristina Morales’s Lectura fácil (2018) represents the urban space as a battlefield that leads to the awareness-raising and the politicization of the experience of a crisis (revolutionary perspective). Both novels, focused on “the right to housing”, come to reveal a great deal of indignation and protest against the neo-liberal policies and the contemporary capitalist city, responsible for exclusion and inequality. Their demands coincide with the political proposal of “the right to the city” (Lefebvre, 1968; Harvey 2013), which raises the possibility of living a worthy life in the city, with an equitable distribution of resources and respect for different sensitivities.

3

Mujer y economía. La “narrativa de la crisis” desde la perspectiva de género

69%

Potok M.

Studia Romanica Posnaniensia

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2020

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vol. 47

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issue 1

93-105

EN

For the last two decades, especially since the 2008 economic crisis, there has been a notable increase in literary works exploring social, political and economic themes in Spain. The growing number of “crisis novels” has reignited the debate about the political role of literature and its ability to challenge and modify existing social models. This article seeks to highlight the female perspective within this discussion.The aim of my analysis of the five novels written by contemporary Spanish female authors (Belén Gopegui, Cristina Fallarás, Cristina Morales, Elvira Navarro and Marta Sanz) and published between 2007 and 2018 is to expose the distinctive female experience as represented in the literature, where it often turns into undermining the system. If women’s literary practice takes the form of political intervention, it is not just because of the collapse of the fundamental trust in the state and its institutions, but mainly due to the shifts in the distribution of the sensible, as we tend to understand the politics of literature after Jacques Rancière.

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“Esa historia no puede contarse”. La dificultad de representar el pasado en dos novelas de Javier Cercas

Pensar a través de la ciudad: La trabajadora de Elvira Navarro y Lectura fácil de Cristina Morales

Mujer y economía. La “narrativa de la crisis” desde la perspectiva de género