University of Wales Press Carmen Martin Gaite: Poetics, Visual Elements and Space (Iberian and Latin American Studies)

This book reconstructs the poetics of Carmen Martin Gaite by viewing the concept of journey as a fundamental principle upon which she bases and elaborates her narrative writing of the 1990s. Five novels published in this period receive critical attention, all of which coincide with the last trips taken by the writer to New York: Caperucita en Manhattan (1990), Nubosidad variable (1992), La reina de las nieves (1994), Lo raro es vivir (1996) and Irse de casa (1998). To the extent that the journey is the essence of the narrative under consideration, the concept is analysed as an aesthetic practice and an attempt to identify a series of actions, which allow us to link the writer's novels with two areas that have previously received only scant critical scrutiny: geography and the visual dimension. This book presents a comparative and interdisciplinary analysis of space in Martin Gaite's narrative as well as in her collages, drawings and paintings. Review Through the lens of geographical space (interior, exterior, urban, domestic, visual – physical places as well as the worlds of dream, fantasy, and memory), Ester Bautista Botello studies Carmen Martín Gaite’s ample production in order to discern a poetics of space in her work, what Martín Gaite might see as “the journey as the centre of all storytelling”. She draws not only from the author’s narrative fictions, but also from her musings on the process of writing (articles, lectures, and collections). Well documented and thoughtfully constructed, this book offers a new way for readers of one of Spain’s foremost twentieth-century writers to approach (or discover) her important work.’ Emeritus Professor David T. Gies, University of Virginia About the Author Ester Bautista Botello is Lecturer in Literary Studies at the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro (UAQ, Mexico); her main research interests are women's writing and interdisciplinary works involving literature and the arts.