O'neil, Haley, Spanish Literary Journalism at the Turn of The

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Spanish Literary Journalism at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century: Las columnas literarias of Maruja Torres, Quim Monzó, and Manuel Rivas (1996-2004) A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Languages and Literature by Haley O’Neil Committee in charge: Professor Silvia Bermúdez, Chair Professor Ellen McCracken Professor Leo Cabranes Grant June 2011 UMI Number: 3473779 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent on the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI 3473779 Copyright 2011 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 The dissertation of Haley O’Neil is approved. ____________________________________________ Leo Cabranes Grant ____________________________________________ Ellen McCracken ____________________________________________ Silvia Bermúdez, Committee Chair June 2011 Spanish Literary Journalism at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century: Las columnas literarias of Maruja Torres, Quim Monzó, and Manuel Rivas (1996-2004) Copyright © 2011 by Haley O’Neil iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the many individuals who have helped me complete this dissertation. First and foremost, I thank Silvia Bermúdez, whose mentorship and guidance was invaluable at every stage of the process. I extend my thanks to my committee members Leo Cabranes-Grant and Ellen McCracken for their enthusiasm for the project and comments along the way. I also want to acknowledge the many professors that I have had the opportunity to study and work with at UC Santa Barbara including Laura Marqués Pascual, Juan Pablo Lupi, Dorothy Chun, João Camilo dos Santos, and Harvey Sharrer. I want to give special mention to the late professors Timothy McGovern and Juan Carlos Letora whose kindness and generosity I will always appreciate. I would also like to acknowledge the many institutions that provided financial support for this project including the Ministry of Culture Program for Cultural Cooperation, the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation for European Studies, UCSB Graduate Division, and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Finally, to my loving husband and family, thanks for everything and then some. iv VITA OF HALEY O’NEIL June 2011 EDUCATION Bachelor of Arts, Spanish and Anthropology, Skidmore College, May 2002 (magna cum laude) Master of Arts, Spanish, University of California, Santa Barbara, June 2006 Doctor of Philosophy, Hispanic Languages and Literature, Emphasis in Applied Linguistics, University of California, Santa Barbara, June 2011 PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT 2004-2011: Teaching Assistant, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of California, Santa Barbara Summer 2010-2011: Instructor, Excel at Amherst College Summer 2002-2009: Instructor, Assistant Director, Putney Student Travel Excel Madrid/Barcelona 2002-2004: Spanish Teacher, the Field School PUBLICATIONS “Ventanas como espejos.” (translation). Quimera Dec. 2009: 19-23. “José Limón.” Encyclopedia of Latino Folklore. (forthcoming). “Email from: Los Angeles.” (translation) Quimera Apr. 2008: 94-95. “Peligro: Alain Badiou. De cómo el “nuevo” Badiou se parece mucho al viejo.” (translation) Quimera May 2007: 18-22. “Negrismo, Insularismo, and the Revision of Cubanidad in Virgilio Piñera’s La isla en peso.” Divergencias 5:1(2007). v “The Dehumanization of the Feminine Figure in Bécquer’s Rimas.” Mester (2006): 98-110. GRANTS AND AWARDS Dean’s Fellowship, 2009-2010 Borchard European Studies Fellowship, 2009 Program for Cultural Cooperation Grant from Spanish Ministry of Culture, 2008 Teaching Assistant Instructional Development Grant, 2008 Outstanding Student in a Portuguese Literature Course, 2008 Graduate Humanities Research Grant, 2008 Doctoral Travel Grant, 2008 Wofsy Travel Grant, 2007, 2008, 2009 Samuel A. Wofsy Memorial Award for Outstanding M.A. Student, 2006 Sojna P. Karsen Awards for Excellence in Spanish, Skidmore College, 2002 Nancy P. Healy Scholarship for Academic Achievement, Skidmore College, 2002 PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS “Historical Memory in Manuel Rivas’ Literary Journalism.” Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Conference, 2010 “Bringing the Middle East to Spain: Maruja Torres’ Columns in El País.” Mid- America Conference on Hispanic Literature, 2009 “Invading Species: Quim Monzó’s Critique of Urban Tourism.” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, 2009 “El escriptor no és un profeta: The Demystification of Literature in Quim Monzó’s Literary Journalism.” California State, Dominguez Hill’s 31st International vi Conference on Hispanic Literature, 2009 “Beyond Opinion: Quim Monzó’s Literary Journalism.” Invited speaker at the Colloquium on Catalan Culture, UCSB, 2008 “Quina Ricor!: Questioning the Value of Bilingualism in Quim Monzo’s Columns.” Dialogues in Twentieth-Century Hispanism, University of Ottawa, 2008 “The Space of the Sick: Illness is the Narrative of Three Contemporary Spanish Authors.” Mid- America Conference on Hispanic Literature, 2007 “Primitivism, Insularism and the Revision of Cubanidad in Virgilio Pinera’s La isla en Peso.” University of Texas Conference on Hispanic Literature, 2007 “Virgilio Piñera, José Lezama Lima, and Nicolás Guillén: Visions of Cubanidad.” Consortium for Language, Culture and Theory Roundtable, 2007 “La liberación estética de Delmira Agustini: Cuatro poemas de El libro blanco: frágil.” GRAPHSY: Symposium on Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Languages, Literature and Linguistics. Georgetown University, 2006 PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society North American Catalan Society Sigma Delta Pi Honor Society Percilean Honor Society, Skidmore College Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Modern Language Association vii ABSTRACT Spanish Literary Journalism at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century: Las columnas literarias of Maruja Torres, Quim Monzó, and Manuel Rivas (1996-2004) by Haley O’Neil At the turn of the twenty-first century the Spanish press sees a boom in literary journalism, particularly columnas literarias, short opinion articles written regularly by established fiction authors. In Spanish Literary Journalism at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century: Las columnas literarias of Maruja Torres, Quim Monzó, and Manuel Rivas (1996-2004) I examine literary columns published by three of Spain’s most popular and successful authors during the years of the presidency of José María Aznar. I understand literary columnists as writer-intellectuals who offer critical opinions to a wide reading public in the pages of the daily press. I situate columns of democratic Spain within a tradition of literary journalism with its roots in nineteenth century cuadros de costumbre that reemerges during the transition to democracy to become by end of the twentieth century a staple in the Spanish press. My analysis of literary columns focuses on how columnists use their particular literary style to offer unique perspectives towards current events and debates. In the first chapter I understand the personal and aggressive narrative voice viii of Torres’ columns as the way in which she counters the purported objectivity and neutrality of the news. The second chapter focuses on how the characteristic cynicism of Monzó’s columns denaturalizes the tenets of the Catalan nation-building project. In the third chapter I examine how the poetic, dense style of Rivas’ columns puts into question the linearity of Spain’s contemporary history. Spanish Literary Journalism at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century aims to further the critical evaluation of the literary careers of Torres, Monzó, and Rivas while also proposing that by way of columnas literarias literary authors have become some of the most visible public intellectuals of democratic Spain. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction: Spanish Literary Journalism at the Turn of the 21st Century ....... 1-35 II. Chapter 1: The Critical Obsessions of Maruja Torres’ Literary Columns ..... 36-71 III. Chapter 2: Quim Monzó and the Cynical Catalan Intellectual .................... 72-111 IV. Chapter 3: The Small Truths of Manuel Rivas' Literary Journalism……..112-144 V. Conclusion……………………………………………………………...….145-153 VI. Works Cited ............................................................................................... 154-172 x Introduction: Spanish Literary Journalism of the Turn of the Twenty-First Century 1. Introduction With the approach of the twenty-first century and the consolidation of Spain’s democracy, one witnessed an increase in the participation of the literary author in journalism. Columnas literarias, short literary pieces published regularly by established fiction authors in the daily press, become a daily staple in all major newspapers and mark of one the distinctive features of the Spanish press.1 Several critics have noticed the prevalence of literary columns at the turn of the twenty-first century: Alexis Grohmann describes “un auge sin parangón de la columna” (El columnismo 11), Luisa Santamaría Suárez states that literary columns are “el lugar donde mejor se alberga la literatura” (1), and Fernando Valls sees

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