The Pennsylvania State University the Graduate School College of The

The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts MASS CULTURE IN FOUR SPANISH NOVELS, 1982-1994 A Thesis in Spanish by Timothy P. Reed © 2003 Timothy P. Reed Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2003 The thesis of Timothy P. Reed was reviewed and approved* by the following: Javier Escudero Associate Professor of Spanish Thesis Adviser Chair of Committee Aníbal González Pérez Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Spanish William Blue Professor of Spanish Ralph Rodríguez Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature John Lipski Professor of Spanish and Linguistics Head of the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT Using the theoretical differences between high and low culture as an analytical paradigm, this dissertation studies how four best selling novels published after the death of General Franco examine post dictatorial Spanish society. The introductory chapter explores critical writing about mass culture from the end of the nineteenth century through postmodern theory, followed by an overview of existing criticism dedicated to the theme of mass culture in Spanish literature. A summary of Spain’s major political developments since 1978 then helps to establish the social and historical context in which the novels were published. In Rosa Montero’s La función delta (1981), contrasting representations of mass culture both praise its potential to encourage the imagination and imply that it can impede the development of relationships. The novel criticizes a society that is primarily concerned with the satisfaction of desire, but also suggests that storytelling, love, and solidarity are possible solutions to existential angst. The text proposes the need for society to embrace fiction but simultaneously warns against its seductive and potentially harmful nature. iv Antonio Muñoz Molina’s El invierno en Lisboa (1987) examines the relationship between fiction and perception. While on one hand mass culture offers aesthetic models around which the plot and the characters are constructed, it also blurs the boundaries between illusion and reality to show that both are characterized by deceptively utopian ideals. The work’s focus on the textual nature of reality underscores the ubiquitous presence of mass culture in the contemporary world and highlights the inevitable mediation of perception by popular culture. Eduardo Mendicutti’s Una mala noche la tiene cualquiera (1988) relates mass culture to gendered identity as it influences the construction of a transvestite’s female persona. Despite the protagonist’s struggle for political and sexual emancipation, the mass cultural icons that she regards as symbols of liberation are problematic because they also promote traditional gender roles and encourage conformity with paternalistic tradition. Mass culture is thus depicted as reinforcing patriarchal standards and potentially detrimental to the subject. José Ángel Mañas’ Historias del Kronen (1992) exemplifies mass culture’s ability to negatively influence the individual, increasing his need for stimulation and v potentially resulting in moral corruption, alienation, increased violence, and a break down of human relations. The novel depicts the destructive nature of consumerism and stresses the importance of intellectual stimulation that may help the subject to avoid the dangers depicted in the work. In the conclusion, commonalities between the novels are highlighted to show how each text uses the binaries related to the theoretical division between high and low culture to explore several of the political and cultural preoccupations brought about by Spain’s rapid immersion in a neo-democratic society. The relationship between mass culture and the repression of historical memory in this body of work ideologically aligns it with previous literature that also addresses the suppression of political discourse in post dictatorial Spain. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgments viii Introduction 1 Theories of Mass Culture 4 Mass Cultural Criticism in Hispanic Literature 31 Spanish Literature, Thesis Presentation and Novels 41 Historical and Political Context, 1975-1996 55 Chapter 1: Rosa Montero’s La función Delta 71 Representations of the Media 79 Mass Culture, Writing and Love 96 The Electronic Revolution and the Criticism of Capitalism 108 Conclusions 118 Chapter 2: Antonio Muñoz Molina’s El invierno en Lisboa 123 Cinema, Imitation, and Narrative Agency 133 Mass Culture, Love, and the Illusion of Happiness 141 Music, Escapism, and Alienation 149 Live Performance, Recordings, and the Repression of Memory 158 vii Conclusions 166 Chapter 3: Eduardo Mendicutti’s Una mala noche la tiene cualquiera 173 Cinema and the Mediation of Perception 179 The Dual Identity of a Transitional Body 183 Mass Cultural Icons as Representatives of Female Strength 189 Uniforms and Masculine Authority Figures 197 Political and Ideological Ambiguity 212 Conclusions 215 Chapter 4: José Ángel Mañas’ Historias del Kronen 220 Music, Alienation, and Degradation 226 Cinema, Escapism, and Social Conditioning 233 Cinematic Role Models and Violence 243 Television, Spectacle, and the Dissolution of the Family 251 Conclusions 256 Conclusions 263 Lists of Works Consulted 279 viii Acknowledgments Thanks… …to Javier Escudero, for introducing me to the field of contemporary Spanish literature, directing this project from Brazil, and for all of his help throughout my graduate career, …to Aníbal González Pérez, Bob Blue, and Ralph Rodríguez for participating on my committee and for offering helpful and encouraging advice. …to the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese for providing me with a rewarding graduate experience, …and to Rosa, for everything. 1 Introduction In the second half of the twentieth century the semantic power of the image has gradually become the focal point of much scholarly attention. With the continued development and expansion of mass cultural media such as television, radio, cinema, and the Internet, images are now considered by many to be the fundamental producers of meaning in the contemporary world.1 Accordingly, critical attitudes towards mass culture have reached a curious crossroads, for whereas in the past they were generally negative, scholars are now forced to acknowledge its significance and concede that it is often worthy of academic study. As such, the intellectual tradition of classifying popular culture as a “lesser” or “inferior” genre is challenged by newer perspectives that deconstruct the theoretical separation between the high and the low to show that mass culture can provide meaningful insight on social relations, aesthetic production, and on the construction of identities in modern society. 1 One of the first important works concerning the importance of images is Guy Debord’s 1967 The Society of the Spectacle. He became the intellectual leader of a group of French scholars called the Simulation group, who theorized that originality scarcely exists and everything is just an imitation of something else. 2 But what exactly is mass culture and why has the intellectual elite consistently considered it to be an essentially negative construct? Due to its numerous genres and distinct manifestations, it is difficult or impossible to pinpoint an exact meaning to the term. Perhaps “mass culture” initially emerged when the advent of the printing press allowed the multitudes to have easy access to written texts for the first time. When the Industrial Revolution further enabled the masses to consume a large number of previously unavailable products, the upper classes started using the expression to suggest that anything produced in large numbers for many people was a non-elitist and anti- intellectual form of culture. Mass culture is often defined as any product with little aesthetic value whose primary function is to entertain rather than to serve or to enlighten human kind. As Patrick Brantlinger suggests in Bread and Circuses: Theories of Mass Culture as Social Decay (1983), a relatively inclusive definition is any cultural phenomenon designed for and shared by many people in an industrialized society (2). However one classifies it, mass culture has been criticized throughout the years as inferior to high art and is still looked down upon by many academics.2 2 Brantlinger offers an explanation of the origin of the 3 With the proliferation of technology and the expansion of global markets in the Western world, mass culture is becoming an increasingly significant component of modern life. It forms part of the individual’s daily experience, dominates the airwaves, is readily accessible through cinema, television, radio, and the Internet, and ultimately becomes another source of information that influences emotions, thoughts, social expectations, and the way in which knowledge itself is acquired. The contemporary subject grows up in an environment mediated by multiple texts of mass culture and is inevitably affected by the images that he is exposed to throughout his life. Whereas in the past works of “high art” were celebrated because of their reputable aesthetic, social, and moral principles, mass culture now constitutes a large percentage of all art consumed today and is thereby more significant than ever before. Academics differ in their assessment of this term “mass culture”: “The phrase “mass culture” originated in discussions of mass movements and the effects of propaganda campaigns,

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