Mapping a Space-Character Interface in the Narratives of Spain's Generation X
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University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations Spring 2013 Rats in the city: mapping a space-character interface in the narratives of Spain's generation X Corey Michael Rubin University of Iowa Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd Part of the Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons Copyright 2013 Corey Michael Rubin This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2618 Recommended Citation Rubin, Corey Michael. "Rats in the city: mapping a space-character interface in the narratives of Spain's generation X." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2013. https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.q18zwwpj Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd Part of the Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons RATS IN THE CITY: MAPPING A SPACE-CHARACTER INTERFACE IN THE NARRATIVES OF SPAIN’S GENERATION X by Corey Michael Rubin An Abstract Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Spanish in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2013 Thesis Supervisors: Associate Professor Luis Martín-Estudillo Associate Professor Ana Merino 1 ABSTRACT This dissertation analyzes the ways in which the Spanish Generation X writers José Ángel Mañas (b. 1971), Lucía Etxebarria (b. 1966), Gabriela Bustelo (b. 1962), and Pedro Maestre (b. 1967) represent Madrid and other late twentieth-century cityscapes in their respective novels Ciudad rayada (1998), Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes (1998), Veo veo (1996), and Matando dinosaurios con tirachinas (1996). These novels sketch an alarming social portrait of youth dissent in Spain’s nascent democracy, which had relatively recently joined social, political, and economic arms with the rest of Western Europe. I read the representations of Madrid, Edinburgh, Elda, and Alcoy in these narratives as antagonistic and anthropomorphic spaces that stalk, coerce, and then attack the first-person narrators who scurry about them, rat-like. But these characters demonstrate impressive instincts that protect them from death and emotional destruction and strengthen their identities in the face of a postauthoritarian society enmeshed in the forces of global capitalism. These Generation X authors introduce their characters to a discordant physical environment, one that works against the grain of the image Spain sought to show the world in 1992 as Barcelona hosted the Summer Olympics, Seville held the Universal Exposition, and Madrid was recognized as the European Union’s Capital of Culture. Spain was trying to show the world that it had resurrected itself from the ashes of dictatorship to become a modern democracy worthy of a seat at Europe’s table. But Mañas, Etxebarria, Bustelo, and Maestre do not accept that line of thinking. In their renderings, Spain does not emerge as successful in international political and economic arenas but as a highly conflictive nation. 2 Abstract Approved: _______________________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor _______________________________________________________ Title and Department _______________________________________________________ Date _______________________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor _______________________________________________________ Title and Department _______________________________________________________ Date RATS IN THE CITY: MAPPING A SPACE-CHARACTER INTERFACE IN THE NARRATIVES OF SPAIN’S GENERATION X by Corey Michael Rubin A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Spanish in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2013 Thesis Supervisors: Associate Professor Luis Martín-Estudillo Associate Professor Ana Merino Copyright by COREY MICHAEL RUBIN 2013 All Rights Reserved Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL _______________________ PH.D. THESIS _______________ This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of Corey Michael Rubin has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Spanish at the May 2013 graduation. Thesis Committee: ___________________________________ Luis Martín-Estudillo, Thesis Supervisor ___________________________________ Ana Merino, Thesis Supervisor ___________________________________ Thomas E. Lewis ___________________________________ Ana M. Rodríguez-Rodríguez ___________________________________ Cinzia Blum To Elizabeth, David, Charles, and Abigail ii A migrational, or metaphorical, city thus slips into the clear text of the planned and readable city. Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Being a student for the greater part of three decades has created debts with more people than space allows me to acknowledge here. Nevertheless, I would be remiss in not mentioning the teachers, mentors, friends, and members of my family who have contributed most decisively to my success. I begin by thanking Luis Martín-Estudillo and Ana Merino for directing this dissertation, as well as Tom Lewis, Ana Rodríguez- Rodríguez, and Cinzia Blum for serving as members of its advisory committee. I also want to thank Gabriela Bustelo for sharing her valuable insights. I began studying Spanish at the University of Iowa when my eldest son, David, was less than four months old. He is now ten, while his brother, Charlie, is seven, and their sister, Abby, is four. Their ages reflect how long my loving wife, Elizabeth, has supported and encouraged me as one year in this program became two, and two became ten. She never tired of believing, even for a second, that I would graduate. There is no better companion in the world with whom to have traveled this road, and I am proud to say that we reached the destination together. Thank you for patiently standing by my side through so many ups and downs, Elizabeth. I love you! I harbor similar sentiments for my parents, Carole Kathe and David Rubin, whom I want to thank for frequently hosting my family in Florida while I worked from home undistracted. I am most extremely grateful to my father as well for his financial backing, and for modeling such fine examples of hard work and perseverance, ones that I have done my best to follow. Dad, you have taught me to never quit until the job is done, and done right, which is a lesson that has served me well. I extend equal measures of appreciation to my father-in-law, Paul, and my mother-in-law, Geraldine, who have always treated me like a second son. Thank you for your infinite encouragement over the years, the countless hours of childcare, and the iv many meals you had waiting for me when I arrived home from tiring days and nights in Iowa City. I could not have done this without you! To my brother-in-law, Joe, and my sister-in-law, Katie, thank you for your practical advice based on Joe’s writing a dissertation a few years ago. Anytime I needed help, you were always only a phone call or an email away. Thank you, too, for making me an uncle! You were my only hope. To my best friend, Alex Flores, his wife Beth, and his mother, doña Julia, for the friendship and good times we have spent together. Thank you, Alex, for teaching me so much Spanish, and for being such a good friend for so long! To Fanny Roncal Ramírez, Ana Bordería García, Angelique Dwyer, Brittany Tullis, Damaris Puñales-Alpízar, and Gonzalo Campos, with whom I took and taught more classes than I can remember, thank you for always having my back. And most of all, to María Laura Bocaz, who has been an absolutely amazing friend and colleague, thank you for reading so much of my work and for keeping me sane all of these years. You’re the best! I have had amazing mentors and schoolteachers, including Olive Bishop and Corky Schwartz of Kipling Elementary School and Julie Anderson, Ed Fair, Maureen Posner, Ed Saleniek, Beth Sánchez, and Susan Cohen of Deerfield High School. In particular, I would like to express my most heartfelt gratitude to “Señora” Cohen who taught me Spanish for three years. Thank you for doing your job so well. I often think of your wonderful classes and do my best to model them. To my former professors at Cornell College, Sally Farrington-Clute and especially Carol Lacy-Salazar, my undergraduate advisor, whom, along with her husband, Hernán Salazar, I still count among my friends. And although she was not my teacher, I want to thank Marcela Ochoa-Shivapour, also of Cornell College, for showing me the ropes. Thank you all for the many opportunities to return to Cornell as a part-time instructor these past seven years. v To Edmund Burke, Jeffrey Hoover, Derek Buckaloo, and Susan Dobrian, thank you for the tips and suggestions you all graciously offered me the year I taught as a visiting instructor at Coe College. To Óscar Hahn, who championed me in the earlier years of my graduate career, thank you for your advice when it came time to apply to the doctoral program at Iowa, and for the warmth and respect with which you have always treated me. You are, at once, the most famous, and the most humble professor with whom I have crossed paths, and I consider it an honor to have been your student. To Jeanne Mullen, Merry Bullock, Eunice Prosser, and Cindy Fetters, thank you for the amazing administrative work you do, and for the many times each of you went out of your way to make my life easier, even if it meant making yours more difficult. To my three children, David, Charlie, and Abby, the joys of my life, who are undoubtedly ready for Dad to finish this project, I love you so very much! It is fitting to end these acknowledgements with a repeated accolade for Elizabeth, my wife, the mother of my children, and the love of my life. Thank you for standing by me during every microstep of this long and arduous journey. It has not been easy, but we share in this accomplishment together, just as we have shared all of the smaller successes and failures along the way.