Life-Writing in Carmen Martín Gaite's Cuadernos De Todo and Her Novels of the 1990S

1 DIARIES, LETTERS AND REFLECTIONS: LIFE-WRITING IN CARMEN MARTÍN GAITE‟S CUADERNOS DE TODO AND HER NOVELS OF THE 1990s Maria-José Blanco University College London A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 2 I, Maria-José Blanco confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Maria-José Blanco _________________________________________________ 3 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the various kinds of material (including diary-style writing, impressions of people and places, and notes on work in progress) collected in Carmen Martìn Gaite‟s Cuadernos de todo and subsequently considers the significance of diaries, letters, and life-writing in her novels of the 1990s. After observations on the importance of diaries and letters in women‟s literature, there is an assessment of such narrative material in the contemporary novel and references to how Foucault‟s essay on „self-writing‟ serves to channel the ideas of the self-reflective capacities of letters and diaries. There follows an examination of Cuadernos de todo, with particular reference to the use of diaries and letters in Martín Gaite‟s work, their relationship to the „writing-cure‟. The section dedicated to Cuadernos de todo opens with an analysis of the first cuadernos (which were written in the 1960s) as notebooks used by the author as a site for her reflections on society and other matters, themes which are developed in her later novels. Next, there is a discussion of how Martín Gaite used these cuadernos as a writer‟s notebooks, for developing ideas on her novels and essays, showing the close link between the authors „diaries‟ and her work, between life and literature. The cuadernos americanos constitute the last part of the assessment of Cuadernos de todo. Written during different periods the author spent on lecture-tours and as a university teacher in the United States, these cuadernos americanos are particularly significant for her development as a novelist. They reveal a new approach to diary-writing as, free from the family and the social commitments she had in Spain, the author found more time for reflection. The last of the cuadernos americanos is also a clear example of the use of diary writing as therapy, of the „writing-cure‟. The final part of the thesis focuses on Martìn Gaite‟s four novels of the 1990s – in which the use of diaries, letters, and life-writing is especially significant. Here the theories of Donald Winnicott and Nancy Chodorow on child development and motherhood, themes which run troughout Martín Gaite‟s writing, are discussed to shed additional light on the author‟s approach to life-writing and fiction. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 CHAPTER 1. LETTERS, DIARIES AND SELF-REFLECTIVE WRITING 25 Letters and Diaries in Women‟s Writing 25 Diaries versus Letters 33 The Epistolary Novel: Women as Object and Subject of the Discourse 37 Reflective Writing: The Writing-cure 41 Diaries and Letters in Contemporary Spanish Women‟s Writing 46 Conclusion 48 CHAPTER 2. LETTERS AND DIARIES IN CARMEN MARTIN GAITE‟S WORK 50 CHAPTER 3. CUADERNOS DE TODO: CARMEN MARTIN GAITE‟S DIARIES 66 Introducing Cuadernos de todo 66 The First Cuadernos de todo (Beginning 8 December 1961) 76 The Writer‟s Workshop 90 The American Notebooks 109 Conclusion 125 CHAPTER 4. NUBOSIDAD VARIABLE: LETTERS AND DIARIES, FEMALE FRIENDSHIP THROUGH WRITING 128 Sofìa‟s Diary: „Un ajuste de cuentas con el tiempo‟ 133 Mariana‟s Letters: From Projection to Introspection through Writing 144 Conclusion 151 5 CHAPTER 5. LA REINA DE LAS NIEVES: A PERSONAL SEARCH THROUGH DIARIES AND LETTERS 154 Leonardo‟s Notebooks: Writing (oneself)/Discovering (oneself) 156 The Letters: Searching for the Mother 165 The Fairy Tale: A Psychoanalytic Perspective 170 Conclusion 176 CHAPTER 6. LO RARO ES VIVIR: PERSONAL REFLECTIONS FROM HISTORICAL RESEARCH 179 Historical Research: Waking Up to Life by Diving into a World of Lies 181 Personal Written Reflections 186 Mother/Daughter Relationship: The Future, Maternity 189 Conclusion 195 CHAPTER 7. IRSE DE CASA: LIFE THROUGH THE CINEMATOGRAPHIC LENS, WRITING ONE‟S OWN LIFE-SCRIPT 197 Mother/Daughter Relationship: Letters of Love and Friendship 199 The Greek Chorus: Themes and Characters of the Novel 207 The Script: Taking Charge of One‟s Own Life Through Writing 211 Conclusion 215 CONCLUSION 217 APPENDIX: SOME AMERICAN COLLAGES 225 WORK CITED 234 6 INTRODUCTION Carmen Martín Gaite (1925-2000) was, in the second half of the twentieth-century, a prolific author who cultivated many different literary genres, starting in 1947 with the publication of her first poem, „La barca nevada‟, and then her first short story, „Desde el umbral‟, published in 1948 in Trabajos y días when she was a student at the University of Salamanca.1 She was subsequently identified as one of the group of writers known as the „Generación del Mediosiglo‟ or „Generación del 50‟. She worked continuously until her death in 2000, and her unfinished novel Los parentescos was published in 2001. Like many other fiction writers of her generation, Martín Gaite began as a short- story writer, publishing her first collection, Las ataduras, in 1960 and Cuentos completos in 1978. El balneario, her first short novel, winner of the the Premio Café Gijón 1954, and published in 1955, can be seen as a literary bridge between her short stories and her novels. Martín Gaite published her first novel, Entre visillos, in 1957. It won the Premio Nadal and was followed by Ritmo lento in 1963, a finalist in the Biblioteca Breve de Narrativa competition of 1962. She published nine full-length novels in total, two novellas, El balneario and Caperucita en Manhattan (1990), as well as some fiction for children. Her novelistic career was marked by a number of periods of „silence‟ which allow us to divide her output into three main phases: the 1950s and 1960s, with the publication of the first two novels; the 1970s, with the appearance of Retahílas (1974), Fragmentos de interior (1976), and El cuarto de atrás (1978), which 1 In the Biblioteca Virtual Cervantes, it is now possible to read her first short stories and poems published in Trabajos y días (Salamanca 1946-51): „Desde el umbral‟ (1948) and „Historia de un mendigo‟ (1950), and the poems „La barca nevada‟ (1947), „En mi vejez‟ (1949) and „Destello‟ (1949). 7 won the Premio Nacional de Literatura; and the 1990s, which saw the publication of her last novels, Nubosidad variable (1992), La Reina de las Nieves (1994), Lo raro es vivir (1996) and Irse de casa (1998). Although El cuarto de atrás is a novel which took the author in a new direction in her career, the death of her parents in 1978, especially her mother‟s,2 and most importantly the death of her daughter in 1985, meant that she did not published another novel until the 1990s, although she continued publishing other work. During those years and until the publication of Nubosidad variable in 1992, the author took refuge in children‟s literature and focussed her energies on finishing some of the work she had been preparing for years, publishing books such as El cuento de nunca acabar in 1983 or Usos amorosos de la postguerra española in 1987. During these periods of „silence‟, Martìn Gaite never stopped researching and writing. In the 1960s she started her research on historical and cultural material, stating in 1971 that she needed to escape from fiction: „Todas las historias de ficción que leìa o intentaba escribir me parecìan repetidas, me aburrìan.‟3 Her investigation into Don Melchor de Macanaz (1670-1760) started in 1962, after she had written Ritmo lento, and culminated in the publication of El proceso de Macanaz: Historia de un empapelamiento in 1970. Subsequently, and encouraged by her investigation into Macanaz‟s biography and the world in which he lived, Martìn Gaite published a volume of cultural history, Usos amorosos del dieciocho en España, in 1972. The author also published many articles in newspapers and magazines, as well as working as a literary critic for Diario 16 from 1976 until 1980, compiling some of these articles in collections such as La búsqueda de interlocutor y otras búsquedas (1973) and Agua pasada (1993). In addition, Martín Gaite published monographs such as El cuento de nunca acabar, Usos amorosos de la postguerra española, Desde la ventana: Enfoque femenino de la literatura española (1987) and Esperando el porvenir: Homenaje a Ignacio Aldecoa (1994). The 1980s saw the publication of a number of children‟s stories: El castillo de las tres murallas (1981), El pastel del diablo (1985) and Caperucita en Manhattan (1990). Her volumes of poetry include A rachas (1976) and Todo es cuento roto en Nueva York (1986), and among her theatrical works are A palo seco (Monólogo en un acto) (1986) and La hermana pequeña (1999). The author also collaborated in the 2 As she stated in 1980: „Mi madre murió en diciembre de 1978 [...]. Y desde entonces he andado con los rumbos un poco perdidos, aunque parece que ya los voy recobrando‟, „Bosquejo autobiográfico‟, in Agua pasada (Barcelona: Anagrama, 1993), p. 31. 3 La búsqueda de interlocutor y otras búsquedas (Barcelona: Destinolibro, 1982), p. 59. 8 writing of scripts for films and television series. Some were based on her short stories, such as, Emilia, parada y fonda (1976), based on „Un alto en el camino‟ (1958), or La conciencia tranquila (1956) (never filmed), based on the short story of the same name. Other scripts were for television series such as Teresa de Jesús (1983) and Celia (1993).

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