SUBVERSION OF TRADITIONAL FRANCOIST HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE FICTION OF GONZALO TORRENTE BALLESTER by DOUGLAS KEITH ANTHIS, M.A. A DISSERTATION in SPANISH Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved Janet I. Pérez Chair of Committee Genaro J. Pérez António Ladeira Peggy Gordon Miller Dean of the Graduate School December, 2011 © 2011, DOUGLAS KEITH ANTHIS Texas Tech University, Douglas Keith Anthis, December 2011 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I could not have finished the Ph.D. without the support of various people. I would like to thank my professors at Texas A&M University, with whom I studied for the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. They are the ones who inspired me to continue my studies of Spanish at Texas Tech University and keep learning more about this field. I have great respect and admiration for all of my professors at Texas A&M and Texas Tech, and I hope that I can one day be as inspirational to the next generation of potential scholars as my professors have been to me. In particular, I am grateful to the members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Genaro J. Pérez and Dr. António Ladeira, for being examples of distinguished teachers and scholars in their fields, and for helping me in my efforts to become one. Most importantly, I owe a tremendous debt to Dr. Janet Pérez, without whose guidance and support I would never have been able to complete the terminal degree. As both the chair of my dissertation committee and the professor for whom I served as Graduate and Editorial Assistant, Dr. Pérez has provided me with a solid foundation in Twentieth-Century Spanish literary studies, which will prove invaluable as I continue my scholarly research. I cannot thank her enough for the kindness and generosity she has shown me, both professionally and personally. As Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further, it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” It is my wish that, by continuing in her footsteps, I can repay Dr. Pérez for allowing me to stand on her shoulders and gaze upon the ever-broadening horizons of our field. Many other people have provided me with support over the years leading up to the completion of this dissertation. Several of my fellow graduate students lent me advice and support, which helped me from becoming discouraged by the daunting task of writing the dissertation. Dr. Marie Moerkbak provided me with impartial feedback during the early stages of my dissertation writing. With her guidance, I was able to organize my thoughts and my materials in a way that helped me to finish what I started. I will always be grateful to her for this. ii Texas Tech University, Douglas Keith Anthis, December 2011 Last, but certainly not least, I wish to thank my mother, Thelma, for all of the love and support she has shown me throughout my life. It is because of her that not only was I inspired to follow my dreams, but that I have had the conviction and determination to make those dreams a reality. My Mom has always been there for me in so many ways, in good times and in bad, often acting as a soundboard for me to bounce off my ideas. She has been my muse, and she has never lost faith in my ability to overcome any challenge, no matter how difficult. I owe her this dissertation and much, much more. iii Texas Tech University, Douglas Keith Anthis, December 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................ ii ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................v CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................1 II. LIFE AND WORKS .............................................................................................11 III. REVIEW OF THE CRITICISM............................................................................28 La Tabla Redonda..............................................................................................76 IV. THEORETICAL FRAME ....................................................................................96 V. ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................119 Filomeno, a mi pesar and Los años indecisos..................................................119 Crónica del rey pasmado and Doménica .........................................................130 Las islas extraordinarias and La muerte del Decano .......................................156 La novela de Pepe Ansúrez and La boda de Chon Recalde.............................180 VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS......................................................................198 WORKS CITED .....................................................................................................206 iv Texas Tech University, Douglas Keith Anthis, December 2011 ABSTRACT Gonzalo Torrente Ballester (1910-1999) dedicated much of his 60-year publishing career to commenting on the tremendous impact the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the post-War era had on all facets of Spanish life. During the almost four decades of the Franco dictatorship, Torrente was unable to make any criticism openly. Instead, he would create fictitious or mythical worlds set in other countries and/or other time periods, thus enabling him to criticize the harsh conditions found in post-War Spain without alerting the Francoist censors. Torrente was remiss to follow the literary trends of the day, preferring rather to experiment with styles long forgotten or those with which Spaniards were unfamiliar. For this and the above reasons, Torrente remained in relative obscurity for the first decades of his publishing career. After 30 years, Torrente published something which gained the attention of critics and public alike. With La saga/ fuga de J.B. (1972) Torrente finally garnered the praise the Galician had deserved all along. Torrente’s final novels have not received much critical attention, partly due to their relative newness, and partly because critics have deemed these novels to be a sign that Torrente’s skills as a novelist were waning. This dissertation seeks to analyze these final novels, shedding light on their significance within Torrente’s vast oeuvre as well as their importance to literature published in Spain during the end of the Twentieth Century. v Texas Tech University, Douglas Keith Anthis, December 2011 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Gonzalo Torrente Ballester (1910-1999) is perhaps the most often overlooked of the leading Spanish authors of the Twentieth Century, having gained the notoriety his writings deserved only after he had entered his sixties and had been publishing for some 40 years. Torrente published in almost every literary genre during his life and won most of Spain’s highest literary prizes, yet his work has garnered only limited critical attention in relation to his stature in Spanish literary circles. Even though Torrente was able to live in Spain during most of the Francoist dictatorship following the Spanish Civil War, he certainly did not have an easy life. His fellow writers who went into exile often also missed out on the recognition they deserved, but for different reasons. Writers in exile— such as Francisco Ayala, Ramón Sender, and Max Aub—would write works about the conditions they experienced during the Spanish Civil War and other works reflecting the exile experience, but their literary works went misunderstood by those in the Latin American countries in which these authors lived and/or saw themselves forced to publish.1 Though some of these writers would later gain a portion of the attention their works deserved, many Spanish writers were relegated to a limbo at times as literary as geographical. Although Torrente remained largely in Spain, political circumstances impeded him from gaining recognition for his literary work. Torrente’s involvement with the liberal Partido Galleguista before the war meant that he had associated with people the Franco regime considered radical political dissidents. As José Ponte Far notes, “El 1 Texas Tech University, Douglas Keith Anthis, December 2011 Partido [Galleguista] era separatista—en la acepción que se utilizó en todo el franquismo—y, desde luego, republicano.”2 In addition, the themes Torrente attempted to explore in his literary works often contradicted the model of a Catholic, conservative, family-oriented Spain promulgated by the Franco regime. For this reason, and in order to protect his family, Torrente heeded the advice of a family friend and sought a post in the Falange.3 Furthermore, recognizing that his dissenting opinions would endanger him and his family and realizing the need to camouflage them for the censors, he developed a habit of referring obliquely to the conditions of Twentieth-Century Spain by writing ostensibly about other places (sometimes fictional) and other times, or else by treating mythological figures. Due to political problems and a vastly-expanded censorship in operation during the Franco dictatorship, authors constantly had to rewrite their works so that they might be published, or face not being published at all. Still worse, many writers were jailed for writing “unpublishable” works. Moreover, since Torrente became more or less blacklisted early on during the dictatorship, otherwise friendly critics would avoid saying anything about the Galician’s literary works, in an effort to