University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2011 El Mundo Plural de la Posmodernidad y las Nuevas Narrativas en España: Espacios Para la Subjetividad Femenina en Veo Veo, de Gabriela Bustelo Morella Ortiz University of Central Florida Part of the Spanish Literature Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Masters Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Ortiz, Morella, "El Mundo Plural de la Posmodernidad y las Nuevas Narrativas en España: Espacios Para la Subjetividad Femenina en Veo Veo, de Gabriela Bustelo" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 6661. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/6661 EL MUNDO PLURAL DE LA POSMODERNIDAD Y LAS NUEVAS NARRATIVAS EN ESPAÑA: ESPACIOS PARA LA SUBJETIVIDAD FEMENINA EN VEO VEO, DE GABRIELA BUSTELO by MORELLA ORTIZ B.A. UNIVERSIDAD CENTRAL DE VENEZUELA A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Summer Term 2011 © 2011 Morella Ortiz ii ABSTRACT One of the most salient features of contemporary Spanish fiction is the solid participation of women in literary creation, particularly that of novels. While in the 1970s there were isolated figures, in the 80s and with the consolidation of democracy, the number grew sharply; in the 90s, they multiplied their presence and their quality continues to be outstanding. In spite of the prejudices of sexist power, a good segment of the critics accepts that today a wider and more valuable group of female novelists has been capable of constructing themes, techniques and discourses differing from the predominant one. It is not about claiming that there exists an incompatibility between male and female literature, nor that there are two literatures; rather, it is about the development of individual strategies of permanence and about the persistence of different perspectives within the same human activity. In order to understand the argument raised, chapter I of the present work is set historically in Spain following the fall of the Franco dictatorship, the context of literature and the birth of the new narrative. It is not only within the local national frame that postmodern narrators are involved. It becomes just as important to consider the fall of old regimes throughout the world, the end of the Cold War and the death of communism, on one side; on the other, the phenomenon of economic globalization and the unavoidable transnational vision of cultural movements, which elements travel across the oceans and meet in a discourse about “the end of utopias.” Within this framework, female writers iii have had the incentive of the advent of democracy in Spain, its social consequences, the social acquiescence of “la Movida” and the progress of the conquers of women. The process of cultural change in Spain is being analyzed from the field of cultural studies. However, and serving as a portrait of postmodern fragmentary thought, it is now possible to inscribe a generation of writers that have incorporated elements of audiovisual language and rock music, as well as other elements of popular culture as fundamental substance for fiction, which demands for a new critical reflection. This group has been convened under the label of Generation X. Within this emerging generation, emphasis will be made on the consolidation of female writers in the Spanish cultural setting of the XXI century. Chapter II will delve into the new literary spaces in Spain, their recent legacy, clashing points of views of literary critics and the referential frame of postmodern philosophical thought, all which is conjugated with the appearance of third-wave feminism. Chapter III analyzes the novel Veo Veo, by Gabriela Bustelo, and how it relates to the theoretical postulates of new feminism. The study of the text finds a relationship between the various perspectives taken by the narrator-protagonist in the process of searching for her identity and constructing the female subject according to difference feminism. Finally, this approach to one of the texts and one of the authors of the wide spectrum of contemporary Spanish female writers, attempts to expose that through their innovating fiction and the preponderant role and attention given to their female characters, a contribution is made from literature towards the reflections on the multiple ways in which the female subject paves its way across patriarchal society. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Lisa Nalbone for the extraordinary guidance she has offered me throughout the whole of my graduate studies at University of Central Florida. Without you, the hard task of being incorporated into an academic environment and pace that were foreign to me would have been all the much harder. You are a real mentor. Your insightful observations, so precise and profound, have helped me become the scholar I now am. Thank you for your support, recommendations, enthusiasm and patience in the process of the elaboration of this thesis; you always made me feel that it was possible. I also wish to express my appreciation to the members of the thesis committee, Dr. María Santana and Dr. Debora Cordeiro-Rosa, for the assistance and trust extended to me during the process of dissertation. Finally, and from the bottom of my heart, I would like to express that the writing of these pages would not have been possible without the extraordinary and unconditional support of my husband Emilio and my sons Carlos and José, or without the harmonious space and the friendship offered by Isabel Rivera. v CONTENIDO INTRODUCCIÓN..............................................................................................................1 El individuo ante lo nuevo.......................................................................................1 La modernidad: desmoronamiento de las vías seguras............................................4 En la frontera del exceso..........................................................................................9 CAPÍTULO I.....................................................................................................................15 ESPAÑA, LABORATORIO DE LA POSMODERNIDAD.............................................15 Una retrospectiva necesaria de las nuevas narrativas españolas ...........................17 Hilos conductores y ruptura: dos aspectos esenciales para una nueva narrativa...22 Las notas sincopadas de la Movida........................................................................24 Cultura global y vocación heterogénea .................................................................28 CAPÍTULO II....................................................................................................................32 LOS NUEVOS ESPACIOS DE LA LITERATURA Y LA CULTURA..........................32 Cien años, las generaciones y crisis de identidad..................................................32 Cuestionamiento de las jerarquías convencionales del conocimiento...................34 “No hay una única manera en que el mundo pueda ser fielmente representado”..37 Novela experimental y tradición literaria..............................................................45 Un prejuicio patriarcal..........................................................................................48 La inseguridad ante lo indefinido..........................................................................51 El horizonte literario anti-utópico y minimalista...................................................55 vi Una 'alianza afectiva' entre la cultura española y los movimientos culturales internacionales.......................................................................................................59 En el marco de un nuevo feminismo......................................................................61 CAPÍTULO III...................................................................................................................66 ESPACIOS PARA LA SUBJETIVIDAD FEMENINA...................................................66 El continente oscuro...............................................................................................66 Cuando el cuerpo es narrado por un sujeto femenino............................................72 Del género negro a la orientación feminista .........................................................84 El poder de la mirada: deseo y control...................................................................89 “Madrid me mata”: mirada manifiesta y mirada perceptible.................................93 Mirada hipnótica, forcejeo de poder......................................................................96 Cuerpo y erotismo, herramientas poderosas y arriesgadas..................................100 CONCLUSIÓN................................................................................................................111 BIBLIOGRAFÍA.............................................................................................................117 vii INTRODUCCIÓN El individuo ante lo nuevo El propósito fundamental