멜랑콜리 증후와 애도의 부재 -루이스 마르틴 산토스의 『침묵의 시간 Tiempo de silencio』

Abstract

The structural novel Tiempo de silencio published in 1962 by Luis Martín Santos is part of a new movement of novel aesthetic in the 1960s, which seeks to explore the structure of individual consciousness and social context. By delving into the representation of melancholy and absence of mourning in the novel, this article analyzes the structure of consciousness shaped under Franco''s closed system. Martín Santos suggests using the term ‘Spanish complex’ instead of Spanish nationality, in order to take a new approach to Spanish problems, which were mainly discussed by the 98 generation in terms of national and economic backwardness. In this novel, the author criticizes the social structure by employing symptoms of melancholy as an aesthetic strategy. Drawing on various signs of melancholy, such as absence of ideal, narcissistic degeneration and self-dissolution, he tries to uncover underlying structural problems of Spanish society. The study also deals with how the structure of a person’s normal desire is negatively and destructively affected as the absence of public mourning disavows and hinders personal mourning for the loss of objective. This article ultimately aims to show that the melancholy in Tiempo de silencio is not merely a pathological symptom of an individual, but a representational mechanism that reveals the abnormalities of the self suffering from Franco''s closed social structure.