Fathers in Recent Basque Literature: Representations of Ageing Masculinities by Female Writers

Abstract

This article explores how the intersection of fatherhood, age and alternative models of masculinity (alongside the traumatic impact of violence), features prominently in the narratives of recent Basque women writers. While Edurne Portela’s Mejor la ausencia (2017) portrays the traditional hegemonic image of fatherhood, Luisa Etxenike’s Absoluta presencia (2018) and Aves del paraíso (2019) create a new understanding of the role and identity of fathers, marked by the impact of ETA’s deleterious violence. Male subjectivity in these works is elaborated in patterns of affective landscapes that reject traditional Basque hegemonic masculinity and interrogate marking constituents of fatherhood.