‘The (Male) Problem That Had No Name’: Male Neurosis in Postwar Spanish Fiction and Film

Abstract

Despite the paucity of medical accounts of male neurosis under Francoism, the representation of the neurotic male is ubiquitous in postwar Spanish fiction and film. This article explores just a few examples, including three relatively unknown short stories by Carmen Laforet, ‘El infierno’ (1946), ‘El último verano’ (1954) and ‘El regreso’ (1954) as well as Juan Antonio Bardem’s film Calle mayor (1956). The texts discussed illustrate how turning the male gaze inward was too dangerous a phenomenon for the regime to contemplate. In postwar Spain, the problem that had no name, for male neurosis had to remain nameless for the sake of Franco’s ideological project, yet, as the texts discussed aver, upholding hyper-masculine values functioned to devalue men’s emotional selves and inflict psychological damage at an individual and collective level.