The Testimonial Literature of Twentieth-century Spanish Women Novelists: Two Case Studies

Abstract

This article considers the application of the term 'testimonial narrative' in Hispanic literature. Since the 1980s the term has become almost exclusively linked to literary production in Latin America. As a result, the importance of testimonial novels in Peninsular literature is overshadowed, as testimonial discourse becomes closely associated with a more politicized, militant type of writing. In 2003 Gonzalo Sobejano, writing in the Cambridge History of the Spanish Novel details the predominance of testimonial writing in mid-twentieth-century Spanish literature, a timely reminder that there are different manifestations of the genre in Hispanic literature. While commentators on Latin American testimonial narrative acknowledge the presence of a majority of women writers, Spanish literary annals fail to record the extent of the participation of Spanish women novelists. The article considers the nature of women's testimonial narrative in Spain through an examination of testimonial narratives by Carmen Kurtz and Marina Mayoral.