Vidas im/proprias: Transformaciones del sujeto femenino en la narrativa española contemporánea by María Pilar Rodríguez (review)

Abstract

ioio Reviews and authors featured in Molero de la Iglesia's study, but had she taken a different analytical approach and discussed the novels under scrutiny with reference to theories of postmodernism, for example, her work could have proved far more coherent and valid. Royal Holloway, University of London Shelley Godsland Vidas im/proprias: Transformaciones del sujeto femenino en la narrativa espanola contempordnea . By Maria Pilar Rodriguez. (Purdue Studies in Romance Lit? eratures, 19) West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press. 2000. xi + 222 pp. ?41-50. This book is an original contribution to research but rather difficultto figureout. The purpose ofthe study, as established in the preface, is to 'explorar las transformaciones del sujeto femenino en la narrativa espanola contemporanea en el periodo que va desde los comienzos de la posguerra hasta la actualidad' (p. ix). In this preface reference is made to the classic concept of Bildungsroman, but not much attention is paid to the possibility of a female Bildungsroman, which has been explored by other critics and would have been usefully employed when tackling the differenttexts studied here. Even though the analysis of the texts is original, the way in which the study is laid out is hard to understand. The focus is sometimes lost in the course of the chapters and the concentration on theories grounded in psychoanalysis is often off-putting. Maria Pilar Rodriguez chooses to concentrate on narrative fiction written in the decades followingthe establishment ofthe dictatorship in Spain to the 1990s: Carmen Laforet's Nada (1944), Elena Soriano's La playa de los locos (1955), Merce Rodoreda's La placa del Diamant (1962), Carme Riera's *Te deix, amor, la mar com a penyora' (1975) and 'Jopos per testimoni les gavines' (1977), Carmen Gomez Ojea's Losperros de Hecate (1985), and Luisa Etxenike's Efectos secundarios (1996). Apparently, the connection between the texts is that they all consist of first-person female narratives in which some type of development or transformation takes place. However, this con? cept of 'development/transformation' does not come across clearly in the study. The fact that the title ofthe book refers to transformations of the feminine subject would lead the reader to think that the author will employ theories of female Bildungsroman (following Labovitz and Hirsch), but these are only mentioned in the introduction and the bibliography, and are hardly referredto in the core of the book. The author's argument seems to respond to her personal perception, which is not clearly stated, rather than to any type of continuity or relationship between the texts studied. The analysis is developed by means of a psychoanalytical feminist approach in order to produce a Cultural Studies response finally,but the emphasis on the former makes evidence of the latter difficultto identify.The author gives only brief accounts (rather than a comprehensive and detailed examination) of women's situation in Spain in order to situate the texts within their respective socio-historical contexts. This prevents the reader from identifying a clear connection between the approach taken and the response produced in the conclusion as this link is neither clarified nor emphasized throughout the chapters. As regards structure, the book is laid out in chronological order but the chapters are uneven, especially towards the end. The last chapter, dealing with Etxenike's novel, is extremely short and rather weak. It could have been enriched by showing the relationship between Efectos secundarios and the other texts preceding it. There is also a misconception or misunderstanding of the meaning of female development, for the emphasis on psychological problems associated with the novel's protagonists negates the possibility of gendered identity and alternative forms of development. MLR, 97.4, 2002 1011 The chapters do not fittogether with respect to the main aspects of transformation studied. While Chapters 1-4 centre on youth, old age, and married life respectively, the others deal with pleasure as subversion, alternative homorelations, and disease. This diversity is not conducive to the sustained development of the argument of the book. Finally, there are some inconsistencies with translations. Quotations in languages outside the Peninsula (e.g. French) are not translated; and in the case of the works of Rodoreda and Riera, which are...