Overview

Liminal Fiction at the Edge of the Millennium: The Ends of Spanish Identity investigates the predominant perception of liminality—identity situated at a threshold, neither one thing nor another, but simultaneously both and neither—caused by encounters with otherness while negotiating identity in contemporary Spain. Examining how identity and alterity are parleyed through the cultural concerns of historical memory, gender roles, sex, religion, nationalism, and immigration, this study demonstrates how fictional representations of reality converge in a common structure wherein the end is not the end, but rather an edge, a liminal ground. On the border between two identities, the end materializes as an ephemeral limit that delineates and differentiates, yet also adjoins and approximates. In exploring the ends of Spanish fiction—both their structure and their intentionality—Liminal Fiction maps the edge as a constitutive component of narrative and identity in texts by Najat El Hachmi, Cristina Fernández Cubas, Javier Marías, Rosa Montero, and Manuel Rivas. In their representation of identity on the edge, these fictions enact and embody the liminal not as simply a transitional and transient mode but as the structuring principle of identification in contemporary Spain.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jessica A. Folkart
Publisher:   Bucknell University Press
Imprint:   Bucknell University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.00cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.386kg
ISBN:  

9781611485813

ISBN 10:   1611485819
Pages:   278
Publication Date:   07 September 2016
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Preface Acknowledgments Note on Translations Chapter 1: On the Edge: Liminality and Spanish Identity at the Turn of the Millennium Chapter 2: The (Never) Ending Story: Apocalyptic Desire and the Liminal Fiction of Javier Marías's Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí Chapter 3: History Incarnate and the Liminal Body in Rosa Montero’s La hija del caníbal Chapter 4: Second-Hand Identity: Limbs, Liminality, and Transplantation in Manuel Rivas’s A man dos paíños Chapter 5: Ethical In-difference and Liminal Identity in Cristina Fernández Cubas’s Parientes pobres del diablo Chapter 6: Scoring the National Hym(e)n: Sexuality, Immigration, and Liminal Identity in Najat El Hachmi’s L’últim patriarca Conclusion: The End of Liminal Fiction Afterword/Afterward Works Cited Index About the Author

Reviews

Folkart masterfully uses the theories of Emmanuel Levinas to consider Christina Fernandez Cuba's Parientes pobres del diablo (2006) as an exploration of the ethics implicit in identity formation...Folkart's writing is clear, concise and eminently readable, giving the lie to the assumption that serious scholarship must equal dry prose. In the final analysis, Folkart's thought provoking, superbly researched, and convincingly argued study of the palimpsest of Spanish identities makes this book an asset to contemporary literary and cultural studies. Letras Femeninas

Folkart masterfully uses the theories of Emmanuel Levinas to consider Christina Fernandez Cuba's Parientes pobres del diablo (2006) as an exploration of the ethics implicit in identity formation. . . .Folkart's writing is clear, concise and eminently readable, giving the lie to the assumption that serious scholarship must equal dry prose. In the final analysis, Folkart's thought provoking, superbly researched, and convincingly argued study of the palimpsest of Spanish identities makes this book an asset to contemporary literary and cultural studies. * Letras Femeninas *

Author Information

Jessica A. Folkart is associate professor of Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Virginia Tech.

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