Trotman, Tiffany Gagliardi

Tiffany Gagliardi Trotman is a Lecturer at the University of Otago, New Zealand. She received her Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from the same academic institution.

Eduardo Mendoza’s Crime Novels: The Function of Carnivalesque Discourse in Post-Franco Spain, 1979-2001

2009 0-7734-4712-1
This work examines canonical works of the Spanish novela negra genre – Eduardo Mendoza’s El misterio de la cripta embrujada, El laberinto de aceitunas and La aventura del tocador de señoras. The author applies Bakhtinian theories to analyses of the carnivalesque, situating the novels within the broader tradition of Spanish carnivalesque literature.
Traditionally Mendoza’s crime novels have been examined in light of social critique common to the Spanish novela negra, but this study, explores folkloric elements within these novels to demonstrate that there is a pervading culture of carnival informing Mendoza’s parody of the traditional crime novel.