Knights, Vanessa

About the author: Vanessa Knights teaches contemporary Hispanic literary and cultural studies at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. She is also active in the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies at Newcastle, and her forthcoming publications include work on Spanish feminism, contemporary Spanish women writers and science fiction.

Search for Identity in the Narrative of Rosa Montero

1999 0-7734-7984-8
This study examines constructions of women’s individual and collective identity through a variety of discursive practices within the narrative of the contemporary Spanish writer, Rosa Montero. The narrative strategies used by Montero are placed in the context of the changing socio-political situation of women since the death of Franco. The study traces a trajectory from predominantly mimetic testimonial novels to an increased awareness of the possibilities of fantasy and the fantastic for identity politics, related to contemporary debates around the categories of equality and difference within Spanish feminism, using a multi-disciplinary approach. While particular attention is paid to sexuality and popular culture, the study also examines how the problematic relationship between feminist and postmodernist theorizing of identity and subjectivity is negotiated through Montero’s creative practice.