| Summary: | This dissertation examines the achievements of Spanish prose fiction in the last two decades and focuses mainly in the works of Luis Mateo Diez, Luis Landero and Antonio Munoz Molina. These authors, as well as many others, reapproach the Civil War and the Post War period with a different technique than their predecessors. Instead of employing social realism or experimentalism, they adopt new styles incorporating elements which have been absent from Peninsular literature for a long time, such as myth and fantasy. The study argues that the passage from realism to fantasy is part of the evolution of prose fiction as a genre. However, this development is triggered by social, cultural and historical events. Therefore, the analysis covers a historical review of the origins of the genre giving special attention to the mythical and chivalric aspects which contemporary novels borrow from the early works. The socio-cultural elements of the context are considered at the time the action takes place and also during the era in which the books were written. By combining these approaches one can bring out the literary truth of the texts which as claimed by Stephen Greenblatt is embedded in a text since its moment of conception. The literary truth of these fictions is that Spaniards have surpassed the historical division of the two Spains, and their efforts are now targeted at the search of new identities more according with individual subjectivity. This comprehensive analysis also enlightens the peculiar relationship between prose fiction and history.
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