On Possession and Palimpsest in Marta Robles’s Luisa y los espejos

Spanish author Marta Robles’s novel Luisa y los espejos (Luisa and the mirrors) (2013) explores the issues of identity, inspiration, art, desire, and transcendence through the possession of the protagonist, Luisa Aldazábal, by the spirit of another Luisa, Luisa Casati, the famed Italian marchioness who lived in the first half of the twentieth century. The text functions as a direct critique of the role of contemporary heterosexual women in a purportedly postfeminist Spanish society, one in which, despite claims to the contrary, the freedom of many is self-curtailed and their identities dissolve inside those of their husbands and children. This article argues that Robles’s text searches for a solution to this disillusion through the narrative device of the palimpsest, whereby the past and present, the two different Luisas, and the memories and ghosts of their lovers create a lineage of artistic women who challenge societal norms and expectations through their bold willingness to explore their identity regardless of the censure of those around them.