Post-totalitarian Fiction (review)

206 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies Post-totalitarian Fiction Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 1997 By Robert C. Spires In the introduction to Post-totalitarian Spanish Fiction, Spires offers his "own version of ¿pistémocritique—an approach that analyzes the literary text as an expression of its epistemic context" (1), in an attempt to situate Spanish literature and criticism mote squarely within the global light from which it has been isolated, among other goals, such as ro "demonsttate some of the ways in which fiction corresponds to events and methodologies in non-literaty areas" (6). A quick look at his extensive bibliography will allow the reader to appreciate the scope of this critical enterprise. Despite this far-reaching approach, the author also manages to maintain the independence of the literary text as an object of study, as he emphasizes in his epilogue: But above all I want to argue for maintaining the focus of literary studies on the literary text itself. Instead of attempting to discover and conrextualize sources—something that scholars who consider the literary work a document may feel obliged ro do— I have tried to practice in the preceding pages a juxtaposition of literary expressions with theories from other disciplines. By means of such a juxtaposition, I believe we can best gain insight into how people in different fields but within a common time frame approach reality. (240) His study therefore, is an attempt to carefully explain a series of texts through an understanding of those texts as a register (as opposed to a reflection) of the time in which they were produced: 1975-1989. The strucrure rhrough which he accomplishes this task consists of an introduction that explains the major epistemic phenomena of the period, such as chaos theory and fractal geometry, followed by individual chapter introductions in which he establishes the historical context of the three four-year periods he deals with. Two possible risks arise in this approach. One is the possible danger of failing to maintain the application of the theoretical framework throughout. The second is the danger of forcing historical interpretation to accomodate textual readings. Both problems arise minimally, but fortunately they do not affect the excellence of Spires criticism. The individual studies, while extremely informative , do not continuously depend on the scientific theoties that form the basis of the first chapter, and the historical documentation is at times questionable. Generally the errors are minor, as in the understatement of Adolfo Suárez's role in the transition (it seems insufficient to categorize him simply as "a carryover from the Franco regime [13]" without explaining his role in the transition during a five- Book Reviews 207 year presidency) or his statement that Franco declared that Juan Carlos would be king in 1939, at the conclusion of the Civil War. More troublesome for this reader is rhe equation of Reaganism with European decentralization and nationalist movements, all this as a means to place contemporary Spanish literarure in the midst of a truly global process. Alrhough his analysis of Franco's political discourse does not shed new light on that subject, it is necessary for the direction of his study. He then turns to a description of the latest scientific explanations of the modern and the postmodern world, which revolve around questions of order and disorder, and prepares to show us that "politics, science, logic, psychoanalysis, and literature act as strange attractors on one another" (29). Here the reader's appetite is awakened , as Spires becomes more original and begins to form his critical structure in depth. He moves on to a discussion of Tiempo de silencio, in which he shows how this novel is a precursor of the post-totalitarian episteme, and from there he makes the logical step to Juan Goytisolo, whose trilogy carries on rhe privileging of récit over histoire begun by Martin-Santos. Here the accomplished critic in Spires hits full stride. His analysis of Juan sin tierra is insightful and to the point of the objectives of this novel. From Goytisolo he moves on to MartÃ-n Gaite, Mendoza and Millas, in order to cover the gamut of the early post-Franco novel. The overview...