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xi u Introduction Generation X and Rock: The Sounds of a New Tradition Christine Henseler and Randolph D. Pope While various labels have been used, discussed, and in many cases rejected, it is evident that in the 1990s several Spanish writers, who are significantly different from their predecessors and from many of their contemporaries, became famous and attracted critical attention: among others, Lucía Etxebarria (b. 1966), José Ángel Mañas (b. 1971), and Ray Loriga (b. 1967). The stories they have to tell have been told before. The three sisters of Etxebarria’s Amor, curiosidad, prozac y dudas (1997), are similar in their choice of very different life paths to those found in Carmen Martín Gaite’s (1925–2000) Entre visillos (1958); the group of friends rattling away in Mañas’ Historias del Kronen (1995) as they spend a day of idle revelry that ends in tragedy has reminded many readers of Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio’s (b. 1927) El Jarama (1955); while Loriga’s selfabsorbed characters and his criticism of the media in novels such as Lo peor de todo (1993) and Héroes (1994) have a family resemblance to Juan Goytisolo’s (b. 1931) novels. Yet the older writers emerged from the post-Civil War repressive society with their main concern being the still looming presence of a tragic conflict and the strict control of the dictatorship. A dance at the town’s social club would at most be accompanied by cigarette smoke and wine; an outing to the countryside took place on bicycles, music was aired from a phonograph; and to live openly as gay and smoke hashish one had to migrate to France or xii INTRODUCTION Africa. In comparison, by the time the younger writers, born in the 1960s and 70s, came to adulthood, society had become permissive, cars zoomed through crowded cities, music was everywhere 24/7, drugs were easily available, and the country was immersed in conflictive projects of national affirmation and fragmentation , as well as in an accelerated blending into Europe. The thrill of a new democracy gave way to the indifference of the young to the posturing and jockeying for personal advantage among politicians. The novelists who described this new Spain that emerged after the transition to democracy are known as the Generation X. The label is borrowed from an American and British designation and its context is provided in several of the essays included in this volume. The fact that the term “Generation X” comes from abroad, though, does not reduce its validity, as in their time the terms Baroque, Romanticism, Realism, or Surrealism were perfectly appropriate to describe an international cultural stage in which Spain participated. Of the many characterizations Generation Xers have received, the most appropriate for our book is the one that Daniel Grassian provides in Hybrid Fictions: American Literature and Generation X: Generation X is not completely eclectic or indeterminate. Rather, there is some cohesion amongst the generation, especially in terms of the central and common ground of media-focused historical and political events, as well as television shows, films and music that frequently serve as their common frames of reference. (14) (What defines, then, this generation is not only the common references they use, but also the media through which these references circulate and the social economy into which they are integrated; not the book, but film, not opera, but rock music, not the exclusive, but the open and shared in youth culture.) Twice before in Spanish literary history, a small number of significant writers has been called a generation. In both cases, not all the writers of a similar age who are actively participating in the cultural life of their period get included into a generation, as the term has been used in relation to the Generation of ’98 and of ’27. Antonio Machado (1875–1939) and Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) belong to the Generation of 98, which excludes Manuel Machado (1874–1947) and Ramón María del Valle-Inclán (1866–1936). Federico García Lorca (1898–1936) and Rafael Alberti (1902–1999) belong to the Generation of 27, while Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881–1958) and José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955) are included in neither of these generations. The classification, therefore, may seem arbitrary and it has not always emerged with the same importance.1 While literary critics have labeled some writers as Generation of [3.144.233.150] Project MUSE (2024-04-25 11:35 GMT...

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