Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Entre visillos
- 2 Short Stories
- 3 Ritmo lento
- 4 Retahílas
- 5 Fragmentos de interior
- 6 El cuarto de atrás
- 7 Nubosidad variable
- 8 La Reina de las Nieves
- 9 Lo raro es vivir
- 10 Irse de casa
- 11 Essays and Historical Writings
- 12 El cuento de nunca acabar
- 13 Theatre and Poetry
- 14 Children's Literature and Los parentescos
- Conclusion
- Further Reading
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - El cuarto de atrás
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Entre visillos
- 2 Short Stories
- 3 Ritmo lento
- 4 Retahílas
- 5 Fragmentos de interior
- 6 El cuarto de atrás
- 7 Nubosidad variable
- 8 La Reina de las Nieves
- 9 Lo raro es vivir
- 10 Irse de casa
- 11 Essays and Historical Writings
- 12 El cuento de nunca acabar
- 13 Theatre and Poetry
- 14 Children's Literature and Los parentescos
- Conclusion
- Further Reading
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Me lo imagino también como un desván del cerebro, una especie de recinto secreto lleno de trastos borrosos, separado de las antesalas más limpias y ordenadas de la mente por una cortina que sólo se descorre de vez en cuando; los recuerdos que pueden darnos alguna sorpresa viven agazapados en el cuarto de atrás, siempre salen de allí, y sólo cuando quieren, no sirve hostigarlos.
(I also imagine it as the attic of one's brain, a sort of secret place full of a vague jumble of all sorts of miscellaneous junk, separated from the cleaner and more orderly anterooms of the mind by a curtain that is only occasionally pulled back. The memories that may come to us as something of a surprise live in hiding in the back room. They always emerge from there, and only when they want to. It's no use trying to flush them out.)
Introduction
El cuarto de atrás, written between November 1975 and April 1978, was first published in 1978 by Destino and was awarded the Premio Nacional de Literatura that year. By the time Martín Gaite was writing El cuarto de atrás, censorship, while still in place, was no longer as strict as it had been; it was abolished in 1978. When the novel was submitted to the censors in June 1978, the somewhat negative report mentions the author's fame, briefly outlines the plot, and notes ‘el prisma antifranquista con que contempla el proceso de la vida nacional’ (the anti-Francoist prism through which she views the process of national life). The censor also disputes the publisher's contention that this novel represents the inauguration of ‘un género absolutamente original’ (an absolutely original genre), before concluding that ‘en las actuales circunstancias su contenido carece de objección’ (in the current circumstances, its content is not objectionable). The novel was authorized, but the reference to the current climate suggests that it might have been censored at another time. Brown argues that the changes in censorship explain Martín Gaite's return in this novel to the autobiographical themes of Entre visillos. While it deals with themes explored in Entre visillos, the political commentary and style, as well as the focus on communication, memory and the narrative process, all signal the work of a freer and more mature writer. Unlike the earlier novel, El cuarto de atrás focuses more on the inner world and solitude of the author.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Companion to Carmen Martín Gaite , pp. 102 - 122Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2009