De la subversion a la nostalgia: El intelectual de la Gauche divine en su literatura

Abstract

This dissertation studies the Gauche divine, a progressive upper class elite from Barcelona during the 1960's, and its reflection in five novels by leading contemporary Spanish authors. The Gauche divine performed their ideological agenda through a cosmopolitan, ironic stance defying the Franco regime and its traditional morality. Moreover, these intellectuals and professionals---architects, publishers, movie directors, designers, writers, poets---connected to the newest trends in critical thinking, arts and literature in Europe and updated Spanish culture. On the other hand, this intellectual group offered an alternative discourse to orthodox Marxism. In order to frame this intelligentsia in its historical and social context, we review the concept of the committed intellectual, according to the texts of Antonio Gramsci and Jean-Paul Sartre. However, in the 1960's---with arising counter-cultural movements, along with the sexual revolution---the committed intellectual becomes spectacular, in a cultural milieu ruled by mass media. Since their cultural production in literature and visual arts shows a narcissistic attitude, the Gauche divine cannot only be considered spectacular, but specular as well. Once the group dissapeared, their narcissism turned into a self indulgent nostalgia, as we can see in the remarkable number of their autobiographies up to date. However, we can find a critical counterpart in fiction by authors in the margins of the group. Our analysis of Ultimas tardes con Teresa (1966), by Juan Marse, and Los alegres muchachos de Atzavara (1987), by Manuel Vazquez Montalban focuses on the frustrated relationship between the committed intellectual and the Southern immigrant in Catalonia or charnego, whose body is seen as a political and a sexual fetish. Therefore, we propose a poscolonial approach to the representation of the charnego, as a racialized character. Luis Goytisolo's Recuento (1973) illustrates the process of political commitment of the middle-upper class intellectual in Franco's Spain, from ideological conversion to disenchantment. Through Michel Foucault's discourse analysis, we discuss the position of the critical intellectual within the Communist Party. Finally, we explore historical memory, nostalgia and the conflict between ethics and aesthetics in Felix de Azua's Historia de un idiota contada por el mismo (1986) and Momentos decisivos (2000).