La herencia intransmisible. Dinámicas de sucesión en la novela española (2006-2017)

Abstract

This dissertation studies the succession dynamics as manifested in novels by canonical ‘Cultura de la Transición’ authors, published during the years framing the recent crisis (2006-2017), in an attempt of understanding the logic of the generational block evidenced in Spanish society during that period. In a social environment of massive protests against the dysfunctionality of the Spanish democratic system, the cultural elites castle themselves in their defense of both the system and their very own hegemonic position, thus authoritarianly refusing to pass the baton to the younger generations. In order to explore this idea, I examine these elites’ conceptualization of the relation between their own time and that of their parents. My analysis suggests that the generation that led the Spanish Transition to democracy claims to have created a brand new temporality, resulting from their very own personal and generational formation process – a temporality forged in their own image and likeness. In these narratives, the new temporality redeems unpaid debts and unresolved conflicts left by the previous temporality, thus closing it down, that is, dissociating themselves from it. Furthermore, the younger generations are depicted in these works as infantile, unable to succeed them. Having redeemed the past and cancelled the future, the ‘Cultura de la Transición’ generation clings to their hegemony in present continuous tense. Finally, I contrast these narratives with those by other voices outside the dominant cultural paradigm. These latter question the lineal succession of independent, unrelated temporalities, suggesting on the contrary that the alleged new temporality is actually an updated patriarchal and authoritarian traditionalism.