Liminal Fiction at the Edge of the Millennium The Ends of Spanish Identity [Paperback]

Folkart masterfully uses the theories of Emmanuel L?vinas to consider Christina Fern?ndez Cubas Parientes pobres del diablo (2006) as an exploration of the ethics implicit in identity formation. . . .Folkarts writing is clear, concise and eminently readable, giving the lie to the assumption that serious scholarship must equal dry prose. In the final analysis, Folkarts thought provoking, superbly researched, and convincingly argued study of the palimpsest of Spanish identities makes this book an asset to contemporary literary and cultural studies.Liminal Fiction at the Edge of the Millennium: The Ends of Spanish Identity examines how diverse manifestations of otherness coalesce in the cultural response to shifting perceptions of identity in Spain as well as the broader context of globalization at the turn of the millennium.Liminal Fiction at the Edge of the Millennium: The Ends of Spanish Identity investigates the predominant perception of liminalityidentity situated at a threshold, neither one thing nor another, but simultaneously both and neithercaused by encounters with otherness while negotiating identity in contemporary Spain. Examining how identity and alterity are parleyed through the cultural concerns of historical memory, gender roles, sex, religion, nationalism, and immigration, this study demonstrates how fictional representations of reality converge in a common structure wherein the end is not the end, but rather an edge, a liminal ground. On the border between two identities, the end materializes as an ephemeral limit that delineates and differentiates, yet also adjoins and approximates. In exploring the ends of Spanish fictionboth their structure and their intentionalityLiminal Fiction maps the edge as a constitutive component of narrative and identity in texts by Najat El Hachmi, Cristina Fern?ndez Cubas, Javier Mar?as, Rosa Montero, and Manuel Rivas. In their representation of identity on the edge, these fictions enact and embody the liminal nolC;