英文摘要 |
Eduardo Mendoza (Barcelona, 1943) is considered as one of the most prestigious writers in contemporary Spain. His literary works, which began with the publication of his first novel La verdad sobre el caso Savolta (The Truth about the Savolta) in 1975, are generally set in Barcelona, Mendoza's hometown, compared descriptions of the city before and after the Spanish Civil War with the present time. Winner of the 2010 Planeta Prize, Riña de gatos. Madrid 1936 (An Englishman in Madrid) is an important novel among Mendoza’s literary works in recent years. The novel is a narrative which contains diverse thematic elements such as intrigue, spying, mystery, political fights, love and humor. Through intertextual allusions to certain works, Riña de gatos is structured by hybrid literary ingredients, especially the novela negra, which functions as the principal framework of the novel. Riña de gatos is the story of an Englishman named Anthony Whitelands, a well-known art critic in Spanish Golden Age painting, who is invited to Madrid in March, 1936, to value an aristocrat's art collection, in particular, an unknown canvas of Diego Velázquez, whose economic value can be decisive during the crucial political change in Spain. Apparently, an artistic valuation turns out to be a series of turbulent love affairs, political intrigues and espionage with which Anthony is involved unexpectedly. In spite of having accomplished his mission of authenticating the value of the painting, Anthony is unable to solve the mysterious cases of murder, and finally, he has no choice but to return to London by train. The present study aims to analyze how Eduardo Mendoza uses and subverts the detective genre as the major narrative framework of Riña de gatos to show the conflict or the dilemma between history and fiction. Furthermore, drawing from the concept of the collective memory by Maurice Halbwachs and the heroic archetypes defined by Carol S. Pearson, we will explore the de-mythification of historical memory in greater depth and (de-)construct the discourse of the hero in this novel. |