The New Spanish Narrative: The Periodization, the Market, and a Cultural Poetics

Abstract

The term “new Spanish narrative” has been used since the early days of Spain’s democracy to refer to fiction produced within the country. This term faces two main problems. First, the fleeting nature of the word “new” and the inevitable passage of time, which leads to generational change. Second, the way it homogenizes all narrative production. Furthermore, these narratives are shaped by the ongoing changes of late capitalism and exist alongside the neoliberal policies that affect cultural fields. Therefore, to understand the Spanish literary context of recent decades, it’s essential to consider how contemporary Spanish literary generations are formed from the meritocratic and legitimizing models that establish literary canons. Simultaneously, it’s crucial to understand how late capitalism has inseparably altered accessibility to the publishing industry and the professionalization paths for those working in the literary field. This convergence of the literary and extraliterary–the symbolic and the material–enables an analysis of the aesthetic paradigms that fall under the umbrella of the cultural poetics of the new Spanish narrative.