Customer Reviews

Under Construction: The Body in Spanish Novels (Feminist Issues)

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This is not to be regarded as a useful review. In a bookstore I picked this up for the superficial purpose of identifying some Spanish-language titles for my own reading. And since it was identified as a feminist tract I naturally had my blast-shields in place before opening the cover. And yes, there are some places where "oppression" seems to be the word we had for breakfast, and "paradigm" for lunch. I would not buy this book for a number of reasons. One, its bloody awful price. Two, it reminds me of the angry energy that goes into this genre. But on the second point I was pleasantly surprised to find that sort of anger usually kept at bay, for reasons I won't dare commit to speculation. In fact this was almost pleasant to read.

In a nutshell, this book focuses on interpretations of writing about body parts and associated behaviours, with discussion of such factors as cultural and psychological implications. But it is more than that, because a great deal more of the symbolism of other aspects is also examined -- some concerning authors I know, and some that I am going to look into.

I did want to add one small observation: the books surveyed are not all Spanish language items. There are many references to books in Catalan, which is not Spanish, gens ni mica.

In the end, the quick survey of this book gave me what I needed: a list of other titles to order. In fact it was this book that led me to order Julio Llamazares' book, Luna de Lobos.

I apologise for not providing a meaningful review.