INTRODUCTIONCHAPTER ONE. QUEERS AND LITERATURE: THE SPANISH CONTEXT CHAPTER TWO. REWRITING FOREIGN TRADITIONSCHAPTER THREE. REWRITING THE NATIONAL TRADITIONCHAPTER FOUR. AGAINST CULTURE: HOMOSEXUALITY AND COUNTER-CULTURE IN LUIS ANTONIO DE VILLENACHAPTER FIVE. AGAINST NATURE: HOMOSEXUALITY AND POSTMODERNITY IN ÁLVARO POMBOCONCLUSION

This is a study of gay narrative writings published in Spain at the turn of the twentieth century. The book scrutinises the ways in which the literary production of contemporary Spanish gay authors - José Luis de Juan, Luis G. Martín, Juan Gil-Albert, Juan Goytisolo, Eduardo Mendicutti, Luis Antonio de Villena and Álvaro Pombo - engages with homophobic and homophile discourses, as well as with the vernacular and international literary legacy. The first part revolves around the metaphor of a rebellious scribe who queers literary tradition by clandestinely weaving changes into copies of the books he makes. This subversive writing act, named 'Mazuf's gesture' after the protagonist of José Luis de Juan's This Breathing World (1999), is examined in four highly intertextual works by other writers. The second part of the book explores Luis Antonio de Villena and Álvaro Pombo, who in their different ways seek to coin their own definitions of homosexual experience in opposition both to the homophobic discourses of the past and to the homonormative regimes of the commercialised and trivialised gay culture of today. In their novels, 'Mazuf's gesture' involves playing a sophisticated queer game with readers and their expectations. Providing new insights on Spanish gay-themed writing, this monograph will be of interest to scholars and students of Hispanic literatures, queer studies and gender studies. It will also appeal to all readers interested in cultural shifts in post-Franco Spain.

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