Literary Critique of Female Identity under Spain’s Francoist Dictatorship in Nada and Entre visillos

Abstract

Two works by female authors during the Francoist dictatorship in Spain––Nada, published in 1945, and Entre visillos, published in 1957––use double discourse to critique society through their expression of female identity. Carmen Laforet and Carmen Martín Gaite worked past censorship to articulate an alternate vision of female identity formation to the policies of the Francoist dictatorship which articulated a limited role for women. The framework offered by these books’ historical and literary contexts allows for a detailed analysis of each work individually. Andrea, the main character of Nada, discovers her identity during a tumultuous year with her family in Barcelona, its description shaped by the tremendismo literary movement. Entre visillos, published in the next decade, uses the technique of neorealismo to portray the lives of various young women and men in a provincial capital, with the character Natalia playing a critical role. As each book is an example of the bildüngsroman, identity formation is paramount. Nada and Entre visillos, through their different time periods and literary styles, present their female characters’ struggles to develop their own identities in a repressive society.