Hybrid Identity and the Utopian Impulse in the Postmodern Spanish-american Comic Novel

TEMPORARY Comic writing has long been an important feature of the Spanish-American literary tradition. Despite the ubiquity and importance of this trend, however, few critics have paid it much attention. The comic tradition in Spanish America has long been in need of a reappraisal, and that is exactly what this book offers. By analyzing the comic aspects of five postmodern Spanish-American novels: Gustavo Sainz's La princesa del Palacio de Hierro (1977), Alfredo Bryce Echenique's diptych, La vida exagerada de Martin Romana (1981) and El hombre que hablaba de Octavia de Cadiz (1985), Jaime Bayly's La noche es virgen (1997) and Fernando Vallejo's La virgen de los sicarios (1994), McAleer exposes the fallacies underpinning traditional approaches to the subject of Spanish-American comedy well into the 20th century. The book offers a revaluation of Spanish-American literary history, challenging the narratives that have shaped and, in some cases, restrained debates about the postmodern Spanish-American comic novel. Paul McAleer is Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at the University of Hull.