So here is an exclusive preview of my talk for the readers of this blog.
The conference is supposed to be about how things are going now that the crisis is over. My whole thing, though, is that it’s not over. It can’t be over because the economic and the political crises we are witnessing are not really crises. Meaning that they are not events of limited duration that you can expect to be over. Rather, they are symptom of an enormous global transformation not only on the level of the economy but in the whole way in which we relate to the world, to others, and to ourselves.
As Italian sociologist Carlo Bordoni said, “we are living in the times of a profound transformation, and we call this transformation with the word ‘crisis.'”
And hey, it’s not like I’m trying to impose this idea on the works of literature I’m analyzing. This is what these writers are saying. A couple of months ago, a bestselling Spanish writer said, “This isn’t a crisis. It’s a change of model.” And this is an idea that most of these crisis writers are advancing. Because it’s true.
I was saying all this back in 2012 when the crisis in Spain was just getting to the worst part. I predicted that it wouldn’t be “over.” It’s now clear that I was right. Spain’s crisis literature is not only still published and read, it’s actually darker than ever. Because even though Spain’s GDP is growing and the IMF is peeing itself with enthusiasm over the amazingness of the country’s economy, people know that it’s all rubbish.
Clarissa's Blog 
What are we becoming?
LikeLike
Why are writers writing in English from Canada, America, Australia and etc. completely silent on the issue? I remember you saying Jennifer Kitses’s Small Hours was the only crisis novel in English you have seen. Is it because Spain’s economy is worse and the transition – more painful?
Is “Hillbilly Elegy” about the crisis? Why not if it describes the lives of today’s lumpenized classes?
LikeLike
Hispanic writers traditionally have a different role in society. Spain’s equivalent of
The New York Times publishes op-eds by leading Hispanic writers every day. These writers are the equivalent of the US’s Ross Douthat, Maureen Dowd, David Brooks, Kevin Williamson, etc. Not in terms of their opinions but in terms of their role. So these writers have a daily involvement with daily issues in politics, economy, etc. It’s been like this for a very long time. So of course this impacts their writing.
LikeLike
From what you describe Spanish writers sound much more politically minded and caring to write about real challenges of today than English world’s authors. Interesting what you would explore, were you a professor of English literature, given the silence.
LikeLike
Faulkner
US social realists of the 1920s and 30s. With a small exception of Philip Roth, nothing happened in US literature since then.
LikeLike