“The Ghosts of the Past: La familia de Pascual Duarte in the Twenty-first Century”.

Dr Ross Woods from the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

This seminar revisits Camilo Jos̩ Cela‰۪s La familia de Pascual Duarte, the work generally regarded as heralding the rebirth of the Spanish novel upon its publication in 1942. By examining the historical perspective from which criticism of the novel has emerged, Dr Woods offers a reassessment of the text in light of recent scholarship on representations of the past in Spanish literature. In doing so, he argues that Cela‰۪s disengagement with history in the narrative creates a distancing effect which enables readers to critically engage with the past. Ultimately, this talk aims to pose the following question: how should we be reading this novel in the twenty-first century?

For more information contact mel.boland@nuigalway.ie