Like Prisoners in a Cave: A Problematic Search for Identity and Truth in Two Peninsular Novels

Smith, Carter

Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (2012), 89, (6), 615–625.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/bhs.2012.47
Language: English
Pages: 11

Abstract

This article analyses the problematic search for identity in a contemporary postindustrial, network society. Borrowing from the works of thinkers such as Jean Baudrillard, Manuel Castells and Paul Virilio, and their work relating to the sign and its relation to our material and symbolic reality, I look at two recent peninsular novels, El orden alfabético (Juan José Millás, 1998) and A caverna (José Saramago, 2000). In these works, the main characters attempt to create their own spaces of agency in the face of a society that alienates and exploits. Millás highlights this search for subjectivity through the reconstruction of the alphabetical (symbolic) order, while Saramago looks to recapture the romantic figure of an independent artisan, still intimately connected to the work he produces. Interestingly, both novels dialogue with the allegory of the Cave from Plato's The Republic in their representation and critique of the forces that produce the daily reality that we consume.

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