Beyond the Back Room

This collection of essays examines current trends in scholarly research on Spanish author Carmen Martín Gaite (1925-2000). It concentrates on the least explored areas of Martín Gaite’s oeuvre, such as her collage artwork, the relationship between image and text in her work, and her close relationship with themes such as genre writing, the fairy tale, and textual/physical notions of space, as well as her personal theories on orality and narration. As we pass the tenth anniversary of her death, Martín Gaite continues to be an increasing focus of study, as scholars start to identify and comprehend the breadth and scope of her work.
The essays in the volume complement previous studies of Martín Gaite’s major works from the 1960s and 1970s by focusing largely on her later novels, together with in-depth analysis of the manuscripts and artistic materials that have been made available since her death.

Marian Womack is completing an interdisciplinary research project on the new female gothic tale at the Department of Comparative Literature at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. She has published articles on comparative literature, dealing especially with cross-over and children’s literature, film adaptations and popular genres. She is also a translator and anthologist, and her most recent publications include Dickens’s ghost stories and a new compilation of Russian gothic tales, both previously unpublished in Spain.
Jennifer Wood is Lecturer in Spanish at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Her research focuses on Modern Spanish Studies, particularly twentieth-century Spanish poetry and the Spanish Avant-Garde, including the influence of film and ‘lo cinematico’, Spanish Surrealism and women in the Avant-Garde. She has taught a number of courses on Spanish female writing in the Franco and post-Franco eras.