Without Ríos: Spaces in the Metaliterary Canon of Memory narrative

Abstract

Early 21st-century Spanish memory literature has paid attention to the artistic and literary world in its portrayal of the society of the late Francoist Spain. Benjamín Prado, a prominent author of this movement, has placed special emphasis on the literary world in his novels, including references to several authors and their works, even turning them into characters. These strategies help to shape the fundamental metaliterary canon. This article discusses the absence of Julián Ríos from both the perspective of a tradition of rupture and the presence of this tradition in the metaliterary canon. To do this, we consider the importance of this author and his narrative already at the time in which these memory novels are set, as well as the experimental and memoristic nature of his own writing.