A night of novel: the 23 of February of 1981

Abstract

In this article, I analyze the literary representation of the failed coup d’état occurred on February 23 (23-F), 1981, paying attention to the evolution in the Spanish novels written within the last thirty years. First, I examine a novel by Eduardo Mendicutti, Una mala noche la tiene cualquiera, written in 1982. Since this is the closest work to the event, it still deals with the fear associated with the return of the dictatorship. On the one hand, the novel focuses on the suffering of marginalized groups within society during that night, most notably homosexuals and transsexuals, like the main character of the novel, La Madelón. On the other hand, Mendicutti also explores the role of the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, and his contribution to the failure of the coup d’état. The second novel analyzed in this paper, Andrés Trapiello’s Los amigos del crimen perfecto (2003) was published twenty years later, when Spanish society was requesting to revise the crimes committed during the Franco’s dictatorship. In opposition to Mendicutti’s novel, Trapiello reflects the changes happened in Spanish society during this time. In Mendicutti’s novel older generations who lived during the dictatorship accepted the amnesty of the crimes committed during the dictatorship as the conditions for the coming of the democracy. Meanwhile, Trapiello’s novel represents a younger generation who are not afraid of the return of dictatorship and want to know the truth about the nation’s past. Finally, I will analyze how Javier Cercas’ Anatomía de un instante (2009), unlike Mendicutti and Trapiello, finally dares to question the role of the King of Spain in the coup d’état, a topic that constituted a taboo until then.