The Double Coding of Desire: Language Conflict, Nation Building, and Identity Crashing in Juan Marsé's "El amante bilingüe"

Juan Marsé's El amante bilingüe (1990) focuses on the social polarization triggered by the first steps towards the normalization of the Catalan language after Franco's death in 1975. The novel's complex sociological background is compressed into the erotic adventures of an individual...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Modern language review Vol. 96; no. 1; pp. 92 - 102
Main Author Resina, Joan Ramon
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Belfast Maney Publishing 01.01.2001
Modern Humanities Research Association
Subjects
Adopted children
Authors
Criticism and interpretation
Identity
Language
Language acquisition
Linguistics
Literary criticism
Marse, Juan (1933-2020)
Martian landforms
Novels
Political identity
Portrayals
Residential buildings
Social classes
Spanish language
Symbolic order
Utopian fiction
Writers
Spain
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Summary:Juan Marsé's El amante bilingüe (1990) focuses on the social polarization triggered by the first steps towards the normalization of the Catalan language after Franco's death in 1975. The novel's complex sociological background is compressed into the erotic adventures of an individual suffering from an acute identity conflict, the result of the clash between the Catalan vernacular and Spanish, the language of the state. Of primary interest are Marsé's imbrications of language and class identity and the emplotment of social values through the symbolism of space and architecture. The protagonist's plight as he loses his wife and social bearings, replicates the Lacanian account of the split subject.
ISSN:0026-7937
2222-4319
DOI:10.2307/3735718