Catholic Iconography in the Novels of Juan Marsé

Book excerpt: The prize-winning novelist Juan Marsé, born in Barcelona in 1933, is widely-read not only within Spain but also in translation, for his often provocative portrayals of life in post-war Barcelona. Clark's study discusses Marsé's engagement with Catholic popular culture, Spanish National Catholicism and Catalan Catholic Nationalism, exploring his subversion of iconic imagery as an ironic sub-textual commentary on political ideology, by which he is able to experiment with outer reality and inner reconstructions of experience. Dr Clark shows how religious and profane visions of love are subtly intertwined, how the tales told by children and the novel form itself are interrelated, and finally how a variety of biblical topoi, ranging from the Garden of Eden to the Song of Songs, are deployed in Marsé's fiction. Particular attention is paid to La oscura historia de la prima Montse, Si te dicen que ca and Im genes y recuerdos. -- Amazon.com.