la Obra de Rosa Regàs. Imaginacion, Memoria, Compromiso: un Ambito de Voces

Abstract

This thesis, written in Spanish, is the first critical reading of the work of Rosa Regàs. The main aim of this study has been to provide a vision of different readings of the spectrum of the texts produced by this writer. The work of Rosa Regàs is seen here as characterized by polyphony, by which is meant not only a wide range of narrative voices but also the multiplicity of perspectives adopted in Regàs's generically diverse work. The importance she accords to imagination and memory and to the concept of the journey, her particular aesthetics, her production of 'hybrid literature', the use of ambiguity, her sense of commitment reflected in her written and personal activism, her particular feminism—all attest to the overriding importance in her work of plurality. The introduction explores the biography of Rosa Regàs as well as her contribution to Spanish and European literature. The theoretical basis of the first chapter is narratological, applying the methods established by Norman Friedman, Gérard Genette, Enrique Anderson Imbert, and Mieke Bal, among others. The diversity of narrative voices used by Rosa Regàs in her novels and short stories is analysed to demonstrate the variety of her discursive practices and a style characterised by a lyrical narrative voice and an Impressionist technique. Chapter two explores a symbolic dimension in the first three novels and in most of the short stories: here a poetic style suggests 'modernismo' as an influence and it is argued that aspects of Rosa Regàs 's writing can be read as a belated, attenuated form of dissident cultural elitism, and as, in part, a form of neo-symbolism. The third chapter argues that the motif of the journey plays a leading role in her writing: the aesthetics and formal features of travel literature, which includes an emphasis on memory and the recording of subjective and concrete impressions. It studies the role of the journey in the narrative, looking in particular at the possible effects of gender difference on this aspect of her writing. The fourth chapter emphasizes memory as an essential and pervasive feature of her work. History functions in the literature of Rosa Regàs as a catalyst for memory in a number of ways: an intensely expressed experience is juxtaposed with fantasy; memory and imagination are linked in ways that invite the reader to participate creatively in the literary process. However, the author's most important objective in emphasizing memory is the attempt to blur the boundaries between history and life, autobiography and fiction. The final chapter deals with Rosa Regàs 's journalistic writings and attempts to trace the nuances and demonstrate the versatility of her work, as well as to evaluate her contribution to the study of the situation of women and her social and political commitment. These features make Rosa Regàs an original writer who is difficult to classify. Once again the importance of narrative voice is stressed, but now in the context of an engagement with contemporary issues.