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No Place Like Home: Gabi Martínez’s Ático (Top-Floor Apartment) and Javier Calvo’s “Una Belleza Rusa” (A Russian Beauty)

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Abstract

These fictions employ the metaphor of the home as anchor and prison for the rooted subject in a social context where formerly solid identity discourses are continually dissolving. I relate this metaphor to the importance home ownership has had in Spain as a motor for an illusory prosperity and for new modes of consumerism—brought to light by the 2008 financial collapse and the 15-M Indignados movement, which posed uncomfortable challenges to individualist notions of space. Likewise, these stories employ the home as a focal point between rooted identity and affective belonging. The trappings of individualism tie characters to metaphorical ego-homes. The outside is seen as a space of abject otherness, offering a sublime but frightening sense of belonging.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hispanic Studies Department, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

    Jesse Barker

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  1. Jesse Barker
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Correspondence to Jesse Barker .

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Barker, J. (2017). No Place Like Home: Gabi Martínez’s Ático (Top-Floor Apartment) and Javier Calvo’s “Una Belleza Rusa” (A Russian Beauty). In: Affect and Belonging in Contemporary Spanish Fiction and Film. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58969-5_2

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