Calila

JOAN L. BROWN holds the Elias Ahuja Chair of Spanish at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. She graduated from Vassar College with a degree in Hispanic studies and earned MA and PhD degrees in romance languages-Spanish from the University of Pennsylvania. Her publications have explored canon formation, literature by women, the contemporary Spanish novel, and language and literature pedagogy. Previous books include Secrets from the Back Room: The Fiction of Carmen Martín Gaite, Women Writers of Contemporary Spain: Exiles in the Homeland (editor), Confronting Our Canons: Spanish and Latin American Studies in the 21st Century, Approaches to Teaching the Works of Carmen Martín Gaite (editor), and, with Carmen Martín Gaite, the textbook Conversaciones creadoras: Mastering Spanish Conversation.

"Calila: The Later Novels of Carmen Martin Gaite is a fascinating window into the life and later works of one of the most eminent Spanish novelists of all times. Joan L. Brown combines relevant history, original analysis and personal anecdotes from 'Calila's' personal letters into a compelling and delightful rendition."— María-Luisa Guardiola, editor of the Royal Spanish Academy's critical edition of Antonio García Gutiérrez's El trovador"This insightful monograph on Martín Gaite's final six novels is part-literary criticism and part-personal anecdote based on the extended friendship between the author and Brown who draws from a variety of scholarly sources, personal correspondence and photographs to provide readings of her works."— Anales de la literatura española contemporánea"Joan L. Brown manages with Calila: The Later Novels of Carmen Martín Gaite to refresh and update the already extensive bibliography about the writer with a very documented, very well written and very personal essay. And, above all, she manages to encourage us to look for her novels and read them, to vindicate the validity of the narrative of Carmen Martín Gaite to enjoy reading and understand the end of the twentieth century."— Revista Letral"As I read Calila: The Later Novels of Carmen Martín Gaite, I had to battle the temptation to put the volume aside in order to re-read the novels that Brown analyzes in the book. There can hardly be a greater testament to a literary critic's skill than her capacity to communicate to the reader her love and enthusiasm for the texts she analyzes. Brown's central argument in Calila is that Martín Gaite's novels of the 1990s deserve to be read, and the book will, without a doubt, bring new and returning readers and inspire renewed critical interest in the writer's later work."— Hispania"Martín Gaite's works are now studied all around the world, especially in further education establishments. More and more students are researching her latest novels and Calila will be an indispensable read as Brown combines the critical study of the author's texts, with their socio-historical background, and a personal view of the process of writing." — Maria-José Blanco, author of Life-writing in Carmen Martín Gaite's Cuadernos de todo and her Novels of the 1990s

• List of IllustrationsIntroduction: Calila and Her Later Novels 1 Backstory: Carmen Martín Gaite's Earlier Life and Literature 2 Caperucita en Manhattan: A Young Adult Novel of Recovery 3 Nubosidad variable: Contemporary Feminism in Post-Transition Spain 4 La Reina de las Nieves: Rewriting a Tragedy of Spain's Transition 5 Lo raro es vivir: Existential Questions in Uncertain Times 6 Irse de casa: Back to the Future in Democratic Spain 7 Los parentheses: Fractured Families in the Twenty-First Century Conclusion: The Later Novels and Martín Gaite's Legacy Notes Works Cited Index