Date Available
7-22-2022
Year of Publication
2020
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
College
Arts and Sciences
Department/School/Program
Hispanic Studies
First Advisor
Dr. Carmen Moreno-Nuño
Abstract
Rosa Montero’s work stands out for its compassionate and rich view of humanity. My study is a comparative analysis of Montero’s six Speculative Fiction (SF) novels and four volumes of her collected columns, selected for the proximity of their publication to the SF novels. Montero expresses her ethos directly through her weekly columns in El País and through her novels, which have the potential to attract a different readership than her journalism. Her SF novels, in particular, allow Montero to address contemporary problems in settings that allow readers to suspend their disbelief and connect with her narrative, rather than rejecting her work because of her sociopolitical stances. These six SF texts make up forty percent of the novels Montero has published for adults and they merit a comprehensive thematic study. Montero's SF work should be recognized as a serious literary and social contribution given the ethical stances she takes through this genre. Montero employs both her journalism and her SF work to communicate serious concerns about contemporary Spanish and global issues to a wider audience than she might reach through either genre alone. Her concerns include ecological stewardship as well as class, race, and gender inequities in Spanish and global society. In my cross-genre analysis of her work, I examine how Montero uses both genres to communicate her concerns and address key problems from different angles, which allows me to form a more complete picture of her body of work. Montero's SF work, like Spanish SF in general, has been understudied and should be recognized as a serious literary and social contribution, especially given the ethical stances she takes through this genre.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2020.304
Recommended Citation
Lemon-Rogers, Kiersty, "COMPLEX ECOLOGIES AND UNRULY BODIES IN ROSA MONTERO’S SPECULATIVE FICTION" (2020). Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies. 45.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/hisp_etds/45
