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Abstract:
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In striking resonance with Doestoevsky’s Underground Man, the seminal
antihero of the twentieth century, the male ‘‘antimodels’’ in Cristina Fernández
Cubas’s 1990 anthology El ángulo del horror fail by deliberate strategy to live up to
societal expectations and assumptions. The detached, self-absorbed and selfmocking
personae in this collection are each the product of a kind of physical or
emotional suffering that makes it impossible for them to be anything but selfserving
in their attitudes and goals. Often narrating in first person, the images they
create of themselves are deliberately ugly yet forthright, ironic, and curiously
appealing. Together they embody the quintessential antihero, a leitmotiv with a rich
history in the literature of Spain and elsewhere. In this way, they destabilize the
traditional order of things and insist that we reconsider our society, ourselves.
What’s more, they suggest another kind of ideal, another litmus test for what is
‘‘acceptable.’’ This opens up a whole realm of possibilities for all associated literary
characters. Through their relationship with antiheroes, women characters manage to
negotiate successfully a far wider range of roles, behaviors and circumstances than
would otherwise have been sanctioned within societal boundaries. |