Crisis and Projection of the Spanish-American Narrative in Current Spain. A Distance Reading

Abstract

This paper presents and interprets a collection of data related to the publication and dissemination of the current Spanish-American narrative in Spain between 2009 and 2018. With support in the methodology of distant reading proposed by Franco Moretti and in theoretical reflections on the relationship between crisis and literature, the essay investigates the eventual consequence of the last global economic crisis in the reconfiguration of the literary field, in contrast to the situation during the first decade of the 21st century. For this, it has been useful the lists of some of the most conspicuous literary awards; dossiers and monographs published in three specialized Spanish magazines (Ínsula, Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos and Quimera) and in cultural supplements of three Spanish newspapers (El Cultural, de El Mundo; Babelia, de El País, and ABC Cultural); numerous declarations of agents involved in the Spanish-American peninsular field, as well as and the content of ten anthologies published in the period and catalogues of publishing house Literatura Random House in order to perceive the transatlantic implication of the phenomenon.