Caragh Wells

The Poetics of the ‘gest inútil’ in Quim Monzó’s Benzina

Només que tingués coratge de començar alguna cosa des de zero, fos el que fos…Benzina

A Close Reading of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán's Use of Digression in Selected Novels from the ‘Serie Carvalho’

Abstract This article begins with a reconsideration of the value of the practice of close reading in understanding the literary text. Through a close textual reading of the use of digression in a selection of novels from Manuel Vázquez Montalbáns ‘Serie Carvalho’, it is argued that the authors use of poetic prose functions to arouse the readers emotions in order to reflect on the culture of forgetting—‘cultura del olvido’— that afflicted Spain during and following the transition to democracy. Vázquez Montalbáns shifts into poetic prose function as digressions from the main plot, yet they allow for the introduction of another discourse on the imperative of remembering.