Sexuality in Goytisolo’s Antagonía
Fluidity, subversion, and conservatism
Antagonía is Luis Goytisolo’s masterpiece. In this article I present a quantitative and
qualitative study of his prose with regards to sexuality. Through an analysis of keywords, concordances, dispersion, and
discourses, I show that Antagonía feeds from two historical periods, namely the ending dictatorship and the new
democratic transition. Some of its discourses are the product of the Spain of the 1970s and 80s. Among them, we find sexist, male
chauvinist, and homophobic discourses latent during those times. Women and queer people are frequently characterized in a negative
fashion. However, we also find more subversive discourses that empower women. In sum, I consider Goytisolo’s tetralogy a “fluid”
or “transitional” novel in that it is imbued with contradictory discourses rooted in different historical periods.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Methodology and conceptual basis
- 3.Analysis: Keywords, concordances, and dispersion
- 4.The structure of sexuality in Antagonía
- 5.The discourses of sexuality in Antagonía
- 6.Conclusions
-
Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
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Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Jódar-Sánchez, Jose Antonio
2023.
Urban Sexuality and Geological Erotism in
Antagonía
by Luis Goytisolo
.
Romance Studies 41:3
► pp. 224 ff.
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