Better Alone? Capitalist Primitivism and the Antisocial Turn in the Contemporary Iberian Rural Novel

Recent acclaimed novels and films have rekindled interest in the Iberian rural as a microcosm for exploring the social nature of humankind. This resurgence attempts to forge sustainable alternatives but confronts a mythologized view of the rural as antisocial, resistant to political change. This narrative emphasizes the inherent violence and primitiveness of rural life, countering the 1970s Marxist-leaning peasant studies, which recover the rural as a space pregnant with non-capitalist practices. Focusing on contemporary novels Un amor, Sola, and Mamut, this study argues that they reinforce liberal individualism and property’s central role in freedom, and that they reject the rural as a feminist counter-concept.

Duke Scholars

Author Katryn Evinson Romance Studies