Trabajo, precariedad y malestar social. Del soliptismo neoliberal a la esperanza de la fuerza colectiva (1988-2020)

In Work, Precariousness and Social Sickness, I analyze Spanish literary and cultural production from the late 1980s to the second decade of the 21st century. This paper studies the representation in Spanish Literature of how precarious working conditions affect workers physically and mentally in a context of economic crisis in a neoliberal context. To do this, I begin the analysis with the novel Amado Amo (1988), by Rosa Montero. I continue with La mano invisible (2011), by Isaac Rosa, En la orilla (2013), by Rafael Chirbes, and finally, La trabajadora (2014), written by Elvira. Navarro. In each of the four selected works we repeatedly find the characters in situations of anxiety and depression. We also notice how the characters use stimulants and tranquilizers to avoid the reality. Moreover, we found descriptions of moments in which the body does not respond physically to the workload that the economic system demands. All of this is expressed most of the time through interior monologues. I question how the capitalist system breaks the bodies of the workers, but also their minds. I investigate the different forms of physical and mental illness that occur in middle-aged men, but also in highly educated young women. Likewise, I examine the ways in which workers from different social classes face their crises. When analyzing the representations of the precarious in Spanish literature, I discuss whether the neoliberal model is responsible for most of the misfortunes of workers.This dissertation also explores how the uncertainty due to the arrival of new crises, new forms of work and realities, that are not controllable by the individual, harm a society that does not know which direction to take. This thesis aims to explain how work is represented in Spanish literature a period in which absolutely everything: work, time, money, personal... appears globalized. There is no separation between work and personal, everything has merged. This dissertation will reposition the characters in our society, giving them a place in which they will begin to be the central axes in the narrative of the crisis, finding their legitimate place in the critical discourse.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Spanish

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Munoz Gomez, Dulcinea

Contributors dc:contributor

• Delgado, L.Elena
• Ledesma, Eduardo
• Martinez-Quiroga, Pilar
• Fornoff, Carolyn

• Work
• Body
• Spanish Literature
• Peninsular
• Emotions
• Contemporary

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Dulcinea Munoz Gomez

Language dc:language

es, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120221

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120221