SICKNESS, PAIN AND DEATH IN TWO 21ST CENTURY SPANISH NOVELS

Abstract

Sickness, pain and death represent marginalization, but also dignity and solidarity, a place of encounter and reconciliation. Lucía Etxebarria´s Un milagro en equilibrio and Rosa Montero’s Historia del rey transparente are two recent novels with characters that are either sick or in extreme pain, and die in the end. Both novels are opposed to the concept of metaphorization of sickness, and appeal to call things by their name, beyond euphemisms of any kind. The narrators form this stories move away from this metaphor and adopt an attitude of resistance through writing.