| This thesis studies seven contemporary Spanish narratives by Juan Goytisolo, Mauricio Wiesenthal, Juan Jose Millas, Miguel Sanchez-Ostiz, Jose Maria Merino, Antonio Munoz Molina, and Arturo Perez-Reverte, which share a concern for matters of discourse, identity and moral problems as they relate to the "discourse of heritage", a mode of approaching the past in order to validate our image in the present. In most occasions, this validation is related to a shaping of the self in moral terms which conveys a very specific idea of what is to be "human".;The main concern of this project is to identify the presence of a critical response (a "critique" in Michel Foucault's terms) in these narratives as a way to negotiate the contradictions posed by the clash between this image predicated and conditioned by the discourse and reality.;The analysis shows that our need to conceive of ourselves as moral subjects plays an important role in sustaining the discourse itself and denying the barbarism inherent in ourselves or in our chosen community of identification. In those circumstances, a critique proves to be mainly based on self-reflection (a reflection of the role we play in relation to that discourse), the re-inscription of barbarism in the way we conceive of ourselves, and the conscience of an alternative ethical space (beyond discourse) in the form of the levinasian "for-the-other".;Carrying this type of critique implies exercising a different way of thinking, by showing a glimpse from within the limits of discourse of that which exceeds it and, in so doing, raising questions about our given limits and certainties. |
