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Abstract
This article explores ageing and masculinity in Lorenzo Silva’s novel El mal de Corcira (2020). Hard-boiled crime/detective fiction is associated in most cases with masculinity and patriarchy. In 1998, Lorenzo Silva started publishing his detective Rubén Bevilacqua’s series, a collection of twelve novels so far. Bevilacqua belongs to the Guardia Civil, the oldest Spanish law enforcement agency, which has been associated with violent and patriarchal masculinity. This article will examine both the personal and collective past in Silva’s novel, offering insights into the process of ageing.
Keywords: ageing, hegemonic masculinity, femininity, homosexuality, ETA, Guardia Civil, Lorenzo Silva
Notes
1 See Samuel Amell, ‘La novela negra y los narradores españoles actuales’, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, 20:1 (1986), 91–102; José Colmeiro, ‘The Spanish Connection: Detective Fiction after Franco’, The Journal of Popular Culture, 28:1 (1994), 151–61; and Renée Craig-Odders, ‘Sin, Redemption and the New Generation of Detective Fiction in Spain: Lorenzo Silva’s Bevilacqua series’, in La novela policial hispánica actual, Ciberletras. Journal of Literary Criticism and Culture, 15 (2006), n.p. (<https://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ciberletras/v15/craigg.html> [accessed 11 May 2022]).
2 See Kathleen Thompson-Casado, ‘Petra Delicado, a Suitable Detective for a Feminist?’, in La novela criminal femenina, ed. Shelley Godsland, Letras Femeninas, 28:1 (2002), 71–83; and Craig-Odders, ‘Sin, Redemption and the New Generation of Detective Fiction’, n.p.
3 See Sandra Jean Puvogel, ‘The Detective Fiction of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’, Doctoral dissertation (Michigan State University, 1987); and Susana Bayó Belenguer, ‘A Moral Chronicle: The “Carvalho” Series of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’, Romance Notes, 43:1 (2002), 23–35.
4 Bayó Belenguer, ‘A Moral Chronicle’, 28.
5 See Shelley Godsland, Killing Carmens: Women’s Crime Fiction from Spain (Cardiff: Univ. of Wales Press, 2007); and Nina L. Molinaro, Policing Gender and Alicia Giménez Bartlett’s Crime Fiction (London/New York: Routledge, 2015).
6 Thompson-Casado, ‘Petra Delicado, a Suitable Detective for a Feminist?’, 73.
7 Lorenzo Silva, ‘Teoría (informal) de la novela benemérita’, in ANPE. II Congreso Nacional. Multiculturalidad y norma policéntrica: aplicaciones en el aula de ELE, 26–27/09/2008, available at <https://www.educacionyfp.gob.es/dctm/redele/Material-RedEle/Numeros%20Especiales/2009_ESP_09_II%20Congreso%20Anpe/Plenarias/2009_ESP_09_02Silva.pdf?documentId=0901e72b80e6f1c3>, (accessed 1 June 2022).
8 The issues and socio-political backdrop to these works is wide-ranging. Narcotrafficking, the War in Afghanistan, immigration, mafia criminality, the endemic corruption in Spanish politics and institutions, the role of women in society, and the increased participation of women in the Spanish police force, are all topics that are referenced in the novels.
9 The Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL) emerged in 1983 as a para-political armed force that practised State-sponsored terrorism against ETA. The Intxaurrondo barracks are the headquarters of the Guipúzcoa Guardia Civil Command. From 1978 to 1987, the barracks became central to the Spanish government’s anti-terrorist fight against ETA. Some of the interrogation practices perpetrated there were denounced as torture, as in the Joxe Lasa Arostegi and José Ignacio Zabala cases (alleged ETA militants who were murdered by GAL).
10 See R. W. Connell, Masculinities (Berkeley/Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press, 1995); and R. W. Connell & James W. Messerschmidt, ‘Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept’, Gender & Society, 19:6 (2005), 829–59.
11 Jack Halberstam, Female Masculinity (Durham, NC: Duke U. P., 1998).
12 I am not arguing that the patriarchal and hegemonic masculinity of Franco’s dictatorship is still prevalent in all areas of Spanish society, its institutions and organizations; I am focusing solely on the Guardia Civil and ETA. Lorraine Ryan & Ana Corbalán have rightly claimed that Spain has witnessed a more diverse and heterogenous portrayal of masculinities. For an in-depth analysis of the reconfiguration of masculinity in contemporary Spain, see The Dynamics of Masculinity in Contemporary Spanish Culture, ed. Lorraine Ryan & Ana Corbalán (London/New York: Routledge, 2017).
13 R. W. Connell Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics (Sydney/Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1987).
14 Connell & Messerschmidt, ‘Hegemonic Masculinity’, 836 & 846.
15 See Connell, Masculinities.
16 Richard O. de Visser & Elizabeth J. McDonnell, ‘ “Man Points”: Masculine Capital and Young Men’s Health’, in Men's Health, ed. Brendan Gough, Health Psychology, 32:1 (2013), 5–14.
17 Andrea Waling ‘Problematising “Toxic” and “Healthy” Masculinity for Addressing Gender Inequalities’, in Modernist Women and the Legacies of Risk, ed. Natalya Lusty, Australian Feminist Studies, 34:101 (2019), 362–75.
18 See Bryant W. Sculos, ‘Who’s Afraid of ‘Toxic Masculinity?’, in U.S. Labor and Social Justice II, ed. Kim Scipes, Class, Race and Corporate Power, 5:3 (2017), n.p. (<https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower/vol5/iss3/6/> [accessed 15 July 2022]); and Terry A. Kupers, ‘Toxic Masculinity As a Barrier to Mental Health Treatment in Prison’, Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61:6 (2005) 713–24.
19 Connell & Messerschmidt, ‘Hegemonic Masculinity’, 848. See also Michael S. Kimmel, ‘Masculinity As Homophobia: Fear, Shame, and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity’, in Theorizing Masculinities, ed. Harry Brod & Michael Kaufman (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 1994) 119–41.
20 Connell, Gender and Power, 24.
21 Kimmel, ‘Masculinity As Homophobia’, 130.
22 Fred Fejes, ‘ “Making a Gay Masculinity” ’, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 17:1 (2000), 113–16.
23 Fejes, ‘ “Making a Gay Masculinity” ’, 114.
24 Fejes, ‘ “Making a Gay Masculinity” ’, 115.
25 Halberstam, Female Masculinity, 9.
26 A radically different position is taken by some feminists who consider masculine actions and roles as antithetical to women’s liberation. See Judith Kegan Gardiner, ‘Introduction’, in Masculinity Studies and Feminist Theory: New Directions, ed. Judith Kegan Gardiner (New York: Columbia U. P., 2002), 1–29.
27 Jennifer C. Hunt, ‘The Logic of Sexism Among Police’, Women & Criminal Justice, 1:2 (1989–1990), 3–30.
28 Susan Ehrlich Martin & Nancy C. Jurik, Doing Justice, Doing Gender: Women in Legal and Criminal Justice Occupations (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2006).
29 Marisa Silvestri, ‘Police Culture and Gender: Revisiting the “Cult of Masculinity” ’, in Police Culture, ed. Tom Cockcroft, Policing. A Journal of Policy and Practice, 11:3 (2017), 289–300 (p. 283).
30 Anastasia Prokos & Irene Padavic, ‘ “There Oughtta Be a Law Against Bitches”: Masculinity Lessons in Police Academy Training’, Gender, Work & Organization, 9:4 (2002), 439–59.
31 Silvestri, ‘Police Culture and Gender’, 295.
32 See Roddrick A. Colvin, Gay and Lesbian Cops: Diversity and Effective Policing (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2012); and Elizabeth Kier, ‘Homosexuals in the U.S. Military: Open Integration and Combat Effectiveness’, International Security, 23:2 (1998), 5–39.
33 Jennifer Brown & Elizabeth A. Campbell, Stress and Policing: Sources and Strategies, (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 1994).
34 Mark E. Burke, Coming Out of the Blue: British Police Officers Talk About Their Lives in “The Job” As Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals (London/New York: Cassell, 1993).
35 Carlos Sánchez-Herrera, ‘Comparativa de las actitudes hacia el colectivo LGTBI en las Fuerzas Armadas y en la población civil,’ MODULEMA. Revista Científica sobre Diversidad Cultural, 3 (2019), 45–62; available at <https://digibug.ugr.es/bitstream/handle/10481/55775/8786-27390-1-PB.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y> (accessed 17 May 2022).
36 Fátima Arranz, ‘Ser guardia civil desde la diversidad sexual y de género: una aproximación sociológica cualitativa’, Revista Especial de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 170 (2020), 3–18; available online at <https://reis.cis.es/REIS/jsp/REIS.jsp?opcion=articulo&ktitulo=2936&autor=F%C1TIMA+ARRANZ> (accessed 15 July 2022).
37 Mariano de Rementeria y Fica, Manual del Baratero: o arte de manejar la navaja. El cuchillo y la tijera de los gitanos (Madrid: Imprenta de Alberto Goya, 1849). See also Manuel Ballbé Mallol, Orden público y militarismo en la España constitucional, 1812–1983 (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1985).
38 Arranz, ‘Ser guardia civil’, 6.
39 Arranz, ‘Ser guardia civil’, 7.
40 Arranz, ‘Ser guardia civil’, 15.
41 R. W. Connell, ‘On Hegemonic Masculinity and Violence: Response to Jefferson and Hall’, Theoretical Criminology, 6:1 (2002), 89–99 (p. 93).
42 Sam de Boise, ‘Editorial: Is Masculinity Toxic?’, NORMA. International Journal for Masculinity Studies, 14:3 (2019), 147–51.
43 Laura Sjoberg & Caron E. Gentry, Mothers, Monsters, Whores: Women's Violence in Global Politics (London/New York: Zed Books, 2007), 2; emphasis in the original. Another important scholarly work on women’s participation is Brigitte L. Nacos, ‘The Portrayal of Female Terrorists in the Media: Similar Framing Patterns in the News Coverage of Women in Politics and in Terrorism’, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 28:5 (2005), 435–51.
44 Sjoberg & Gentry, Mothers, Monsters, Whores, 12.
45 See Eulalia Pérez Sedeño, ‘Terrorismo y estereotipos de género’, in La filosofía ante el terrorismo, ed. Eduardo de Bustos & J. Francisco Álvarez, Isegoría. Revista de Filosofía Moral y Política, 46 (2012), 233–47; available at <https://doi.org/10.3989/isegoria.2012.046.10> (accessed 17 May 2022).
46 Carrie Hamilton, ‘Re-membering the Basque Nationalist Family: Daughters, Fathers and the Reproduction of the Radical Nationalist Community’, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 1:2 (2000), 153–71 (p. 160).
47 María Jesús Pando Canteli & María Pilar Rodríguez Pérez, ‘Las mujeres de ETA: activismo y transgresión’, Arbor. Ciencia, Pensamiento y Cultura, 196:796 (2020), n.p. (available at https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2020.796n2007 [accessed 17 May 2022]); Stewart King, ‘Fear and Fascination: Women, ETA and the Crisis of Masculinity in Contemporary Spain’, Violent Depictions: Violence Across Cultures, ed. Susanna Scarparo & Sarah McDonald (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2006), 47–66.
48 Pando Canteli & Rodríguez Pérez, ‘Las mujeres de ETA’, n.p.
49 Matías Antolín, Mujeres de ETA: piel de serpiente (Madrid: Temas de Hoy, 2002), 20.
50 See Isolina Ballesteros, Cine (ins)urgente: textos fílmicos y contextos culturales de la España posfranquista (Madrid: Editorial Fundamentos, 2001), 98. See also Joseba Gabilondo, ‘El anillo postnacional de Moebius: deseo y política en la literatura vasca reciente (2000–2012)’, in Letras vascas. Puertos abiertos, ed. Jon Kortazar, Ínsula. Revista de Letras y Ciencias Humanas, 797 (2013), 33–35.
51 Lorenzo Silva, El mal de Corcira (Barcelona: Editorial Planeta, 2020), 37–38. All quotations from the novel are from this edition and will be given parenthetically within the text.
52 Álamo, who is the prototype of toxic masculinity, calls Haizea ‘pantera’ (491).
53 Joseba Gabilondo has explored the literary representation of masochistic masculinity in the Basque Country and in relation to ETA. He argues that the violence of ETA constitutes and is linked to the foundation of the Basque nation. In addition, Gabilondo explains how the masculinity of the terrorists depicted in the novels by Bernardo Atxaga (Gizona bere bakardadean [The Lone Man] [1993]) and Ramon Saizarbitoria (Hamaika Pauso [Many Steps] [1995]) fetishize women as symptoms of political reality: women are either sexual objects—those who are non-Basque—or non-desirable political subjects (national mothers). See Joseba Gabilondo, ‘Terrorism As Memory: The Historical Novel and Masculine Masochism in Contemporary Basque Literature’, Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, 2 (1998), 113–46.
54 See Vern L. Bengtson et al., ‘Generations, Cohorts, and Relations Between Age Groups’, in Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences, ed. Robert H. Binstock & Ethel Shanas, 2nd ed. (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985 [1st ed. 1976]), 304–38.
55 The other type is the mariquita, an effeminate male. See Oscar Guasch, ‘Social Stereotypes and Masculine Homosexualities: The Spanish Case’, in Sexualities and Social Change in Spain, ed. Kerman Calvo & José Ignacio Pichado, Sexualities, 14:5 (2011), 526–43 (p. 528).
56 For a comprehensive account of homosexuality in Spain, see Alberto Mira, De Sodoma a Chueca: una historia cultural de la homosexualidad en España en el siglo XX (Barcelona/Madrid: Egales, 2004); and Santiago Fouz-Hernández, ‘Identity Without Limits: Queer Debates and Representation in Contemporary Spain’, Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research, 10:1 (2004), 63–81.
57 It is interesting to note some resonance here with the aforementioned case of Yoyes, María Dolores González Katarain.
58 Stephen Katz, Cultural Aging. Life Course, Lifestyle and Senior Worlds (Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 2009), 188–202.
59 Maricel Oró-Piqueras & Anita Wohlmann, ‘Serial Narrative, Temporality and Aging: An Introduction’, in Serializing Age: Aging and Old Age in TV Series, ed. Maricel Oró-Piqueras & Anita Wohlmann (Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2015), 9–22.
60 It could be argued that there is a third type of readership, the reader who reads the whole series in a short period of time. In this case, the reader may still experience temporality in its linearity but at an intense, fast pace.
* Disclosure Statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.