Shadows, voices and signs in the works of Julián Ríos: the beginnings of a plural writing

Abstract

Although the works of Julián Ríos have been published and read with interest, some of those readings have been instrumental in establishing, at least in Spain, a consensual contemporary literary canon, which displaces all that is sensed as different or complex to the margins. That is why, sometimes when talking about Ríos, only his first published novel Larva. Midsummer Night's Babel is taken into consideration. However, taking into account his earlier writings and his labor as an editor at Espiral can help us raise in a more comprehensive and precise way some of the questions that the critics have considered as inherent in his writing. Our purpose in this article is, therefore, to illustrate how Ríos’ works aim, from the very beginning –despite some common places related to them–, at plurality, at dialogue –with tradition, with other disciplines, with its contemporaries, with other national spaces– and, eventually, at transcending the limits –physically, aesthetically and morally– of the literary field of the late Francoism.