Chapter II - Two Early Novels: Los dominios del lobo and Travesía del horizonte

Summary

When asked in 2006 about the relationship between his second novel, Travesía del horizonte (1972) (Voyage Along the Horizon, 2006), and the general tendencies in Spanish fiction at the time of its publication, Marías promptly linked it to his first novel, Los dominios del lobo (1971) (The Dominions of the Wolf), and then located both outside the narrative mainstream in Spain. Indeed, he placed his first two works in a context of difference from important works of Spanish fiction of the 1960s and early 1970s that were lauded for their combination of stylistic experimentation and political antagonism toward Francoism. As Marías put it about his two novels: “(a) they were not at all autobiographical; (b) they were not ‘experimental,’ as was the trend with novels in those days; (c) they were not ‘antinarratives,’ another trend back then; (d) they were not set in Spain; (e) they were not set in the same era in which they were written; and (f) they had no particular ‘message,’ neither ideological nor political nor any other kind.” To a large degree, Marías confirms here what most critics and literary historians have perceived about his early writing: it bears little resemblance to other Spanish fiction and is vested largely with the traditions of foreign literatures. In both Dominios and Travesía Marías imbues his narrative with a large dose of English and American discourses (fiction and cinema).