Abstract

fantasmas de barro (1978) is confronted with harsh and embittered social criticism of the economic deprivation, vengeance, hyprocrisy, broken families, cruel pun-ishments, and man's inhumanity to his fellow human beings prevalent during the Franco era. Admittedly, this portrayal of Spain is all too typical of the post-Civil War novel, beginning with Cela's La familia de Pascual Duarte (1942), and continuing through an enormous production of novelistic works in which the writers increasingly seek to express their personal views about society. Amilibia's work, however, is something more than a mere exposé of the social ills of Spain and warrants unique importance because its structure and form complement the action and demonstrate in effect the basic underlying rites which function in a given society and manifest its value system. Los fantasmas de barro is an autobiographical novel which, on two levels of time, retraces the crucial events of the author's youth. The central action occurs in chronological order over a single year (summer 1953 through spring 1954), while the background action comprises sporadic events in the protagonist's life