Hombres en movimiento: Masculinidades españolas en los exilios y emigraciones, 1939-1999

Men in Motion: Spanish Masculinities in Exiles and Emigrations, 1939-1999 by Iker Gonzalez-Allende delivers the first sustained study of how the Spanish masculine identity, of both homosexual and heterosexual men, is impacted when men are compelled to leave their country. In it, Gonzalez-Allende examines the literary output of Spanish male authors over three periods of emigration and exile: the long Republican exile from Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the emigration to Europe during the Spanish economic crisis of the 1960s, and the recent period of emigration of intellectuals to the US through the end of the twentieth century. Revealing and unpacking recurring patterns of isolation, insecurity, discrimination, and feminization in the host country, Gonzalez-Allende argues that exile and emigration cause a crisis of powerlessness that can have a destabilizing effect on one's masculinity. Gonzalez-Allende also examines a countervailing trend among Spanish exiles and emigres of these periods; that from the same crisis some achieve a greater sense of freedom and improve their socioeconomic standing. Each of the seven chapters analyzes a different Spanish male exile or emigre: the adolescent, the man at a crossroad, the idle man, the returning man, the working man, the onanist, and the academician. Works studied are likewise from a range of authors: Luis de Castresana, Juan Jose Domenchina, Juan Gil-Albert, Max Aub, Francisco Ayala, Patricio Chamizo, Victor Canicio, Terenci Moix, Antonio Munoz Molina, and Javier Cercas.