Approaches to Teaching the Works of Carmen Martn Gaite

The career of Spains celebrated author Carmen Martn Gaite spanned the Spanish Civil War, Francos dictatorship, and the nations transition to democracy. She wrote fiction, poetry, drama, screenplays for television and film, and books of literary and cultural analysis. The only person to win Spains National Prize for Literature (Premio Nacional de las Letras) twice, Martn Gaite explored and blended a range of genres, from social realism to the fantastic, as she took up issues of gender, class, economics, and aesthetics in a time of political upheaval. Part 1 (Materials) of this volume provides resources for instructors and a literary-historical chronology. The essays in part 2 (Approaches) consider Martn Gaites bestknown novel, The Back Room (El cuarto de atrs), and other works from various perspectives: narratological, feminist, sociocultural, stylistic. In an appendix, the volume editor, who was a friend of the author, provides a new translation of Martn Gaites only autobiographical sketch, alongside the original Spanish.