Aviso: Posibilidades de doble vida más adelante (Warning: Possibility of Double Lives Ahead) Ensayo de investigación*

Abstract

Fictitious matriarch Morticia Addams once said, “Normal is an illusion. Normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.” In today’s society, overly simplified generalizations about a specific type of person are called “stereotypes.” They are assumptions people make about what is normal for all individuals in a perceived group. But this image is an illusion, a false caricature that must be questioned. The novel La detective miope (The Myopic Detective), written by Rosa Ribas and published in 2010, is an example of contemporary Spanish literature that challenges these preconceived notions. Ribas meticulously crafts characters that appear to fit into conventional expectations of “normal.” Yet each one hides an unforeseen side that provokes a reevaluation of concepts such as gender, occupation, and personal motives. From the secrets between a father and his daughter to the corruption of the police force and other prestigious professions- a lawyer, a bank manager, a wholesaler of fabrics, Ribas traces a parallel between these members of society and a producer of porn films, his star actress Honey Horney, and a drag queen. She challenges the reader’s assumptions about what is normal in order to make a revealing critique about the society in which these generalizations persist.