{"title":"A Hard-Boiled Hero in an Atomized World: Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s El hombre de mi vida and Milenio Carvalho Lament Neoliberal Alienation","authors":"José Ortigas","doi":"10.1007/s11061-024-09800-4","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<h3>Abstract</h3> <p>Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Pepe Carvalho detective novels comprise a seminal series, spanning eighteen novels from 1972 to 2004, that consolidated the novela negra as a popular, denunciatory genre in Spain. While much has been written about the early entries in the series, the latter novels, namely <em>El hombre de mi vida</em> (2000), <em>Milenio I: Rumbo a Kabul, and Milenio II: En las antípodas</em> (2004), have not received similar attention. Critics like Colmeiro, Balibrea, and Nichols have accurately read these novels as a denunciation of the most evident negative consequences of globalization at the turn of the new millennium, principally gentrification, displacement, and the exploitation of both labor and natural resources. Here, I expand this analysis to consider another of the deleterious effects of free-market rationality: The increasing personal alienation that has come to characterize modern neoliberal societies, a phenomenon recently analyzed by political philosophers like Brown (2015) and May (2012), and psychologists such as Verhaeghe (2014). I argue that, as the Carvalho character evolves throughout the series and neoliberalism achieves cultural hegemony, the depiction of the solitary protagonist in the final three novels denounces the growing isolation of the individual in a transnational society. This is reflected in the trope of the voyage, Carvalho’s nostalgic melancholia, and the progressively alienated condition of the marginalized detective as his relationships with others, tenuous in the best circumstances, begin to fully disintegrate.</p>","PeriodicalId":44392,"journal":{"name":"NEOPHILOLOGUS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"NEOPHILOLOGUS","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-024-09800-4","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Pepe Carvalho detective novels comprise a seminal series, spanning eighteen novels from 1972 to 2004, that consolidated the novela negra as a popular, denunciatory genre in Spain. While much has been written about the early entries in the series, the latter novels, namely El hombre de mi vida (2000), Milenio I: Rumbo a Kabul, and Milenio II: En las antípodas (2004), have not received similar attention. Critics like Colmeiro, Balibrea, and Nichols have accurately read these novels as a denunciation of the most evident negative consequences of globalization at the turn of the new millennium, principally gentrification, displacement, and the exploitation of both labor and natural resources. Here, I expand this analysis to consider another of the deleterious effects of free-market rationality: The increasing personal alienation that has come to characterize modern neoliberal societies, a phenomenon recently analyzed by political philosophers like Brown (2015) and May (2012), and psychologists such as Verhaeghe (2014). I argue that, as the Carvalho character evolves throughout the series and neoliberalism achieves cultural hegemony, the depiction of the solitary protagonist in the final three novels denounces the growing isolation of the individual in a transnational society. This is reflected in the trope of the voyage, Carvalho’s nostalgic melancholia, and the progressively alienated condition of the marginalized detective as his relationships with others, tenuous in the best circumstances, begin to fully disintegrate.
原子化世界中的硬汉英雄：Manuel Vázquez Montalbán 的《El hombre de mi vida》和 Milenio Carvalho 对新自由主义异化的哀叹
摘要 曼努埃尔-巴斯克斯-蒙塔尔班的佩佩-卡瓦略侦探小说是一个开创性的系列，从 1972 年到 2004 年共出版了 18 部小说，巩固了 "黑人小说 "在西班牙作为一种流行的谴责性体裁的地位。虽然关于该系列早期作品的论述很多，但后期小说，即《我的生活中的男人》（El hombre de mi vida，2000 年）、《喀布尔的朗博》（Milenio I. Rumbo a Kabul）和《我的生活中的男人》（El hombre de mi vida，2000 年），则是该系列的核心：Milenio II: En las antípodas》（2004 年），却没有得到类似的关注。科尔梅罗、巴利布里亚和尼科尔斯等评论家准确地将这些小说解读为对新千年之初全球化最明显的负面影响的谴责，主要是城市化、流离失所以及对劳动力和自然资源的剥削。在此，我将扩大分析范围，考虑自由市场理性的另一种有害影响：布朗（Brown，2015 年）和梅（May，2012 年）等政治哲学家以及韦尔海格（Verhaeghe，2014 年）等心理学家最近对这一现象进行了分析。我认为，随着卡瓦略这个角色在整个系列中的演变，以及新自由主义在文化上的霸权地位，最后三部小说中对孤独主人公的描写谴责了跨国社会中个人日益增长的孤立感。这反映在航海的特例、卡瓦略怀旧的忧郁情绪以及边缘化侦探逐渐疏离的状态中，因为他与他人的关系在最好的情况下也很微妙，但随着时间的推移，这种关系开始完全瓦解。
期刊介绍：
Neophilologus is an international peer-reviewed journal devoted to the study of modern and medieval language and literature, including literary theory, comparative literature, philology and textual criticism. The languages of publication are English, French, German and Spanish.
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号
