Rosa Arciniega and the Transformations of Avant-Garde Fiction

Abstract The objective of this article is to provide a reevaluation of Rosa Arciniega’s (1903–1999) literary work in Spain throughout the 1930s. While her work is currently labelled as ‘social literature’, the present study will argue that this label is reductive and does not take into account the complexities, contradictions and transformations of her work. As this article will show, Arciniega sought to represent and express modernity in its most varied facets by focusing on three different areas: social denunciation, renewal of literary expression, and an appeal to romantic sentimentality. This study seeks to shed light on Arciniega’s immersion in time and the consequent grim diagnosis of modernity which led her from left-wing radicalism to more conservative positions. Formal experimentation will be seen as a key part of her literary trajectory.