La educación por los sentidos: Memoria y formación en Contra paraí­so y Tranví­a a la Malvarrosa de Manuel Vicent

Abstract

Up to now Manuel Vicent has published four books that have been regarded as autobiographic: Contra paraí­so (1993), Tranví­a a la malvarrosa(1994), Jardí­n de Villa Valeria (1996) and Verás el cielo abierto (2006).The first two books refer to childhood and youth and construct, read together, an autofiction and at the same time a Bildungsroman that, upon the acknowledged background of Franco dictatorship, tell the ups and downs and discoveries of the protagonist who grows up in a world full of contrasts. The literary configuration of childhood and adolescence is being achieved in terms of exploration of the world, and the way of attaining it is basically by means of senses. The aim of this paper is to go deep inside the dialogue between the autofiction and the apprenticeship novel, framed by the repressive Spain between the decades oh the thirties and sixties of twentieth century