Through the analysis of six Spanish novels, one for each decade from the 1940s through the 1990s, Rodríguez proposes a new concept of the novel of feminine development and emphasizes the importance of the voicing of women's sentiments, passions, desires, and opinions that have not been expressed before in the literature of Spain. The study begins with Nada by Carmen Laforet, and continues with La playa de los locos, by Elena Soriano, La placa del Diamant, by Merc Rodoreda, two stories from Te dejo el mar, by Carme Riera, Los perros de Hcate, by Carmen Gmez Ojea, and Efectos secundarios, by Luisa Etxenike. In these texts, "la mujer espaola" of the Franco period's official discourse—woman as wife and mother as the most desirable possibilities of realization and development—is deconstructed into a multitude of vital, affective, and sexual options that confront this domestic image. These novels highlight the diversity of the feminine experience in the twentieth century and encourage us to question models of development that are monolithic and dogmatic.
