Scribo ergo sum Aspectos existenciales en tres novelas tardías de Carmen Martín Gaite

Sammanfattning: This dissertation examines three of Carmen Martín Gaite’s later novels, identifying existential issues that are presented through the narrative. It aims to unravel issues pertaining to personal identity, freedom, communication and ethical stances in a postmodern context.The thesis is divided into three studies, one for each novel examined. The corpus of novels includes Nubosidad variable (1992), La reina de las nieves (1994) and Lo raro es vivir (1996). The Introduction and the General Conclusions cover all three studies.The first examines the epistolary nature of Nubosidad variable, presenting the subjective and dialogical aspects of the texts in question. The protagonists’ quest for true identity, concealed beneath acquired social roles, elicits a search for authenticity. The second study analyses the intertextual character of La reina de las nieves, identifying the existential issues that are imbedded in the intertexts and the narrative. The third study looks into the importance of communication in a self-exploratory process in which death and life-giving issues are discussed.Identity is understood as a combination of ipse, selfhood, and idem, sameness and narrative identity as a narrative formation of discourse in which human experience is articulated and subject to change over time (Ricoeur). Freedom, responsibility, authenticity and subjectivity are viewed in light of theoretical considerations offered, inter alia, by Sartre and Kierkegaard.The study concludes that the main idea of these novels is that the act of writing gives purpose or meaning to life. Although death is ever-present, emphasis is placed on life challenges and the subject’s existential sense of direction. As regards ethical inclinations in the novels, there is an appraisal of the effort to acquire self-knowledge and self-fulfilment, assuming personal responsibility for choices made in life.