This thesis, written in Spanish, is the first critical reading of the work of Rosa Regàs. The main aim of this study has been to provide a vision of different readings of the spectrum of the texts produced by this writer. The work of Rosa Regàs is seen here as characterized by polyphony, by which is meant not only a wide range of narrative voices but also the multiplicity of perspectives adopted in Regàs's generically diverse work. The importance she accords to imagination and memory and to the concept of the journey, her particular aesthetics, her production of 'hybrid literature', the use of ambiguity, her sense of commitment reflected in her written and personal activism, her particular feminism—all attest to the overriding importance in her work of plurality. The introduction explores the biography of Rosa Regàs as well as her contribution to Spanish and European literature. The theoretical basis of the first chapter is narratological, applying the methods established by Norman Friedman, Gérard Genette, Enrique Anderson Imbert, and Mieke Bal, among others. The diversity of narrative voices used by Rosa Regàs in her novels and short stories is analysed to demonstrate the variety of her discursive practices and a style characterised by a lyrical narrative voice and an Impressionist technique. Chapter two explores a symbolic dimension in the first three novels and in most of the short stories: here a poetic style suggests 'modernismo' as an influence and it is argued that aspects of Rosa Regàs 's writing can be read as a belated, attenuated form of dissident cultural elitism, and as, in part, a form of neo-symbolism. The third chapter argues that the motif of the journey plays a leading role in her writing: the aesthetics and formal features of travel literature, which includes an emphasis on memory and the recording of subjective and concrete impressions. It studies the role of the journey in the narrative, looking in particular at the possible effects of gender difference on this aspect of her writing. The fourth chapter emphasizes memory as an essential and pervasive feature of her work. History functions in the literature of Rosa Regàs as a catalyst for memory in a number of ways: an intensely expressed experience is juxtaposed with fantasy; memory and imagination are linked in ways that invite the reader to participate creatively in the literary process. However, the author's most important objective in emphasizing memory is the attempt to blur the boundaries between history and life, autobiography and fiction. The final chapter deals with Rosa Regàs 's journalistic writings and attempts to trace the nuances and demonstrate the versatility of her work, as well as to evaluate her contribution to the study of the situation of women and her social and political commitment. These features make Rosa Regàs an original writer who is difficult to classify. Once again the importance of narrative voice is stressed, but now in the context of an engagement with contemporary issues.

In an attempt to find a satisfactory and comprehensive explanation for the history of the sibilants in Peninsular Spanish, I explore the causal factors that were instrumental in motivating, promoting and diffusing the merger of voiced and voiceless sibilants. An investigation of these factors includes a discussion of language typology and universals, the acoustic qualities of the sibilant fricatives, issues surrounding phonemic mergers and dialect contact and mixing. In addition, I investigate the history of the sibilants, compare and contrast opposing views regarding that history and set forth those issues that have yet to receive a satisfactory explanation. Furthermore, I attempt to determine the geographical and chronological origins and the diffusion of this sound change by an orthographical investigation of several medieval documents and texts. In the final chapter, I tie together theory and data with the aim of giving a satisfactory and comprehensive exposition of the history of the sibilants in Peninsular Spanish. I conclude that the Spanish sibilants behave in keeping with the ideal observations set forth by the language universals examined in this thesis. The language-internal motivations include the ease in the articulation of voiceless sibilants in comparison to the voiced sibilants and the conditions that made the Old Spanish sibilants ripe for merger. Dialect mixing and contact and the weak ties within the social structure of medieval Spain are the language-external motivations that encouraged and promoted the sound merger and diffusion. With regard to the geographical and chronological history of the Spanish sibilants, I conclude that by the mid-thirteenth century, there is evidence of confusion of the /z/ and /s/ and by the end of the thirteenth century, neutralization of voice in the sibilants is widespread in all parts of Iberian Peninsula. There is possible evidence of seseo in Toledo as early as 1330 and in Soria in 1355. Evidence of the merger of [+voice] sibilants and [-voice] sibilants continues to mount throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In Central Spain, there is strong evidence of seseo in Madrid (1403-06), Peñafiel (1465) and Toledo (1438). and I, therefore, contend that early seseo is not exclusively Andalusian. By the mid-fifteenth century, there is possible evidence of merger of /z/ and /s/ in Southern Spain and by the sixteenth century, there is possible evidence of the merger Of /z/ and /s/ in Northern and Central Spain and possible evidence of zezeo and çeçeo in Southern Spain.

Unitary cardinals are a common source for indefinite markers. This thesis is a quantitative diachronic study of the development of Spanish un, from its cardinal value to its use as an indefi nite article. Based on a corpus comprising texts from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, I present an analysis and chronology of the main changes undergone by un throughout this period, notably its increasing use as a marker of non-speci c indefinites, and its further incorporation in generic noun phrases and predicates. Additionally, I demonstrate that the development of the plural indefinite determiner unos is, with a few restrictions, parallel to that of its singular counterpart, not only in its increasing frequency, but also in its introduction into new contexts. Furthermore, I present a comparison between un and alg un in terms of speci city and conclude that although there are evident links between them, both being inde nite determiners derived from Latin unus, they have always had di erent functional domains. Finally, I show that one of the consequences of the incorporation of un into generic contexts is the rise of the so-called impersonal uno, and explain that this event is crucial to explain the disappearance of another generic pronoun, omne, whose last examples are found in the sixteenth century, that is, precisely the moment where the first instances of impersonal uno occur.

My thesis explores how memory and trauma permeate the work of the poet Félix Grande (Mérida, Spain, 1937). It addresses the question of how his particular understanding of memory is opposed to a rather bleak view of it held by many other Spanish poets of the time. Grande does not yield to a generalized discrediting of memory. On the contrary, memory is the driving force behind his writing, and this thesis constitutes an analysis of its mechanisms. The originality of Grande’s work stems from the ways in which it shares common ground with contemporary research carried out by disciplines that integrate Memory and Trauma Studies. His poetic voice struggles to grasp aspects of memory whose articulation proves traumatic. These elements resist symbolic translation and turn his poetry into a work of constant rumination without closure. Grande’s work illustrates that literature is both inextricably linked to memory, and is well equipped to deal with trauma, as the labour carried out by memory, weaving and un-weaving, especially in its attempts to mourn, is at the heart of his artistic production. Finally, his work instantiates a relationship with language and memory which, while recognising the limits of language to express and of memory to retrieve the past, goes beyond this initial distrust to offer a positive perspective on these faculties, as the means for establishing modes of survival and rethinking our connections to the unknown.

The present thesis provides an analysis of language policy and language contact in present-day Barcelona. On the one hand, the effectiveness of the implementation of Catalan-medium education in Catalonia will be critically evaluated. On the other hand, Catalan-Castilian bilinguals' awareness of non-normative instances of language contact will be assessed. This thesis brings these two strands together, in order to paint an accurate picture of the current Catalan sociolinguistic situation. The 1983 Llei de Normalització Lingüística had numerous consequences, including the introduction of Catalan as the chief medium of education in Catalonia. Such legislation had many aims, not least to 'ensure Catalan language competence'. But to what extent has this been successful? Furthermore, the varieties of Catalan and Castilian in Barcelona are characterised by centuries of language contact, which has resulted in the incursion of numerous, non-normative linguistic items and constructions in both languages. To what extent are speakers aware of such non-normative language? Moreover, how do these questions concerning language policy and language contact bear upon one another? This thesis is therefore looking at the consequences of language policy and of language contact. With the aid of an innovative, three-dimensional model of sociolinguistic phenomena, it will be shown that these are maximally differentiated, yet clearly related. These will be termed top-down phenomena and bottom-up phenomena respectively. This is to be tested using a unique fieldwork experiment whereby fifty bilingual Catalan-Castilian Barcelonians of two different generations (one educated in Catalan, the other in Castilian, due to different linguistic policies) are asked to identify instances of non-normative language contact in two prepared texts. This work will allow conclusions to be drawn regarding the effectiveness of Catalan medium education, as well as offering insight into the nature of how we examine issues of language policy and language contact.

The Spanish Magdalene and Martha lives in MS Escorial h. I. 13 are translations of Old French texts represented by MSS C and F respectively, and not of any other Latin or French source. The C French and D Franco-Provençal versions of the Magdalene life are independent translations of the Latin B text, and the F and C5 French versions of the Martha life are independently executed versions of the Latin E text. There are, however, some puzzling affinities between the Latin and Spanish texts. The shorter Latin Magdalene life A. is the original version, which was elaborated to form the longer Latin life B. The C French translation is shorter than B. but its source is the longer B rather than the shorter A. text, the differences between original and translation being explained by the adaptive translation process. Comparison between the more complete D translation and the simplifying C text shows that the two versions C and D were intended for very different uses. The two-French Martha translations, F and C5 are from Latin originals much closer to the E Latin text than to the Sanctuarium. F is a simplifying translation, intended, like the C Magdalene text, for oral delivery, while, C5 is a more complete rendering, intended for private reading by aristocratic ladies. The Spanish MS could not have contained complete, translations of both the Magdalene and the Martha lives, since the missing, four folios would not have been sufficient for the material involved. The distribution of non-standard linguistic features shows that the two Spanish texts are the work of two different translators. The Spanish translations are both, in general, accurately and competently executed, but the differing numbers of errors, additions, omissions and changes in each confirms that they are the work of two different translators.

The novels Sender has written since the Spanish Civil War are interesting above all for their ideas. These centre on two main topics: one, philosophical - the nature of reality -, the other, psychological - the problems of adjustment to reality. Such ideas and topics are not to be found in Sender's pre-Civil War works; nor are these works characterised by the considerable ambiguity and structural complexity of the later books which challenge the reader with doubts and questions rather than supply-him with answers. The quasi-autobiographical novels, ih particular, among Sender's post-Civil War works, suggest that the war was a watershed in his life and thought. Certainly that is the major experience with which his fictional counterparts have to struggle - the non-autobiographical works often focus on other traumatic experiences. Certainly too, when Sender came to rework pre-Civil-War material in post-Civil War novels his originalviews were either changed or - more frequently - questioned and presented as being no more valid than a number of quite different views. Moreover, the lives of Sender's fictional counterparts - in his post-Civil War autobiographical novels - amount to hypothetical, moral and existential variations on the author's own life, before, during and after the Civil War. The complex structure and ambiguity of Sender's post-Civil War works are wedded to the philosophical and psychological topics they present and explore. Structure and ideas both reflect his response to the traumatic challenge which the Spanish Civil War forced upon his understanding and capacity for adjustment. In writing these works Sender has tried to shed some light on the reality of his own life - including its unknown and unknowable aspects - and by so doing confirmSto the attentive reader, the profound seriousness and importance of Sender's post-war writing.

The object of this thesis is to reach towards an understanding of Cuban society through a study of its detective fiction and more particularly contemporary Cuban society through the novels of the author and critic, Leonardo Padura Fuentes. The method has been to trace the development of Cuban detective writing and to read Padura Fuentes in the light of the work of twentieth century Western European literary critics and philosophers including Raymond Williams, Antonio Gramsci, Terry Eagleton, Roland Barthes, Jean Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, Jean François Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard in order to gain a better understanding of the social and historical context from which this genre emerged. By concentrating on the literary texts, I have explored readings which lead out into an analysis of the broader philosophical, political and historical issues raised by the Cuban revolution. Since it deals primarily with modes of deviance and notions of legality and justice within the context of the modern state, detective fiction is particularly well suited to this type of investigation. The intention is to show how this is as valid in the Cuban context as it is in advanced capitalist societies where such research has already been carried out with some success. The thesis comprises an introduction, ten chapters and a conclusion. The chapters are divided into three sections. Chapters 1 to 3 attempt a broad theoretical, historical and socio-political analysis of the cultural reality within which the Cuban revolutionary detective genre emerged. Chapters 4 to 6 analyse the Cuban detective narrative from its inception in the early part of the twentieth century until the emergence of Leonardo Padura Fuentes as the foremost exponent of the genre in Cuba after 1991. Chapters 7- 10 concentrate upon the work of Leonardo Padura Fuentes, offering a reading of his detective tetralogy informed by the preceding discussion. The contribution made by the thesis to knowledge of the subject is to build upon the work of Seymour Menton and Amelia S. Simpson on the development of the Cuban detective novel and to provide analyses of the pre-Revolutionary Cuban detective narrative and the work of Leonardo Padura Fuentes for the first time in the English language. The thesis concludes that the study of this popular genre in Cuba is of crucial importance to the scholar who wishes to reach as full an understanding of the social dynamics within that society as possible. In particular, it proves that Cuban detective fiction provides a useful barometer of social change which records the shifts in the Cuban Zeitgeist that have taken place over the past century.

My thesis is intended to throw new light on the biography of the late-fifteenth-century writer Juan de Flores and to elucidate various aspects of his role in the development of the Spanish sentimental romance. To this end, I have prepared a critical edition of his romance La hiatQri. a sie Gr i. Bel y Mirak-elle (ca. 1480) in the three distinct versions in which it is known to have circulated: (1) an original text (preserved in MS 5-3-20, Biblioteca Colombina, Seville, fos. 69r-86r), (2) a revised version (preserved in MS 940, Biblioteca Trivulziana, Milan, fos. 1r-76v), and (3) a second revision, probably anonymous (preserved in the eight extant printed editions, which range in date from ca. 1495 to 1562). The edition contains a full corpus of variants for the printed witnesses, along with linguistic, exegetical and textual notes. Accompanying this edition is a textual study (Chapter 3) in which I establish the relationship to one another of the surviving witnesses and discuss in detail the work's genesis. The remaining chapters concern the attribution to Flores of two works hitherto regarded as anonymous. In Chapter 1, I argue that the known as La ==na-WQn da la zel a GTaniBla is modelled on GI, 1, Bgl y Mirabelle, and I adduce stylistic and other circumstantial evidence to show that Flores is probably -2- its author. Employing a similar methodology, I demonstrate in Chapter 2 that Flores can be identified as a royal chronicler to the Catholic Monarchs and author of the GjQai-Qa i. nQQIp1at de 14a Ray! aa Qat4j -Q4a" Drawing on information in the chronicle, I provide a plausible reconstruction of his life at the ducal court of Alba and illustrate the importance of his historiographic work for our understanding of his fictional output. This thesis provides a revaluation of Juan de Flores as a far more prolific, versatile and influential author than has previously been recognized.

The object of this study is to investigate the origins of the traditional lyric poetry of the Iberian Peninsula through an analysis of the poetry of dawn meeting. The formative influences on each of the three types of traditional poetry, the Mozarabic kharjas, the Galician cantigas and the Castilian villancicos are examined and possible relationships are indicated. An introductory survey reviews the state of scholarship in the field of Spanish lyric poetry. Particular reference is made to the importance of the comparatively recent discovery of the kharjas because their publication has occasioned a profound reappraisal of the origins of Romance vernacular poetry. A new dimension has been brought not only to the study of the medieval lyric of Spain and Portugal but also to considerations of the relevance of the Provençal lyric to the poetry of the Peninsula. The individuality of the traditional Iberian lyric is seen in its singularly consistent use of certain related themes, one of the most significant of these being the theme of lovers' meeting at dawn. Each type of lyric is viewed against its cultural background and the many influences both popular and learned which contribute to its composition, to the development of its imagery and to its preservation are assessed. The treatment of the dawn theme and its associated imagery in each area of poetic composition is analysed both for continuity and for innovation and originality. Since religion, either Christian or pagan, is seen to be influential in the shaping of traditional poetry, religion as a theme of the poetry of meeting is reviewed in the concluding chapter. In its various aspects it is found to accord with many of the characteristics described in the previous chapters.