In Search of Lost Space. Crisis and Urban Space in La habitación oscura by Isaac Rosa and Animales domésticos by Marta Sanz

Abstract

The novels written about Spain’s financial crisis of recent years have in common the representation of an urban space that serves as much more than simply a background. In this article, we want to examine two novels, La habitación oscura by Isaac Rosa and Animales domésticos by Marta Sanz, which portray the crisis and pre-crisis respectively from the perspective of the urban space. Social and economic disintegration mirrors itself in the space of the city or, if we reverse this thought: the space of the city serves as a mirror for the decomposition that is found within the novels. We will thus highlight and delve into three phenomena: the representation of the city as a betrayed arcadia, the collapse of certain spaces and the exclusion that this conveys, and, finally, the city’s underground sphere and its relation to death.