French Literature Reviews - 2026

V. Alary, Filles de la mémoire. Les images fixes de Juan Marsé
Comparative and World Literature

Bibliographic reference: V. Alary, Filles de la mémoire. Les images fixes de Juan Marsé , Presses universitaires François-Rabelais, collection "Iconotextes", 2014. EAN13: 9782869062931.

Viviane Alary, Filles de la mémoire. Les images fixes de Juan Marsé

with a preface by Geneviève Champeau

Tours: Presses universitaires François-Rabelais, coll. "Iconotextes"

EAN 9782869062931

272 p.

Price: 16EUR.

Publisher's overview:

In the beginning was the Image, the *fiat lux* of memory. While critics have largely emphasized the role of cinema in the narrative output of Juan Marsé—a major figure in contemporary Spanish fiction and winner of the 2008 Cervantes Prize—this essay demonstrates, with detective-like meticulousness, the writing dynamics established by the presence of still images: movie posters, comic books, photographs, drawings, and other trivial snapshots rooted in memory that evoke the era of childhood and the post-civil war period in Barcelona.

The author's evident pleasure in mentally playing with the image—scrutinized under a magnifying glass, manipulated and recycled, destroyed or restored, contemplated or consumed—is met by a reading that takes the still image quite literally from the printed page. In doing so, it reveals the extent to which the image serves as a site of imaginative investment that permeates the literary text across all its strata.

The Author

Viviane Alary is Professor of Spanish Literature and Iconography at Blaise Pascal University, Clermont II. Her research focuses on the intersections of narrative and still images in comic books, novels, and graphic literature more broadly. This formalist perspective intersects with a more thematic focus on war, memory, and childhood.

Table of Contents

Preface: L’œil et la main by Geneviève Champeau

Introduction

Part 1: The Marséan Image Box

Comic Books, Trading Cards, and Pulp Fictions

Paper Images

Epitextual Icons

Part 2: The Hand at Work, Work in Progress

The Movie Poster, *Un día volveré*

The Drawing, *El Embrujo de Shanghai*

Part 3: The Scrutinizing Gaze

The Painting, *Si te dicen que caí*

The Photograph, *Rabos de lagartija*

Conclusion

Bibliography

The relationship between literature and visual culture has long been a central area of inquiry within Hispanic studies and comparative literature. Scholars working at the intersection of text and image often examine how visual artifacts function within narrative frameworks, engaging with traditions of ekphrasis and iconotextual analysis. Viviane Alary's study contributes to this broader field by focusing on the specific presence of still images in contemporary Spanish prose, placing particular emphasis on the interplay between memory, media, and print culture in the post-civil war context.

This book examines the writing dynamics established by the presence of still images such as movie posters, comic books, photographs, and drawings in the work of Juan Marsé. Viviane Alary is Professor of Spanish Literature and Iconography at Blaise Pascal University, Clermont II. Readers interested in contemporary Spanish fiction or the relationship between literature and visual media may find this study relevant to their pursuits.