'Paleontological Institute at The University of Kansas'
Abstract
The goal of my dissertation is to study the pervasive presence of the psycho-killer in Spanish cultural production of the last two decades. By analyzing selected literary and filmic works, I explore how this character has become a metaphor for the uneasiness caused by the political and socio-cultural changes which took place in Spain from the 1990s onward. However, the adoption of this character is not simply a mimetic process but a reformulation according to literary and cultural traditions such as quixotism and esperpento in order to question the construction of Spanish national identity. The emergence of this figure needs to be examined against the backdrop of the cultural and sociopolitical impact of globalization processes in contemporary Spain and how these processes shape new constructions of national identity. Apart from this, the psycho-killer is a radically individualistic figure that arises as a result of the skepticism and the disenchantment caused by the failures of the young Spanish democracy
