Loving’s the Strange Thing: Jungian Individuation in the Fairy Tales of Carmen Martín Gaite (Hispanic Studies: Culture and Ideas)

This groundbreaking volume argues that Carmen Martín Gaite and Carl Jung form an ideal combination. All the main features of the Jungian individuation process are present in the Spanish writer’s fairy tales: dreams, shadow figures, wise men and women, the Self, anima and animus. Martín Gaite has been described by the critic Salustiano Martín as trying to offer human beings a different way. In this accessible new study, Anne-Marie Storrs claims that this way is found through the process of individuation – the psychological development of a unique individual – and that aspects of the process are imaginatively depicted in the three shorter fairy tales, El castillo de las tres murallas , El pastel del diablo and Caperucita en Manhattan , and in the novel so closely linked with Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, La reina de las nieves . Drawing on the work of Jungian writers to clarify and illuminate its argument, this book takes an entirely new perspective on Martín Gaite’s work and, in doing so, challenges the prejudice and suspicion that too many in the humanities and beyond continue to experience when they come face to face with Jung. Cover Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Chapter 1: A Natural Process: Individuation and the Impulse to Wholeness and Community Introduction Carl Gustav Jung and Carmen Martín Gaite Projection Individuation Individuation and Love Individuation and the Development of Christianity Fairy Tales Chapter 2: ‘Los informes vienen de todos lados’: Dreams in El castillo de las tres murallas Introduction The Fairy Tale Snow White and Sleeping Beauty Symbols of the Self The Temptation of Christ The Negative Animus The Peacock Dreams Serena’s Response to the Dream The Re-emergence of Serena Abandoning the Child The Structure of the Feminine Psyche The Effect of Serena’s Departure Altalé’s Tests Altalé’s Final Test The Transformation of Lucandro and Cambof Petapel The Ending: Positive or Negative? Chapter 3: ¿Cómo crecer? The Process of Individuation in El pastel del diablo Introduction Reconciliation of Opposites The Setting The Individuation Process The Story-within-a-Story The Descent Encounter with a King Conversation with an Ideal Interlocutor Fantasy and Reality The Fourth Function La noche de San Juan The Vision of the Self The Return Chapter 4: El quehacer más importante: Listening as Eros in Caperucita en Manhattan Introduction Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm: The Different Versions Interpretations of Little Red Riding Hood Caperucita en Manhattan Vivian Rebeca Little/Gloria Star The Renewal of Ritual Animus Figures and Masculine Influences Un acompañante mágico The Mystery of Miss Lunatic The Encounter with the Wolf The Wolf and the Grandmother Endings Sara and Individuation The Importance of Story Conclusion Chapter 5: ‘A lo más oscuro amanece Dios’: The Dawning of the Self in La reina de las nieves Introduction Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen Structure of the Novel Carabanchel and First Steps to Freedom Risk of Regression Leonardo’s Notebooks Dreams and Stories Trud and the Snow Queen The Quinta Blanca and the Snow Queen’s Palace The Anima Anima Figures in Reina: Ángela and Clara Angels Anima Figures in Reina: Almu and Mónica Vertigo Casilda Iriarte Mauricio Brito Gerda The Ego or the Self A New Relatedness Conclusion Concluding Thoughts Bibliography Index Le dos de la couverture indique : "This groundbreaking volume argues that Carmen Martín Gaite and Carl Jung form an ideal combination. All the main features of the Jungian individuation process are present in the Spanish writer's fairy tales: dreams, shadow figures, wise men and women, the Self, anima and animus. Drawing on the work of Jungian writers to clarify and illuminate its argument, this book takes an entirely new perspective on Martín Gaite's work and, in doing so, challenges the prejudice and suspicion that too many in the humanities and beyond continue to experience when they come face to face with Jung."