Throughout Goytisolo's literary production, but especially in the later works (1966 to the present), there is a pronounced desire to re-evaluate and reorder the literary tradition of Spain. Don Julián, typical of this obsession with Spanish literature, can be read as a recreation of literary history, a rereading and reassessment of the works which have come to be known as classics. Goytisolo's reading, his vehemently negative attitude toward some texts and profound admiration of others, is his writing. This intertextual element allows Goytisolo to place himself and his own text within the very tradition which he attempts to destroy. (p. 615)

Of all the facets of Spanish culture and history which Goytisolo considers as characteristic of a theocratic and politically tyrannical society, the most salient is censorship. It is a constant theme in his book of essays, El furgón de cola, and is integrally related to the problems...