SOURCE: “The Politics of Ventriloquism: Cava, Revolution and Sexual Discourse in Conde Julián,” in Modern Language Notes, Vol. 107, No. 2, March, 1992, pp. 274-97.

In the following essay, Epps provides a reading of Goytisolo's Reivindicación del Conde don Julián “that will attempt to reveal at least some of the more troubling points at which Goytisolo's de(con)structive activity unwittingly betrays itself as faithful to the established tradition, in particular the tradition of women's oppression.”

If metaphor can be misconstrued, history can also lead to misconstrual when it obliterates acts of resistance or rebellion 

Adrienne Rich

Il est très doux de scandaliser 

Sade

As the paradigmatic Spanish morality play, King Rodrigo's violation of Cava and Count Julián's subsequent betrayal of Spain tell a story of lust, honor, and vengeance that intimately links individual action and collective destiny. It is a story told and retold in...