La búsqueda de interlocutor

The first collection of essays by Carmen Martín Gaite, which is offered here in its complete and definitive version, has established itself over time as one of her most representative titles. The search for an interlocutor sums up that imperious existential attitude that always led her to want to get out of herself and confront the other to direct a message eager for an answer, and which would become a central concern of her narrative work. These texts, of different lengths and also varied in the form and the issues they deal with -the death of Ignacio Aldecoa, the anguish of the palatial Macanaz, the continuous complaining of the Spaniards, the influence of advertising on women, the differences between speaking and writing, post-war folklore, portraits of authors such as Fernando Quiñones or Medardo Fraile-, have special value to further appreciate the novels of the Salamanca author, but also contain essential observations on the human need to tell and listen, always threatened by the exacerbated individualism of modern society.