Dulce Chacón (1954-2003) has been considered one of the most influential female writers in contemporary Spain and also a brave fighter dedicated to showing concern for the marginal situation of women and giving voice to the victims and the defeated of the Spanish Civil War. Winner of the 2000 Azorín Prize, Cielos de barro (Clayed Colored Skies) is an important novel by Chacón. The novel is set in a farmhouse of Extremadura, “Los Negrales” estate, and takes place during the periods of the Second Republic, the Spanish Civil War, and Franco’s post-Civil War regime. Cielos de barro is a clear example of the subversive nature of postmodern narrative. Chacón constructs a hybrid narrative where two narrators (the old and rustic potter Antonio and the omniscient third-person narrator) provide information pertaining to the events leading up to a multiple murder at a rural estate. Through intertextual allusions to certain works, Cielos de barro demonstrates hybrid elements of detective fiction, the gothic novel, and the testimonial novel. Chacón also focuses on the conflicted relations between rich and poor in Civil War and post-Civil War Spain through the narration of the family saga of three generations of the rich Paredes Soler and their servants in order to unearth a past full of revenge, injustice, violence, trauma, and hatred.
Taking Linda Hutcheon’s postmodern theory as a starting point, the present study aims to analyze how Chacón uses the hybridization of literary genres in order that Cielos de barro’s characters will reconstruct their personal and historical memories and establish their own identities. Furthermore, it examines the significance of memory in greater depth, exploring issues related to the reclamation of social justice and the restoring of the ethical order of individual and collective memories.
