ABSTRACT
Readers were jolted, however, by the radical departure from conventional linear narration and character construction which her 1975 novel, Os habla Electra (Electra Speaks to You), represented. Concentrating on the thematic dichotomy between fertility and the threat of universal destruction, Alós outlined a story of mythic and archetypal proportions, in particular, the struggle between patriarchal and matriarchal modes of being, in which the female-Electra, all Electras-strove to regain a sense of wholeness and personal identity. Weaving deftly between the real and the imaginary, with a series of oneiric images and a fragmented, often deliberately confusing narrative structure, Alós moved fully into experimental fiction with this novel. Unfortunately, she has not been able to sustain the effort. Her next two novels, Argeo ha muerto, supongo (1982; Argeo's Died, I Guess), and El asesino de los sueños (1986; The Dream Murderer), are an uneasy and sometimes awkward blend of reality and dream, in which she continues to deal with the themes of identity confusion, self-alienation, and the loss of illusion and first love, this time in a more conventional format. The use of a more straightforward casting of fictional events may also reflect a general trend in recent Spanish fiction of the 1980s: the return of storytelling itself. Where this will take Concha Alós is difficult to say. While her work from the 1960s represents a worthy contribution to Spanish neorealism, it is the innovative "deconstructed reality" of Os habla Electra that signals a more radical breakthrough in Concha Alós's development as a novelist.
