Dicenda. Estudios de lengua y literatura españolas
Dicenda. Cuadernos de Filología Hispánica (ISSN 0212-2952, ISSN-e 1988-2556) is an annual journal founded in 1982. It contains works on literary theory and on Spanish language and literature. The journal accepts original works written in any of Spain's official languages.
In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Dicenda. Cuadernos de Filología Hispánica is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.
“The True Motherland Is Ambiguity”: A Nomadic-Posmigrant Voice in Paloma Chen’s Poetry
The article analyzes five poems from Invocación a las mayorías silenciosas (2022) by Paloma Chen in order to show that a Chinese-Spanish mode of enunciation articulates a nomadic postmigrant subjectivity by turning identity indeterminacy into a textual strategy. The fate of impossible belonging, far from constituting a deficit, makes it possible to unsettle binary oppositions across three distinct registers: the ontological (contingent legibility), the mediating and enunciative (the recoding of racist interpellation), and the collective (the emergence of a nomadic postmigrant “we”). The analysis shows how these textual mechanisms produce a poetics of relational belonging that rejects both celebratory hybridity and essentialist authenticity.
Copyright (c) 2026 Dicenda. Estudios de lengua y literatura españolas
“Desde la butaca”: Relations between the Poetry of Pedro García Cabrera and Cinema
As in the literary production of other Spanish authors, and more specifically writers from the Canary Islands, who began their careers during the Silver Age, cinema holds a notable significance and continuity in the work of Pedro García Cabrera. Both in some of his poetry and in certain of his press articles, an interest in cinema can be observed, which, however, has largely been overlooked in studies about him. Therefore, this article analyzes the presence of cinema in the author’s poetry through references to film genres and cinematic techniques. In this way, it aims to confirm the hypothesis that this interartistic dialogue persisted throughout his literary development, contributing to the development of intellectual reflections on artistic debates, social criticism, and the intensification of poetic emotions.
Between spelling rules and usage in official writing in the 18th century: a study of graphic variation in three subcorpora
Until recently, the Spanish language of the eighteenth century had been neglected because it was considered a period of stabilisation, as it coincided with the founding of the Royal Spanish Academy (1713) and its concern for the standardisation of spelling. Within this framework, the present study aims to analyse some spelling conventions attested in the consonant system of mid-18th-century documents found in the Municipal Archive of Castellón and included in the INCOM corpus. These manuscripts are compared with others from the central and southern areas of the peninsula with the same typology and dating. Thus, it is possible to verify the extent to which the Academy's orthographic standardisation had an effect on official writing in the Kingdom of Valencia. In these documents, therefore, it is possible to observe the coexistence of different spelling trends that were socially accepted at a given time, which allows us to conclude that we are dealing with a moment of standardisation in progress (Ramírez Luengo 2013).
Carmen Calzada Borrallo, Mercedes Comellas y Fátima Rueda Giráldez (coords.) (2025): Imaginario nacional y parnaso áureo en la prensa española del siglo XIX (1801-1868), Madrid, Iberoamericana-Vervuert
The Italian Editions of Antonio Agustín's Diálogos de medallas: A History of Rewritings and Literary Manipulations
The study of the Italian publishing tradition of Agustín's Diálogos de medallas reveals a fascinating web of editions, translations, and collaborations among Italian printers. Despite the original Spanish work seemingly having limited diffusion in Italy, the Italian translations (both printed in Rome, 1592) enjoyed notable popularity. The mystery surrounding the possible existence of an anonymous Venetian translation raises questions about the editorial practices of the period, including the possibility of proof copies or even pirated editions. The intricate relationship between Roman printers and potential collaboration with Venetian printers reflects a complex landscape where the boundaries between authorship, translation, and printing were not always clear. This case underscores the importance of continuing research to resolve uncertainties about the anonymous edition and to better understand the editorial dynamics in Renaissance Italy, which involved culturally significant works such as Antonio Agustín's Diálogos.
Francisca Vilches de Frutos y Pilar Nieva de la Paz (eds.), María de la O Lejárraga (1874-1974): Teatro, Feminismo y Vanguardia. Madrid: Guillermo Escolar.
Women as social mediators in the courtly literature of medieval Castile: lineage and social ascent
Considering that the most representative texts of the courtly love tradition propose characters of powerful women who fulfil the function of assimilating the second-class members of noble families to the royal court, in this paper, we will deal with the theme of noble heiresses as social mediators, that is, as articulators who act as liaisons between the beloved and the kingdom. Our study, due to its panoramic character, includes Castilian texts of different genres from the 13th to the 17th centuries, which will allow us to see the particularities of the Castilian works and the development of the courtly model, from the first formulation in the Cantar de Mio Cid, through the apogee in the Libro del Caballero Zifar, to the tragic projections of the sentimental novel and the parodic ones proposed in both Celestina and Don Quixote.
Mari Jose Olaziregi Alustiza and Ana Gandara Sorarrain (eds.), Gernika(k)/Guernica(s). Resemanticizations of a Historical Trauma, Berlin, Peter Lang, 2025. ISBN: 978-3-631-92707-6, 487 pp.
Reseña Francisco Rico (2022). Lección y herencia de Elio Antonio de Nebrija, edición al cuidado de Rosa Bono, Madrid, Real Academia Española, 565 pp. ISBN: 978-84-88292-13-1
Copyright (c) 2025 Dicenda. Estudios de lengua y literatura españolas
Paradigm of the symmetric constructions. Prepositional selection and function of predication
This paper addresses the syntactic and semantic restrictions that govern the relationship between the two types of symmetric construction: (el) uno P(reposition) el otro and entre sí. The main objective is to show, through a detailed verbal typological study, that these two constructions exhibit very different lexical and structural patterns, which determine their syntactic distribution. The results of this description and its corresponding analysis are reflected in the proposal of a classification of all the values that each symmetric structure can encode. In this regard, it can be seen that the syntactic behavior of entre sí is conditioned under much more restrictive parameters than el uno P el otro.
The presence of the traditional fairy tale in the work of Carmen Martín Gaite: Little Red Riding Hood in Manhattan and Two Wonderful Tales
The richness of Carmen Martín Gaite's work means that it encompasses various genres and systems, including children's and young adult literature, in the case of Little Red Riding Hood in Manhattan and Two Wonderful Tales. However, based on the author's own reticence about such labels, and in the light of recent studies, we can say that these are works for all types of readers or crossovers. In both cases, we find texts that clearly draw from traditional storytelling, also falsely associated with children's literature. The following study, by means of comparative analysis, shows which elements of the traditional tale remain in each of the works and in what way the author has used a genre as versatile as the traditional tale to express the concerns of her own time and her own literature.
The subjunctive in noun-dependent clauses: a proposal based on the Modal Orientation Theory
This research aims to evaluate the suitability of semantic-pragmatic proposals for the explanation of the verbal mood in noun-dependent subordinate clauses whose head nouns are compatible with the subjunctive. Through the combination of theoretical reflection and a double empirical verification—corpus analysis and perception questionnaires—the explanatory capacity of this type of approach was corroborated. In addition to allowing the omission of the problems identified in previous structural studies, semantic-pragmatic approaches precisely describe the modal behaviour in said sequences: the influence of governing elements, the standardised orientation of the head noun in relation to its assertive-informative possibilities, the conditions of mood alternation and the semantic repercussions of these variations.
The ecological and female perspective in Lodo, by Begoña Méndez
This article attempts to analyze Lodo by Begoña Méndez from an ecofeminist perspective, as this text combines the ecological concern for the environmental disaster that left devastated the lagoon of the Mar Menor (Murcia, Spain) with the gender perspective to denounce the violence against women and natural environments. Lodo also stands as a paradigmatic example of how literature focused on care has found new ways of expression and has extended its influence to all beings, human and non-human, who cohabit planet Earth, in tune with the recent Latin American speculative narratives. Thus, in Lodo, Méndez establishes concomitances between ecological awareness and female perspective to reflect on her own identity and the need to create a new humanity that advocates for inter-species harmony.
Tiempo e identidad en Tierra de campos de David Trueba
This paper aims to analyse how time is treated and how it relates to identity formation and to memory in David Trueba’s novel Tierra de campos (2017). Secondarily, it aims to three objectives: briefly disclose relevant information about Trueba’s work, which has been not so largely studied by critics; gather basic theoretical concepts about the importance of time in narrative and lastly dig deeper into philosophical topics addressed by the novel. For this, a classical qualitative philological methodology has been used with a strong analytical approach
Reception by the French press of Antonio Machado’s death in Collioure, 1939
Although Antonio Machado already knew and mastered the French language, it was in 1899, at the age of twenty-four when he visited Paris for the first time. During this and the following stays there, he refined his study and knowledge and was influenced by the French literature and culture. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), following his Republican tendencies, he defended the Popular Front government in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona. The French press, especially the left-wing press, took notice of his biography and attitude during the war, and when the Spanish poet died in Collioure on 22 February 1939, it honoured him with laudatory articles, which we have recovered translated here.
La traducción del léxico político latino al español a lo largo de los siglos: un análisis diacrónico
This paper offers a diachronic analysis of forty words of political meaning in four Spanish translations of The Catiline Conspiracy by the Roman historian Sallust produced between the 15th and 18th centuries. Some words selected for this investigation are patria, municipio, república or imperio. Taking the Latin text as a base, the translations of each of the selected words are compared to observe the different linguistic solutions offered depending on the translator and the historical period. The results show that in modern translations it is usually more common to keep the source word politics, although there are exceptions. In contrast to this, in order to better maintain the meaning of the Latin word, medieval versions are more likely to employ a patrimonial noun, although sometimes it is not a synonym. Finally, in order to analyze the importance of the linguistic-textual context, the explanatory comments that translators use as a translation solution to incorporate lexical Latinism are presented.
¡Tienen tela estos inventarios! A study of three lexical pairs related to textiles in archival documentation from the Early Modern period.
The inventory of goods text type is highly valuable for studying historical vocabulary. Its onomasiological structure and the division of content into lexico-semantic areas allow for clear parallels with the structure of linguistic atlases, as both reflect the relationship between material reality and its expression through words. Thus, analyzing historical inventories from a corpus linguistics perspective can provide diatopic information and help map historical linguistic data. In this study, we focus on textile vocabulary found in modern inventories from the ODE corpus. Our main goal is to identify potential lexical equivalents that have not yet included in the Diccionario Histórico del español (DHE). Furthermore, by using the ODE corpus’s map-based search tool, we illustrate the possible diatopic dependence of the terms that form equivalent lexical pairs.
Carmen Martín Gaite and the Poetry of the 1950s: Some of Her Critical Considerations
Within the literary criticism developed by Carmen Martín Gaite in Diario 16, her articles on some of the major poetry collections of the Generation of 1950s stand out. This study analyses her considerations in this regard, with special attention to her intimate and nuanced perspective on the thematic and expressive contributions of her own group. Her direct testimony, arising from her personal experience, has an impact on the critical reception of the group, and highlights the importance of the author as an interpreter of her time.
Proclisis and polite imperatives: a dialectal mark in European Spanish?
This paper analyses the geographical dimension of polite imperatives with proclitics in European Spanish. Its aim is to show whether, as suggested by some dialectal characterisations of the Iberian Peninsula, this phenomenon is an idiosyncratic feature of some central-northern areas, whether, on the contrary, it has become generalised to other varieties and whether, in each case, it conforms to some kind of geolectal pattern. To this end, data from several regional linguistic atlases of Peninsular Spanish are studied. The results obtained point to a dialectally conditioned phenomenon whose area of prevalence extends over a large part of central-northern Iberia, where it seems to be associated with the expression of a higher degree of politeness with respect to the enclitic solution.
On Poetics and Rhetorical Invention in the Middle Ages (Critical Examination of Historicity and Literary Creation)
Literature has its origins in the meaning of Being, a clear idea since the hexameters of Parmenides. The consciousness of Being, rooted in Platonic and Aristotelian thought, generates “aesthetic infinity”, with its symbolic projections based on essence. This idea conditions its literary manifestation, surpassing individuality and guiding towards the reintegration of Being in the imitation of the divine and the symbolic representation of Truth. Thus, rhetorical invention is not conceived as original creation, but as the discovery of pre-existing forms in the essence of the world. The poet, as a hermeneutist, seeks the substance behind the form, and Literature must guide towards the truth through its symbolic representations. This article highlights the conceptual continuity in the history of Poetics and Rhetoric, beyond historical changes.
Auxiliary verbs in Spanish: functional features and criteria of gradation
The aim of this paper is to provide a new definition of the concept of auxiliarity, taking into account the gradual nature of this category. To this end, a detailed analysis of issues such as the phenomenon of grammaticalisation, argument structure and specific proposals on auxiliarity is carried out. Our definitional proposal is then established: the distinctive features of the verbs under study are described and each auxiliary form is characterised in terms of gradation. This research allows us, on the one hand, to further clarify the syntactic-semantic nature of the analysed verbs and, on the other hand, to shed light on a category in which the inclusion of very diverse members has been common. In accordance with the methodological framework, it is necessary to underline that the sample of auxiliary verbs and the proposed examples have been compiled from CORPES XXI.
François, Jéromine (2025). « La Célestine » contemporaine. Fiction et Histoire au prisme d’un mythe littéraire hispanique, Bruxelles, Académie Royale de Belgique, 268 pp. ISBN: 978-2-8031-0907-4.
Romera Castillo, José (ed.) (2024). Teatro y medicina en el primer cuarto del siglo XXI, Ed. José Romera Castillo, Madrid, Verbum, 620 pp.
Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Poesía, ed. José Ignacio Díez, Madrid, Cátedra, 2025, 716 pp. ISBN. 978-84-376-4866-8
Bello, Luis (2024). El tributo a París, edición de José Miguel González Soriano, Madrid, Evohé (Col. El Periscopio, 14), 170 pp. ISBN: 9788412675467
Teruel, José (2025). Carmen Martín Gaite. Una biografía, Barcelona, Tusquets Editores, 520 pp. ISBN: 9788411075909.
Experiencia de la ciudad y experiencia de mundo en la novela “glocal” Circular 22 de Vicente Luis Mora
This article analyzes the novel Circular 22 by Vicente Luis Mora, based on notions taken from the thought of Walter Benjamin and exploring three central axes. First, the experience of inhabiting a metropolis in the era of globalization and its impact on the writing process are examined. It is proposed that the experience of the contemporary city profoundly influences the practice of writing, given that globalization has transformed the urban space into what the author himself calls “glocal.” The second axis addresses the representation of the city as a self-reflexive mechanism within the novel. Circular 22 is conceived as a text that continually meditates on its own construction, using the city and its inhabitants as metaphors for the act of writing and reading. Finally, the article explores how narrative discontinuity in the novel subverts the traditional authorial figure.
Ríos Carratalá, Juan Antonio. Perder la guerra y la historia. La represión de periodistas y escritores (1939-1945). Sevilla: Renacimiento, 2025, 392 págs.
Ángela Martínez Fernández, Charnegos, máscaras y amores imposibles. Juan Marsé a través del caleidoscopio, Gijón, Ediciones Trea, 2025
Antonio Enríquez Gómez. Política angélica. Sobre el gobierno que se debe tener con los reducidos a la fe católica y con los que se apartaron de ella/ Edición crítica, estudio y notas de Felice Gambin. Huelva: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Huelva (Bibliotheca Montaniana, 44), 2024. 268 páginas. ISBN: 978-84-10326-04-0.