Ciudades malditas y transgresión

Abstract

After a brief introduction in which the mythifying or de-mythifying function of literature is analyzed in relation to the image of the city, as well as the urban scenery as the space for transgression or identification, this article describes and analyzes the concept of the damned city, as a consequence of a cosmic damnation thrown over it. The existence of a recurring scheme in the biblical narration of punishment and cosmic damnation of Sodom and Gomorra is brought to light, where transgression and punishment turn out to be the functional invariants of a model present in other narrations about the same subject. Special attention is given to the persistence of this structure in the legends of Celtic-Breton mythology about the city of Is, and the re-elaboration of this myth by Galician writer Jose Maria Castroviejo.