"The fundamental purpose of a novel like Count Julian is to achieve the unity of object and means of representation, the fusion of treason as scheme and treason as language"
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Goytisolo is pitching betrayal not as a plot twist but as a formal ethic: the novel has to commit the crime it depicts. When he calls for "the unity of object and means of representation", he is rejecting the safe, museum-glass version of historical fiction, where a writer can narrate treason while remaining stylistically loyal to the very traditions that treason threatens. "Count Julian" takes a notorious figure from Spain's mythic history (the alleged traitor who enabled the Islamic conquest) and uses him as both subject and method: to write about the violation of national purity, the book must violate the sanctities of national language.
The phrase "fusion of treason as scheme and treason as language" is the tell. Scheme suggests narrative mechanics: who betrays whom, what order collapses, what identity gets unmade. Language is the deeper target. Goytisolo's project, born out of Franco-era censorship and exile, treats Spanish as a contested territory, not a neutral medium. The "treason" is an assault on pious diction, canonical references, and the self-flattering story Spain tells about itself. If the nation uses literature to launder its past, then the counter-novel has to dirty the cloth.
Subtextually, he is arguing against mere political messaging. Protest that keeps the master's grammar is still housed in the master's building. By insisting on formal sabotage, Goytisolo turns style into a political act: syntax that splinters, registers that clash, blasphemies that refuse reconciliation. The point isn't shock for its own sake; it's to make the reader feel complicity, to force history out of the passive voice.
The phrase "fusion of treason as scheme and treason as language" is the tell. Scheme suggests narrative mechanics: who betrays whom, what order collapses, what identity gets unmade. Language is the deeper target. Goytisolo's project, born out of Franco-era censorship and exile, treats Spanish as a contested territory, not a neutral medium. The "treason" is an assault on pious diction, canonical references, and the self-flattering story Spain tells about itself. If the nation uses literature to launder its past, then the counter-novel has to dirty the cloth.
Subtextually, he is arguing against mere political messaging. Protest that keeps the master's grammar is still housed in the master's building. By insisting on formal sabotage, Goytisolo turns style into a political act: syntax that splinters, registers that clash, blasphemies that refuse reconciliation. The point isn't shock for its own sake; it's to make the reader feel complicity, to force history out of the passive voice.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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