Summary of Marks of Identity
When the photographer Álvaro Mendiola returns to Barcelona in the summer of 1963 after a period of self-imposed exile, he finds a country still suffocated by General Franco’s dictatorship. As he revisits places and memories from his past, he reflects on his conservative Catholic upbringing, his student years in Barcelona, and his family history. Memories of the Spanish Civil War and anti-Franco student protests shape his reflections, while Álvaro searches for both his own identity and the identity of Spain itself.
Reasons to read Marks of Identity
“Marks of Identity” offers a complex yet deeply personal portrait of Spain during and after the Civil War. The novel explores questions of cultural, political, and personal identity, asking what defines a nation and an individual. The narrative is fragmented and non-linear, moving through flashbacks, reflections, police reports, testimonies, poems, festival programmes, and several passages without punctuation. Juan Goytisolo is widely regarded as one of the most important Spanish writers of the twentieth century and was awarded the Premio Cervantes in 2014. “Marks of Identity” was banned in Francoist Spain. It is the first novel in a trilogy that continues with “Count Julian” (Reivindicación del conde don Julián) and “Juan the Landless” (Juan sin tierra). In 2001, it was included in El Mundo’s list of the 100 best Spanish-language novels of the twentieth century. Goytisolo’s brothers, José Agustín and Luis Goytisolo, were also prominent writers.
Original title: Señas de identidad
Year of publication: 1966
Nr of pages: 352
