Static cultural institutions, he claims, keep us from truly knowing our genuine selves. His preoccupation is with inventing a self beyond the external social data that he finds oppressive. Because of the defiant position he assumes, many of his books were originally banned in Francoist Spain.

Sponsor Message.

Goytisolo eventually rejects Spain altogether, associating it with decadence, sterility, and death. He sees Spain as a sexually repressed country whose problems are directly related to this repression.

He is in voluntary exile from Spain on ethical grounds, embracing, instead, the Arab world, which he associates with sexuality, fertility, and life. Currently, he resides in Marrakesh. His acceptance of Arab culture is related to its acceptance of homosexuality (particularly in contrast to Spanish ideology).

Goytisolo's novels have become progressively less realistic and more demanding of the reader, who must participate actively in deciphering the text. His literary techniques are innovative and experimental.

Through such devices as interior monologues, chronological and spatial juxtapositions and discontinuities, the contrasting of different voices, sudden shifts in perspective, linguistic experimentation, characters with multiple personalities, and the rupture of grammatical coherence, Goytisolo has created a unique and personal voice within Spanish letters. His style is profoundly critical, darkly cynical, and often humorous.

Treating homosexuality in Spanish literature is largely a twentieth-century phenomenon, occurring most frequently in the post-Franco decades.

Jean Genet's work has left a powerful legacy to post-modernity and remains a provocation to questions of gay identity.