@article{McAleer, author = {McAleer, Paul Robert}, title = {El Proceso, Kafka, and the comic novel: Ana Mar{\´i}a Shua's >Soy Pciente< and the fear of individual freedom [application of Fromm's theories to art]}, series = {The Modern Language Review, Vol. 105, No. 1 (2010), pp. 131-148 [Online ISSN 2222-4319] [jstor.org/stable/25655138]}, journal = {The Modern Language Review, Vol. 105, No. 1 (2010), pp. 131-148 [Online ISSN 2222-4319] [jstor.org/stable/25655138]}, abstract = {This article examines the role of comedy and the influence of Kafka in Ana Mar{\´i}a Shua's comic novel >Soy paciente< (1980). Using Northrop Frye's rubric of comedy as a point of departure, it traces the way in which Shua's text, like Kafka's work, simultaneously inscribes and distorts the traditional utopian themes of comedy: identity acquisition and social resolution. The aim is to relate the distortions to the novel's socio-historical context of El proceso by referring to Erich Fromm's observations on the effect Fascist regimes have on concepts such as social and individual identity. The article also exposes the correlation between Shua's cultural dependency (on Kafkaesque/European creative paradigms) and the novel's oppressive cultural/political context.}, language = {en} }