The Spiritual Consciousness of Carmen Martín Gaite

<b>An exploration of Spanish writer Carmen Martín Gaite's religious outlook through the inner journeys of five female characters.</b><br><br>For Martín Gaite a truly religious or spiritual perspective requires conscious attention to the products of the unconscious (dreams images memories premonitions) followed by reflection and action as well as a similar attentiveness and responsiveness to external events both large and small. This reconnection of the supernatural and day-to-day worlds also involves descent to the unconscious - the way to wholeness - as depicted in so many myths and fairy tales including those which Martín Gaite used to retell or enhance the works analysed in this book: <i>Sleeping Beauty</i> <i>The Little Mermaid</i> <i>Amor and Psyche</i> <i>Demeter and Persephone</i> and <i>the Descent of the Goddess Inanna</i>.<br><br>Looking at the extent to which these female characters attend to reflect on and respond to their dreams images memories and events the analysis suggests that Martín Gaite uses her stories to try to communicate both the road to her own enlightenment and warnings about paths that lead away from this.