Shifting Hegemonies and Neoliberal Dystopias in La polilla en la casa del humo and El último sueño by Guillem López

Abstract: Contemporary Spanish literature continues to be informed by the 2008 economic crisis and neoliberalism. Dystopia is relevant to this discourse, but the dystopian fiction of the Spanish author Guillem López has not been considered extensively in the academy. This paper considers López’s La polilla en la casa del humo and El último sueño . While prior scholarship has acknowledged these novels’ anti-neoliberal commentaries, it has neither considered them together, nor analyzed their themes of religious authoritarianism. Consulting with scholars of neoliberalism, dystopia, and literature of crisis, this analysis reveals that these novels parallel the hegemonic shift from Francoist Spain to contemporary, neoliberal Spain. In this they portray crises such as the 2008 crash as the result of manipulations by political and economic elites and suggest that solidarity and collective action are the catalysts for change. Thus, following Pablo Valdivia, they allow readers to develop a cognitive map opposed to the neoliberal “reality” in which they live, making visible the suffering of precarious and disinherited citizens. This weaving of critiques presents contemporary Spanish neoliberalism as a real-life dystopia, predicated on the misery of the precarious citizen.