<i>Mientras estamos muertos</i> (2022): The <i>cruel</i> Autofiction of José Ovejero

The book Mientras estamos muertos (2022) by José Ovejero consists of 16 short stories that deal, through fragments of memory and experience, with some central aspects of the personal and literary identity of the narrator – whose name coincides with that of the author – in an inseparable relation with the family, social and economic context of the world in which he grew up, where he was educated and in which he lives. This article aims to show the singularity of this autofictional writing, critical with the usual egocentric attitudes and characterized by the textual energy of its narrative voice, a lucid and cold gaze, stemming from his feeling of alienation and awareness of social inequality. A cruel gaze – in the same sense that this author uses in his essay La ética de la crueldad (2012) –, fictionally created from the adult viewpoint, by means of a language devoid of ornamentation, a dynamic and fluid syntax, and a style characterised by being brief and concise.