Illness and queerness in Spain: Spanish life-writing from 1936 to the present

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Illness and queerness have been strongly intertwined since the beginning of the twentieth century in Spain (Cleminson and Vázquez Garcia, 2007). Ill and queer people have also been historically marginalised in society by normative discourses and ideologies (Illich, 1974; Foucault, 1990). These two notions (illness, queerness) have occupied the media spotlight in the Western world in recent years, with many high-profile debates around mental health and discrimination, transgender rights, and the COVID-19 pandemic.Nonetheless, their connection has received little attention, particularly in the Spanish context. This study will therefore examine how queer authors use life-writing as a means to resist these discourses and to construct and perform their identities. A critical study of the experiences of queer individuals in the recent Spanish context will make an important and timely contribution to knowledge, shedding light on how such identities are performed, negotiated, and articulated to resist discrimination (Butler, 1990). It will also analyse how life-writing becomes an emancipatory practice in the face of homophobic social discourse and serious illness (Richmond Ellis, 1997; Vilaseca, 2003). Life-writing provides a fruitful, yet under-utilised, resource by which to study underrepresented communities, as it is a genre traditionally associated with notions of privacy, secrecy, femininity, and personal narrative (Henderson, 2019). This will be the first studyof its kind.