Associate Professor of Spanish Antonia Delgado-Poust
Associate Professor of Spanish Antonia Delgado-Poust recently published an article in the peer-reviewed journal Hispanic Studies Review, titled “The Deceptive Defense of a Woman Scorned: The Unreliable Narrator and Her Reworking of the Truth in Marina Mayoral’s Casi perfecto.”
In the article, Delgado-Poust argues that Spanish author Marina Mayoral’s novel Casi perfecto (2007) offers a provocative study of unreliable narration. The novel’s protagonist, Ana—a writer accused by her son of murdering his father—drafts an epistolary defense that oscillates between self-justification and self-sabotage. While Ana seeks coherence and exoneration, her contradictions, irony, and flashes of anger undermine her credibility, prompting readers to question both her motives and her narrative. Drawing on Dorrit Cohn’s work on discordant narration, Delgado-Poust contends that Ana’s letter functions as a feminist apology, revealing how self-fashioning can blur the line between confession and persuasion. Read the article.