Between topos and heterotopia: literary representations of the Spanish beach in works by Carmen Laforet and Juan Goytisolo

This piece explores the cultural and literary dimension of the locus amoenus as defined by Curtius in interaction with the heterotopia as Foucault characterized it. The chapter argues that the literary representation of the beach in works by Carmen Laforet and Juan Goytisolo mirrors the historical development of the real-world beach in Spain while, at the same time, struggling to become a literary topos in its own right. Instead of becoming a recognizable and stable topos, the beach topos shows a historical development that prevents the beach from becoming a clearly defined literary topos in the same category as the locus amoenus. The literary beach is a topos always in the making. It might have a clear narrative function, but the characteristics of the beach are so varied and complex that no literary stability is reached. The beach might be part of our imaginary doxa, but it is not a stable and clearly defined topos.