El Amo invisible en El gran frío. Poder y feudalismo en la España de mitad de siglo

Abstract

Abstract

This article examines the novel El gran frío (2014) by Rosa Ribas and Sabine Hofmann as a harsh critique of the archaic and patriarchal social structures present in rural Spain during the 1950s. Through a quasi-detective investigation carried out by journalist Ana Martí into a girl with alleged stigmata in a village in Teruel, located in the Aragonese region of Maestrazgo, the novel reveals a power structure sustained by what Slavoj Žižek refers to as the Invisible Master. That is, a form of authority or power that is not publicly acknowledged as such—a covert power whose effectiveness lies in its ability to present itself as neutral, tolerant, and even benevolent in the eyes of the community. This is exemplified by the figure of the local boss, Don Julián, who systematically abuses the village's young women with the complicity of the entire community of Las Torres. In this way, symbolic violence—silent and socially accepted—upholds a social order with clearly medieval overtones. The novel creates tension between rural and urban life through the dichotomy of civilization versus barbarism, but without falling into a Manichean perspective. The same medieval practices visible in the Maestrazgo echo, although in a more subdued form, on the beaches of Barcelona.