Ulysses and Penelope in Madrid (Ángela Vallvey’s Los estados carenciales)

Abstract

The novel Los estados carenciales (2002), which provides a portrait of Ulysses and Penelope that breaks away from tradition, is based on a literary game, based on an external parody of the Odyssey and using the characters’ names. The protagonists experience their own odyssey in search of their goal: happiness. The author’s humour and wit doesn’t make us forget that Ulysses, painter and father, and Penelope, a renowned fashion designer, are one the possible embodiments of the mythical archetype.