The Great Leather Generation Swindle:
Literature and Promotion
in Contemporary Spain
In 1994, a 20-year-old writer named Jose Angel Mafias became a finalist for
the prestigious Spanish literary award, the Nadal, with his first novel, Stories o f
Kronen (Historias del Kronen). This was considered by critics at large as the
beginning of an important and influential literary movement in Spain which
drew its inspiration from themes and motifs generally associated with modem
popular culture, such as rock music, sexual liberation (if not outright
promiscuity), violence, and drug abuse; and openly rejected the confines of
traditional literary style. Also known as Leather Literature (literatura del cuero),
to emphasise its connections with the idealized notion of the leather-clad,
rebellious “bad boy” (the origin of which remains, ironically, much closer to the
North American Hell’s Angels than to any modem Spanish cultural figure), this
particular literary trend was hailed by the media as a renewal of Spanish
literature and widely promoted through interviews, articles, and documentaries.
Less than two decades later, this promising new generation of authors has
literally disintegrated, leaving us with one simple, albeit fundamental question:
what happened to the great young Spanish literary rebirth? Its past commercial
success can only be compared to its present state of near total obscurity, forcing
us to reconsider the relationship between literature and literary promotion,
especially in Spain today, where publishing concentration is one of the highest
in Europe.1 A close look at the rise and fall of this false literary movement and
true publishing success will reveal some modem literary promotion mechanisms
at the same time as it sheds new light upon the changing nature of the literary
object in an increasingly commercialized reality.
In the first place, it should be noted that this particular literary marketing
move, i.e., the promotion of a “modem, hard-core, leather, rock n’ roll
narrative” had already been attempted two years before in Stories from Kronen.
In 1992, the publication of Ray Longa’s novel, The Worst Thing o f All {Lo peor
de todo) corresponded to this trend both thematically and stylistically. For its
publisher, Constantino Bertolo, this novel was a sure sign that a “new
generation” of writers had arrived. But although The Worst Thing o f All received
fairly positive reviews from the critics, it did not obtain any literary award and
did not become a bestseller; hence, this first “new generation” of young Spanish
author was aborted.
In 1996, however, two years after the success of Stories o f Kronen, the
prestigious Nadal award played a predominant role again in the construction of
the Leather Literature movement. This literary award, which has been given to
such writers as Carmen Laforet and Sanchez Ferlosio, is intended for young,