Aesth/ethics of distance: (Un)Veiling grief in Rosa Montero’s La ridícula idea de no volver a verte

This chapter analyses the generically hybrid auto/biographical grief memoir, La ridícula idea de no volver a verte (2013), by the well-known contemporary Spanish author and journalist, Rosa Montero (b. Madrid, 1951), as a singular text within the Spanish tradition of life writing. The book traces a number of parallels between Montero and her biographical subject, the Polish scientist and two-times Nobel prize winner, Marie Curie—particularly regarding their respective grieving processes in widowhood. In order to discuss Montero’s ethics and aesthetics of distance and how she negotiates with the autobiographical genre—specifically the grief memoir—first it is important to contextualise the author and the text within the Spanish tradition of life writing.