Essays on motifs employed in women's novels from Spain and Latin America between 1936 and the present. An analysis of the use made of five structuring devices, or motifs - the Bildungsroman, the patriarchal prison, the fairy tale, sexual politics and gender trouble -in a selection of representative women's novels from Spain and Latin America written between 1936 and the present. STEPHEN M. HART is Reader in the Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies at University College London.