This article focuses on how self-censorship and state censorship have shapedthe literary legacy of the Spanish author of children’s books, Elena Fortún. Thehomosexual closet is presented as a key concept for understanding the impact ofcensorship on the work of a lesbian writer such as Fortún who has contributedto various narratives of Spanish femininity over the course of almost a century.The first of these is the narrative of gender dissidence during the Second Republic(1931–1939); followed by the narrative of the wife and mother belonging to theFranco Regime (1939–1975); and finally the LGBTQ inclusiveness of the newmillennium in Spain (2005–2022). The works included in the analysis arevaried, spanning from Fortún’s children’s books to her correspondence andfinally two posthumously published novels. This reading of Fortún’s texts revealshow censorship works as a controlling gaze that not only operates from theoutside, but is also internalized in the individual, maintaining the doors of thehomosexual closet closed from the inside.
Članek se osredotoča na to, kako sta samocenzura in državna cenzura obli-kovali literarno zapuščino španske avtorice otroških knjig Elene Fortún.Klo-zetje predstavljen kot ključni koncept za razumevanje vpliva cenzure na delolezbične pisateljice, kot je Elena Fortún, ki je skoraj stoletje prispevala k raz-ličnim pripovedim o španski ženskosti. Prva med njimi je pripoved o disi-dentstvu spolov v času druge republike (1931–1939); sledi pripoved o ženi inmateri, ki pripada Francovemu režimu (1939–1975), in nazadnje pripoved ovključevanju LGBTQ v Španiji v novem tisočletju (2005–2022). Dela, vklju-čena v analizo, so raznovrstna, saj segajo od avtoričinih otroških knjig do njenekorespondence in dveh posthumno objavljenih romanov. Branje besedil EleneFortún razkriva, kako cenzura deluje kot nadzorni pogled, ki ne deluje le odzunaj, temveč je tudi ponotranjen v posamezniku in ohranja vrata klozetazaprta od znotraj.