The context in which Tiempo de Silencio was published, as well as the setting and themes of the book appear to reflect the official censorship that existed in Spain at the time. However, if one reads the novel from a philosophical rather than sociological perspective, the influence of censorship might be seen as secondary to the purpose and themes of the text. The novel Tiempo de Silencio by Luis Martín-Santos was written and published during the Franco regime and for this reason, as might be expected, the book reflects the climate of the time. In fact, the difficulty that the author encountered in attempting to publish the book is the first reflection of the censorship of the time; although the novel was finished in 1960, it was not published until 1962, in the form of a 20-page edition removed by the censors. The complete uncensored edition was published in Spain only in 1981, by which time Franco's regime was almost unrecognizable due to the highly oppressive nature it had at the beginning, and was extremely liberal in comparison. In the post-civil war period the state maintained tight control over all forms of media and art, and indeed most aspects of Spanish life, and obviously in this context anti-government works or works critical of the state were not tolerate. they described that it was extremely difficult to speak against the state at the time, Martín-Santos' work is actually very critical of the regime. The first indication of this is the title itself, Tiempo de Silencio, which is usually interpreted as a reference to the silence of intellectualism of the time. The sciences and academia were severely restricted by the regime as they were perceived as potentially dissenting... middle of the paper... and more philosophically, so the effects and influence of censorship become secondary to existentialist themes, and as such do not play as important a role in the text as the first view would suggest. Perhaps it is better to say then that in some sense the silence is indeed a reflection of the censorship of the time, but that there are many ways of interpreting the book, which of course one would expect given its extensive use of ambiguity, and many layers of meaning that must be taken into account when reading the novel.Works citedMartín-Santos, L Tiempo de Silencio (1962, ed. 2009) Editorial Crítica, BarcelonaRoberts, G Temas Existenciales en la novela española posguerra (1978) Gredos, MadridUgarte , M Tiempo de Silencio e il language de la displacement (March 1981) MLN, vol. 96, no. 2, Hispanic edition, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore