Auto-reflection on the Processes of Cultural Re-memoration in the Contemporary Spanish Memory Novel
Year: 2013
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: This chapter examines how the contemporary Spanish novel that rememorizes the Spanish civil war and the period of post-war repression reflects auto-referentially upon the very social processes that negotiate the cultural memory of which the novelistic discourse is itself an essential part. The Spanish civil war ended in 1939, but the dictatorial regime survived until General Franco's death in 1975. The transition to democracy in Spain did not represent a clear break with the former dictatorial regime, but was initiated and directed by moderate forces from within its heart. Due to the character of this process, both parties - the regime and the formerly illegal political parties, the socialists and the communists - agreed to grant amnesty for all politically motivated crimes except murder and to focus on a common future, a stance which contributed to the process of cultural forgetting. This meant that the sufferings of the victims of the repression were kept in silence for several decades. Since the turn of the millennium, however, Spanish society has been engaged in an intense public and political debate about the civil war, the post-war repression and the subsequent transition to democracy. The chapter discusses the role of literary novelistic discourse within this movement, and examines the mutual influences between social movement and artistic discourse.
Source: Nova Science Publishers eBooks
Author: Hans Lauge Hansen
Language: English
Topic: Spanish Culture and Identity
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2472125253