Prior to Francisco Franco’s death and especially since the early years of democracy, the writing of the recent past has been at the forefront of Spanish politics, society and cultural production.  How should the past of the Civil War and of the repression of the subsequent dictatorship be narrated in contemporary society?  What place do the ghosts of the past have in the formation of a “new” national identity, in a politics of reconciliation or rejuvenation, in a new cultural landscape?  Debates over these and related questions have played out in the cultural landscape time and again in recent years and have now taken on a more urgent tone as the recuperation of this painful past has taken shape in efforts to unearth graves of the Civil War and dictatorship.  This course will analyze the way that writers and film directors have dealt with issues of memory, history and the collective negotiation of Spain’s difficult and contentious past.  Focusing on recent texts, we will examine the varied positions that these intellectuals have formulated and the ways in which they have negotiated concepts such as witnessing, cultural memory, and individual and national identity in their work.  Taking an interdisciplinary approach including literary and film studies, sociology, and history, we will also look at the degree to which these stances dialogue with or participate in the construction of wider social discourses on the past in democratic Spain.

Some of the questions we will deal with include:  What role does culture play in the construction of the past?  What place have trauma and witnessing been given in talking about Spain’s relationship to the Civil War and Francoism?  How does the “ghostly” figure in contemporary discussions of memory in and on Spain?  Given that understandings of the past shift over time, in what ways have intergenerational issues of transmission of the past and the construction of memory been represented?  How does Spain’s painful past affect those who never experienced it and what claim to that past do younger generations have?  In what ways have ethics been a concern for writers and directors in their work of representing the past; what would an unethical memorial construction look like and why is ethics a preoccupation in current discussions of collective memory in Spain?

Back to Spring 2008 Courses

---

Home | Syllabus | Course Schedule
Presentations | Texts | Informe | Final Paper

---