Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Topic: Cultural Memory and the Negotiation of the Past in Democratic Spain

Note: Graduate students only.

Theories of cultural memory, trauma and the narration of the past have come to occupy a crucial place in literary studies, and, in the past 20 years, in Hispanic literary studies in particular.  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 Spain’s past of 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 and now assume 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 directors have dealt with issues of memory, history and the collective negotiation of Spain’s difficult and contentious past. 

We will first build a theoretical base in memory studies (which students may, after this course, use for different contexts, not only Spanish). We will then focus on recent literary and filmic texts regarding Spain, examining 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, psychology, 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 may include: What role does culture, and especially literature, play in a society’s construction of the past and the way it deals with conflict in the present? What place have trauma and witnessing been given in talking about Spain’s relationship to the Civil War and Francoism? How does the “ghostly” manifest 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?

Evaluation will likely include presentations, a midterm paper and a final research paper.

HISP-S 648  #30392  3:00P-4:15P    TR     GA 0011    Professor Melissa Dinverno