Doctoral Dissertation Announcement
Nuno Castellanos, Doctor of Philosophy
Department: Spanish
Nuno Castellanos, Doctor of Philosophy
Department: Spanish
Title: Representaciones de la Memoria de la Guerrilla
Antifranquista en la Novelística Española Contemporánea
Abstract:
In the last few years a very controversial concept known as “the recovery of historic memory” has become of utmost importance in certain social and political spheres in Spain. This matter has been addressed by a law approved in July of 2006 during the first term of the socialist government under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. This law recognizes the efforts of those who defended the Republican democracy in 1936, were persecuted by Franco’s nationalist regime and suffered internal and external exile, and those who fiercely fought against dictatorship and in defense of the fundamental rights and liberties that Spaniards fully enjoy today. This complicated process of memory recuperation is necessary to fulfill that missing part of Spanish identity that was captured and disarmed at the end of the Spanish Civil War of 1936. The main objective in this dissertation is the diachronic examination of a group of novels that carry out the representation of antifrancoist guerrilla fighters and how their obliterated memory emerges in Spanish society. In order to accomplish this goal, the introductory chapter examines various narrative, rhetorical and theoretical discourses, exploring the intimate relationship between History, Literature, and Memory through the lens of Foucault, Hutcheon, Barthes and White, among others. The second chapter covers the analysis of texts written during or immediately after the war: Cumbres de Extremadura by José Herrera Petere (1938), Este tiempo amargo by Pablo de la Fuente (1944), Juan Caballero by Luisa Carnés, La sierra en llamas by Ángel Ruiz Ayúcar (1953), Testamento en la montaña by Manuel Arce (1956), and El ladrido by Oscar Muñiz Martín (1969). The third chapter explores novels written during the democratic transition as well as contemporary fiction: La Pastora: el maqui hermafrodita by Manuel Vila Raso (1978), Luna de lobos (1985) by Julio Llamazares, Maquis (1997) by Alfons Cervera, Siempre quedará París (2005) by Ramón Acín, ¡Hasta siempre camaradas! (2006) by Raúl Tristán, and Caballeros de la Muerte (2006) by Alejandro Martínez Gallo. This study reflects how the antifrancoist guerrilla warfare is a clear example of a twofold search for personal and collective identity in Spain and shows how the writers’ approaches to this subject have drastically changed over the years.
Antifranquista en la Novelística Española Contemporánea
Abstract:
In the last few years a very controversial concept known as “the recovery of historic memory” has become of utmost importance in certain social and political spheres in Spain. This matter has been addressed by a law approved in July of 2006 during the first term of the socialist government under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. This law recognizes the efforts of those who defended the Republican democracy in 1936, were persecuted by Franco’s nationalist regime and suffered internal and external exile, and those who fiercely fought against dictatorship and in defense of the fundamental rights and liberties that Spaniards fully enjoy today. This complicated process of memory recuperation is necessary to fulfill that missing part of Spanish identity that was captured and disarmed at the end of the Spanish Civil War of 1936. The main objective in this dissertation is the diachronic examination of a group of novels that carry out the representation of antifrancoist guerrilla fighters and how their obliterated memory emerges in Spanish society. In order to accomplish this goal, the introductory chapter examines various narrative, rhetorical and theoretical discourses, exploring the intimate relationship between History, Literature, and Memory through the lens of Foucault, Hutcheon, Barthes and White, among others. The second chapter covers the analysis of texts written during or immediately after the war: Cumbres de Extremadura by José Herrera Petere (1938), Este tiempo amargo by Pablo de la Fuente (1944), Juan Caballero by Luisa Carnés, La sierra en llamas by Ángel Ruiz Ayúcar (1953), Testamento en la montaña by Manuel Arce (1956), and El ladrido by Oscar Muñiz Martín (1969). The third chapter explores novels written during the democratic transition as well as contemporary fiction: La Pastora: el maqui hermafrodita by Manuel Vila Raso (1978), Luna de lobos (1985) by Julio Llamazares, Maquis (1997) by Alfons Cervera, Siempre quedará París (2005) by Ramón Acín, ¡Hasta siempre camaradas! (2006) by Raúl Tristán, and Caballeros de la Muerte (2006) by Alejandro Martínez Gallo. This study reflects how the antifrancoist guerrilla warfare is a clear example of a twofold search for personal and collective identity in Spain and shows how the writers’ approaches to this subject have drastically changed over the years.
