Memory, war, and dictatorship in recent Spanish fiction by women
By: Sarah Leggott
Publisher: Bucknell University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 159
ISBN-13: 9781611486667; 9781611486681
Subjects: Women authors; Women and literature; Dictatorship in literature; Spanish fiction; War in literature; History and criticism; Memory in literature
Description: Memory, War, and Dictatorship in Recent Spanish Fiction by Women analyzes five novels, by women writers, that present women's experiences during and after the Spanish Civil War and Franco dictatorship, highlighting the struggles of female protagonists of different ages to confront an unresolved individual and collective past. It discusses the different narrative models and strategies used in these works and the ways in which they engage with their political and historical context, particularly in light of campaigns for the so-called recovery of historical memory in Spain (the "memory boom"), and in the broader context in memory and trauma studies. The novels that are examined in this book are Dulce Chacón's La voz dormida (2002); Rosa Regàs's Luna lunera (1999); Josefina Aldecoa's La fuerza del destino (1997); Carme Riera's La mitad del alma (2005); and Almudena Grandes's El corazón helado (2007). These works all highlight the multiple natures of memories and histories and demonstrate the complex ways in which the past impacts the present. This book also considers the extent to which the memories represented in these five novels are inflected by gender and informed by the gender politics of twentieth-century and contemporary Spain. -- from back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 135-151) and index.
Table of contents: title: Narrating the legacy of war and dictatorship in contemporary Spain: gender, trauma, and the historical memory debates --; title: Dulce Chacón (1954-2003): constructing a gendered postmemory: repression, resistance, and transgenerational transmission in La voz dormida (2002) --; title: Rosa Regàs (1933- ): expiating the sins of the mother: childhood memories of retribution and loss in Luna lunera (1999) --; title: Josefina Aldecoa (1926-2011): challenging cultural taboos of age and gender: the voice of the elderly mother and returned exile in La fuerza del destino (1997) --; title: Carme Riera (1948- ): reconstructing the maternal story: the quest for historical "Truth" and self-understanding in La mitad del alma (2005) --; title: Almudena Grandes (1960- ): inscribing the transgenerational legacy of exile: a son's inherited guilt and a grandaughter's quest for reparation in El corazón helado (2007).