Memory and Trauma in the Postwar Spanish Novel

Sarah Leggott is associate professor of Spanish and head of the School of Languages and Cultures at Victoria University of Wellington.Ross Woods is a lecturer in Spanish at Victoria University of Wellington.

• ContentsIntroductionSarah Leggott and Ross WoodsSection One. Revisiting the Past: Memory and HistoryThe Ghosts of the Past: Revisiting La familia de Pascual DuarteRoss WoodsRemembering the Canon: La familia de Pascual Duarte and Nada revisitedAnne WalshWar, History, and Memory in Arturo Barea’s La forja de un rebeldeAlison Ribeiro de MenezesMemory and History in Ana María Matute’s Los soldados lloran de nocheFrancis LoughSection Two. Reading the Wounded Generation: Pluralistic TraumaOpening and Closing History’s Wounds: Mercedes Salisachs’ Los que se quedanChristine ArkinstallRepresenting Individual and Collective Trauma: Dolores Medio’s Nosotros, los RiveroSarah LeggottIgnacio Aldecoa’s El fulgor y la sangre: The Politics of Memory under Franco Julia van LuijkSection Three. Narrating Traumatic Experience: Uncovered Trauma“The Unsuspected Truth”: Silence and Trauma in Carmen Laforet’s NadaFederico BonaddioThe Trauma of Coming of Age in Rosa Chacel’s Memorias de Leticia Valle and Ana María Matute’s Primera memoriaDaniela OmlorThe Cathartic Exercise of Memory in María Zambrano’s Delirio y destinoBeatriz Caballero RodríguezBibliography About the Contributors

Based on scholarly research, these essays examine the notion of collective and historical memory after the Spanish Civil War and Franco's dictatorship. The book examines individual texts and authors of the Spanish postwar period as a way of offering new perspectives on canonical and little-studied works and of presenting theoretical approaches to memory pertinent to Spanish novels written in the postwar era. One essay investigates representations of trauma in works that have been neglected. Another is dedicated exclusively to novels written by Spanish women from the 1940s to the 1960s, exploring the relationships between history and collective memory, remembering and forgetting, and literary representations of individual and collective trauma through the works of David Herzberger. The book concludes with extensive notes, a thorough bibliography, and a concise index. This is a good tool for those interested in the Spanish Civil War and debates on collective memory in literature. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.