Embodying Memory in Contemporary Spain

This innovative book examines the emergence of a memory discourse in Spain since the millennium, taking as its point of departure recent grave exhumations and the "Law of Historical Memory." Through an analysis of exhumation photography, novels, films, television, and comics, the volume overturns the notion that Spanish history is pathological.

"Ribeiro de Menezes has accomplished a major task: to give a form to this debate and, thus, to provide us with a new tool to critically understand better contemporary Spain, including the process of political forces involved, the role of ideologies and the intellectuals, and to move now ahead into the future that is part of the very notion of memory as archive of history but also as an Utopian subtext. This work is a lucid and highly precise tool of knowledge, a book that traces a model of reading the forces in dispute in order to construct a critical narrative." - Julio Ortega, Professor of Hispanic Studies, Brown University, USA

Autorentext
Alison Ribeiro de Menezes is a Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Warwick, UK.

Inhalt
Introduction: Embodying Memory in Spain 1. Pathologies of the Past: Spain's 'Belated' Memory Debates 2. Embodied Memory and Human Rights: The New Idioms of Spain's Memory Debates 3. Disrupted Genealogies and Generational Conflicts: Postmemorial Family Narratives 4. Ghostly Embodiments: Enchanted and Disenchanted Childhoods 5. Heroism and Affect: From Narratives of Mourning to Multidirectional Memories Conclusion: Memory and the Future: Beyond Pathology