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University of Cincinnati ! "# $ % & % ' % !" #$ %$ !' &' ( )' !! ' *+# ,!-./ 01 ' "# ' '% $$(' 2&(3 4,( 3 553 4 6 3 Terzioska Use and Abuse in the Educational Apparatus during Franco's Regime in Spain: (1936-1951) A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D) in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures 2009 by Jasmina Terzioska B.A. Purdue University (Indiana) 2000 M.A. Loyola University at Chicago (Illinois) 2002 Committee Chair: Dr. Connie Scarborough Committee Members: Dr. María Paz Moreno, Dr. Carlos Gutiérrez. Abstract: This dissertation investigates the use the abuse in the educational apparatus during the most crucial two decades of Franco’s dictatorship in Spain (1936-1951). These years were the most difficult, including programs, curriculum, textbooks, students, and faculty, as it endured the most control. By analyzing approved textbooks, national newspaper articles, and illustrations of this specific period, this dissertation closely investigates the new implementations and changes in the educational system after the Spanish Civil War. It also explores how Spanish literature was taught, introduced and used, especially the Poema de Mío Cid. This medieval epic served as coursework for Franco’s primary school in order to mimic the process of nation building. For the propagandistic use of the literary works, we highlight Eco’s theory on text interpretation, which was developed in his book Lector in Fabula. For the ideological appropriation in the educational system, Franco was able to mimic what Louis Althusser calls reproduction of the productive forces outlines in Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. With this dissertation, I firstly aimed to profoundly study the manipulative evolution of the new educational apparatus after the Spanish Civil War; secondly, to analyze the use and the brainwashing of teaching of Spanish literature; and thirdly, to address the beneficial transmission of the interpretation of the Poema de Mío Cid in the educational apparatus. ii Acknowledgements: I would like to thank all individuals who have provided me unconditional support throughout the process of developing this dissertation. I am deeply in debt to my Dissertation Chair, Dr. Connie Scarborough, and my Committee members, Dr. Carlos Gutiérrez and Dr. María Paz Moreno. iii iv Table of Contents Abstract----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 Acknowledgements--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 Introduction-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6 Chapter 1. Eco and Althusser: a Theoretical Perspective of Manipulation 1.1. Lector in Fabula: on Interpretation of Text -------------------------------------------15 1.2. Politics of Textual Use--------------------------------------------------------------------18 1.3. Franco’s Educational System in the Light of the Althusserian Theory-------------22 Chapter 2. Transition and Evolution of Franco’s National Educational System (1936-1951): Althusser and Eco 2.1. Educational Transition Period: Second Republic, Spanish Civil War and National Government (1936-1951)-----------------------------------------------------------32 2.2. Economic Conditions of the Franquist Regime: A Historical Perspective---------38 2.3. The Totalitarian Construction of the Educational State Apparatus: 1939-1951---44 2.4. New Implementation of National Ministry of Education (1939-1951) and the Laws of Primary Schools, Secondary Schools and Universities--------------------------50 2.4.1. The Life of Teachers during Franco’s Regime-----------------------------57 2.4.2. Elimination of Coeducation in the School System-------------------------63 2.4.3. Implementation of New Minister of Education (1939-1951)-------------68 2.5. Brainwashing: Old Secular Education vs. New Catholic Education-------------------------70 Chapter 3. Teaching of Literature during Franco’s Regime 3.1. In Search of Literal and Cultural Tradition: Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, v Jaime Balmes and Juan Donoso Cortés------------------------------------------------------76 3.2. A New Approach to the Teaching of Literature during the New State ------------83 3.3 Educational Journals Form Part of Literature during the New State-----------------97 3.4. Manipulation through Literature, Refrains, Dictations, Syntaxes, Stories, etc. -102 Chapter 4: Manipulative use of Poema de Mío Cid 4.1. La España del Cid; A Fascist Interpretation of the Cid’s Figure?---------------116 4.2. The Reception of La España del Cid--------------------------------------------------126 4.3. Poema de Mío Cid from Eco’s Perspective-------------------------------------------135 4.4. The Interpretation of the Cid in the Textbooks---------------------------------------152 4.5. The Forgotten Role of Jimena during the Franquist Educational System--------156 4.6. The Forgotten Role of the Cid’s Daughters and the Infants of Carrión in the Franquist Educational System---------------------------------------------------------------165 5. Conclusions------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------170 6. Bibliography------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------176 vi Introduction When examining the post-Civil War era in Spain, you will find countless publications that depict this elongated, memorable part of our history. In fact, it is a topic that can be studied all over the world, in several different languages. But for present and future investigators, many questions still remain unanswered. For example, there are numerous, valuable works that focus on education and teaching literature1 during the Spanish Post Civil War period. However, specific studies on how the New State2 and its leader, the dictator Francisco Franco, used literature as a manipulation tool has not yet been explored. This dissertation will investigate the new implementations and changes in the educational system after the Spanish Civil War. It will also explore how Spanish literature was taught, introduced and used3, specifically the Poema de Mío Cid. This medieval epic served as coursework for Franco’s primary school system during the first, and most crucial, two decades of the dictatorship (1936-1951). For the propagandistic use of the literary works, we will highlight Eco’s theory on text interpretation, which was developed in his book Lector in Fabula. He states that there are open and closed texts and that the Model Reader can take an active and cooperative role when it comes to its interpretation. Eco sees the body of the text as a lazy machine plagued with voids for the Model Reader to fill in and to make the text function (76-79). During Franco’s 1 See the works of Fernández Soria, Navarro Sandalinas, Mayordomo Peréz, Gervilla Castillo, Fernández Ferrer, Sánchez-Redondo Morcillo, McNair, Valls, Jóndóttir, and Galván. 2 By New State we are referring to Spain under Franco’s regime, especially the Post-Civil War period. This is also a term used by Víctor Alba in Transition in Spain. 3 When we analyze literary works, especially the medieval literary texts, we follow Eco’s Lector in Fabula. For more details on his theory refer to our first Chapter. vii regime, the students were not the ones that were able to take an active and cooperative role as readers when interpreting a text. The Model Reader was represented by Franquist intellectuals, who developed the education system in connection with the regime’s fascist ideology. As a result, these intellectuals distorted the meaning of many literary texts such as the Spanish epic poem Poema de Mío Cid. The text was perverted from an ideological perspective in order to promote the dictatorship’s dogma. The problem with such an interpretative perspective is the fact that if we read a text perverting its meaning, changing the perspective foreseen by its Model Author, and altering (modifying) the steps that had to be taken by the Model Reader, then we are not cooperating with the text. In this instance, we are taking the text to a level for which it was not intended. In order to realize the process of brainwashing in the educational apparatus, the Franquist regime took control of what Eco calls use. According to Eco there are two poles when reading a text: use and interpretation. These two theoretical poles are never totally realized, and they only serve us as a model for analysis in the reading process. We should clarify that Eco is not considering the case of the manipulative process by the entire educational system with respect to a textual body. But the categories of use and interpretation can be used correctly when talking about what the Franquist system does: taking control and power from a pragmatic perspective, and engaging a use, an official use, to guide all of the possible readings by students that are educated under the regime. The body of the medieval texts for instance, is a lazy machine, and because of it, the Model Reader has to make it work in a pragmatic and semiotic direction in which case the reader is passing a valid judgment. In this instance, the epic poem of the Cid is as a lazy machine, and the use of the Cid as a pro- Franco and pro-Generalísimo, is a mischievous and biased reading, suitable for the new viii regime in Spain. As explained
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