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Redeeming Realism: Alternate Historicities in Spanish Literature and Film

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Redeeming Realism: Alternate Historicities in Spanish Literature and Film REDEEMING REALISM: ALTERNATE HISTORICITIES IN SPANISH LITERATURE AND FILM by Diógenes Costa Currás A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Romance Languages and Literatures: Spanish) in The University of Michigan 2014 Doctoral Committee: Professor Cristina Moreiras-Menor, Chair Assistant Professor Eric Calderwood Associate Professor Giorgio Bertellini Professor Juli A. Highfill To Ela, my wife, and my son, Cem, for being there and helping me through. ii Acknowledgements I could not have gotten this far, or even embarked on this journey, without the friendship and support of many people. First, I would like to thank the members of my doctoral committee. Their trust and support throughout the writing process has eased the struggle with the blank page. Thank you, Cristina Moreiras-Menor, for being such an exceptional adviser and mentor and being always there—through time and space, nudging me in the right direction, going above and beyond the expected. I can simply not express in words my gratitude for inspiring me to be the scholar I am. Giorgio Bertellini, thank you for the openness and collegiality with which you embarked onto this project, to help me wade the murky waters of Neorealism in Spain, and to hearten my fondness for the archive. Thanks also to Juli Highfill for the sharpness of her feedback, and her relentless tachado, removing from my writing the unnecessary, and to Eric Calderwood, for his keen contributions, and his valuable insights into my writings. I have been very fortunate to share the last few years with my friends and colleagues at the University of Michigan, who have become part of my life, and my extended family in the US. Andrew Noverr, Mar Freire Hermida, and Franciso/Pancho/Patxi—whom I hope to meet in the near future, Carlos De Los Santos, María Dorantes, Susana Coll and Isaac Tapley, and Tati Calixto, you made Ann Arbor a place to live in, and you are now the reason to visit. I would not want to leave out those who already left Ann Arbor, and who have been so important throughout this journey: Sebastián Díaz and Noelia Cirnigliaro for opening me the doors to their home, Manuel Chinchilla for showing me the passion to read at the most unsuspected times, Sun-Young Kim for her kind friendship, María Canal, Julen Etxabe and Monica López Lerma, thank iii you for sharing with me some of the most important moments of my life. Special mention is reserved for the Bad Prof Yago Colás, for letting me take part in a seminar for the first time, and for Roberto Robles, with whom I share a guadianesco approach to keeping in touch, and who opened for me the door to the German Department. A very special thank you to Seth Howes, for his generosity in reading and editing my dissertation, and for his incredibly kindhearted and confidence-building pep talks. I would like to express my thankfulness to my undergraduate professors: Eleanor Andrews and Ignacio Palacios Martínez, for their support of my graduate school application. Special thanks go to Johannes Von Moltke, Enrique García Santo-Tomás, Ryan Szpiech, Gareth Williams, Julia Hell and George Steinmentz, and Kader Konuk, for their help and support in their seminars and beyond. Leyre Alegre, Marce Viera, Fede Pous, Rachel TenHaaf, Aaron Boalick, Javier Alonso, Mikel Esandi, Sylwia Ejmont, Ariana Orozco, Javier De Entrambasaguas, Sara Jackson, Meegan Saltzman, Christian Kroll, María Dolores Morillo, thank you for the companionship and friendship that you have shared with me these years. Thank you also to my friends in Spain: Gerardo Fernández, for helping me cross the Atlantic, Gerardo Carballo, for the constant musical stimuli, Pati Janeiro, Alexandra Carracedo, Begoña Ors, and Emilio Carral, for managing to keep in touch despite my gaps. Iago Rivera, thank you for twenty-years years of friendship and encouragement. Ricardo Gallego and Cristina Reina, I could not forget you, who are hermanos to me; I look forward to the next time I can be with you, and return the favor of being host to you. I am grateful for the support and help of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures: Vincenzo Binetti and Peggy McCracken have been incredibly supportive iv Graduate Chairs. I would also like to give special thanks to Carin Scott, Katie Hayes, Annette Herbert, Beth Humpert, and Mindy Kiehaus-Fukuda, for helping me navigate the white waters of bureaucracy. I would also like to thank the International Institute and the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan for the funding and support they have provided for my research. My thanks to the staff at the Biblioteca Nacional and Filmoteca Nacional in Madrid, particularly to Trinidad del Río Sánchez for granting me access to archival material that made me giddy as a schoolboy, and their kindness. Mamá e papá, grazas por poñer todo o voso empeño en min e na mina educación, Fran, grazas polos teus xeitos de mostrar cariño e apoio; estareivos sempre agradecidos ós tres. I am very grateful to my best friend and wife, Ela, for making it happen with her love, understanding, support, and encouragement. Thank you for pulling me through when going got tough. I am at home wherever you are. Cem, grazas por cambiarme o mundo, poñer todo en perspectiva co teu sorriso e bicos, e ser o mellor remedio para a ansiedade dos últimos anos. v Contents Dedication ii Acknowledgments iii List of Figures vii Abstract viii Chapter 1. Introduction: Redeeming Realism: Unfulfilled Democratic 1 Change is Spanish Literature and Film I. Histories of Benjamin, White, and De Certeau 7 II. Literary Realism: Lukács Vs Brecht 20 III. Bazin and Kracauer: Reality and Redemption in Film 26 2. Republican Realisms 35 I. Republic of Spain 35 II. Galdós and Historical Memoir 38 III. Second Republic—Neither Land nor Bread 46 IV. Return to the Canton, Redeem the Republic 60 3. Individual Redemption 71 I. Neorealism and Beyond 71 II. Saura’s Individual Realism 96 III. Undoing Francoism: Dialectical Realism in Tiempo de Silencio 116 4. Postmodern Realisms: Present Pastiche of Time 138 I. Spain into (post)modernity 138 II. Metafiction, Intertextuality and Realism: Suso de Toro’s 143 Non Volvas III. Accented Realism: Biutiful, Apocalyptic Barcelona 159 Conclusion 176 Works Cited 181 vi List of Figures Chapter 2 Figure 2.1 Las Hurdes: Tierra sin Pan (1933)………………………………………..69 Figure 2.2 Las Hurdes: Tierra sin Pan (1933)………………………………………..69 Figure 2.3 Las Hurdes: Tierra sin Pan (1933)………………………………………..70 Figure 2.4 Las Hurdes: Tierra sin Pan (1933)………………………………………..70 Chapter 3 Figure 3.1 La Caza (1966)…………………………………………………………...136 Figure 3.2 La Caza (1966)…………………………………………………………...136 Figure 3.3 La Caza (1966)…………………………………………………………...137 Figure 3.4 La Caza (1966)…………………………………………………………...137 Chapter 4 Figure 4.1 Biutiful (2010)…………………………………………………………….174 Figure 4.2 Biutiful (2010)…………………………………………………………….174 Figure 4.3 Biutiful (2010)…………………………………………………………….175 Figure 4.4 Biutiful (2010)…………………………………………………………….175 vii Abstract REDEEMING REALISM: ALTERNATE HISTORICITIES IN SPANISH LITERATURE AND FILM by Diógenes Costa Currás Chair: Cristina Moreiras-Menor Located at the nexus of literary criticism and film theory, this dissertation examines the relationship between two conceptions of realism: as representational style in film and literature, and as rubric for the writing of history. Through close readings, the dissertation draws attention to how Spanish cultural texts ranging from the 19th to the 21st century foreground that realist fiction’s capacity to redeem and preserve certain events that have been left out of contemporary Spanish public discourse. The introduction presents a discussion of the views on history of Walter Benjamin, Hayden White, and Michel De Certeau, as well as a study of the different conceptualizations of literary realism by Georg Lukács and Bertolt Brecht, and filmic realism by André Bazin, Siegfried Kracauer, and Gilles Deleuze. The first chapter analyzes three novels, Benito Pérez Galdós’s La Primera República, César M. Arconada’s Reparto de Tierras, and Ramón J. Sender’s Mr Witt en el Cantón, and Luis Buñuel’s film Las Hurdes; Tierra sin Pan. These four works have at the center of their focus the two periods of republican viii governance in Spain, in the late 19th century, and in the first half of the 20th century. The second chapter examines Carlos Saura’s film La Caza and Luis Martín-Santos’s novel Tiempo de Silencio in relation to the discontent towards the dictatorship not only at the social, but also at the personal level. My analysis shows how both works highlight the failure of Francoism through the representation of individuals who had not been assimilated by the pervasive narrative of the regime. The third chapter questions the unresolved problems generated throughout the Civil War and Francoism, and that the Transición tried to sweep under the rug. By focusing on repressed memories as represented in Suso de Toro’s novel Non Volvas, and the social exclusion generated throughout the post-Franco years in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film Biutiful, my analysis engages with the unsettled past, upon which a shaky present has been built. The dissertation further examines how conceptualizations of literary and filmic realism have changed over time, responding to transformations in Spanish society by adhering to a commitment to exposing the sufferings and contradictions inherent in society, and a strong interest in the everyday life of the middle and lower classes, challenging conceptualizations of history and time in Spain’s development as a nation. ix Chapter 1 Introduction- Redeeming Realism: Unfulfilled Democratic Change is Spanish Literature and Film Reminiscences, even extensive ones, do not always amount to an autobiography. [...] For even if months and years appear here, it is in the form they have in the moment of recollection.
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