LORCA'S GRAVE COMMEMORATION AND THE ETHICS OF RECOVERY IN THE ERA OF MASS DEATH, A CASE STUDY OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR A Thesis submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, Ontario, Canada © Copyright by Gregory Frankland, 2012 Theory, Culture and Politics M.A. Graduate Program May 2012 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-82899-1 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-82899-1 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Abstract Lorca's grave: Commemoration and the Ethics of Recovery in the Era of Mass Death, a case study of the Spanish Civil War Gregory Frankland In August of 1936 the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca was murdered by a killing squad loyal to Franco, his body deposited into a mass grave near the village of Alfacar in Spain. The scandal surrounding his murder and the disappearance of his body led to the attempted recovery of his remains in 2009, thirty four years after the death of Franco. This belated reclamation of the disappeared poet's remains was hastened by the Law of Historical Memory of 2007, a law enacted by the Spanish Parliament in order to facilitate and fund exhumations of mass graves throughout Spain. These exhumations were of the victims of the Franco regime, a matter of the memory of justice. By addressing the Law of Historical Memory, this thesis takes the resting place of Federico Garcia Lorca to illustrate the moral and ethical consequences of recovering and reforming history. Lorca's grave is what Pierre Nora would call a "lieu de memoire", a place of memory. As a contribution to the field of memory studies, my thesis studies the politics and ethics of recovery in an era of mass death, often thought to have begun after World War One. By drawing a distinction between exhumation and recovery, I explore the conditions under which commemorative acts, including exhumations on behalf of the vanquished, are founded upon moral and ethical principles. My study is largely inspired by Walter Benjamin's "On the Concept of History", specifically thesis VII, according to which not historical understanding but history itself belongs to the victor. If historicism is the belief that our understanding of a society or culture is derived from its history, then the victor, who writes history controls historical understanding. The recovery of memory in Spain on behalf of the vanquished allows us to consider the creation of an alternate history that confronts the past rather than forgetting and repeating the past. Key Words: Federico Garcia Lorca; Walter Benjamin; historical memory; Spanish Civil War; commemoration; morality; ethics Acknowledgments I acknowledge my committee: Jonathan Bordo, Andrew Wernick and Antonio Cazorla Sanchez. As a student of Cultural Studies in my undergraduate years at Trent I was always pulled toward studying history, but, as it turned out, the history department was not the place for me to be a student. In my Master's degree I wanted to pursue my inclination to think historically. To Antonio I give gratitude for his guidance and resources, which he provided generously throughout my research on the Spanish Civil War. To Andrew Wernick for the seminar he instructed on theories of exchange and the gift. To Jonathan Bordo whose undergraduate honours seminars on critical topography I attended for the two years of my MA, and for the doctoral writing seminar he established. To the writing seminar: Grant Timms, D. Laurence Dunne, Jonathan Bordo, Jeremy Bell, Rachel Cyr, and Jenn Cole. Our weekly meetings, in my second year in TCP saw me trudging home in the snow to write through the evening. To Rachel Cyr who in the final days of the thesis took great care to edit my writing, and it was through her confidence in my work that I was able to send it off. To Jenn Cole for our lengthy discussions over the many years and the hours we took reading one another our writing either by a fireplace or by the dim lights in the Harvey St. apartment. To Maralynn Cherry for our Tuesday meetings in her office. To Michael W. Morse for our kitchen discussions, introducing me to Ludwig Van Beethoven, and for his faith in my abilities as a student. To Norah Winkelaar, and our bike rides to Bata Library. She, in the last few months of my writing, always reminded me to think twice about what I was claiming. iv Contents Abstract Acknowledgments List of Figures Introduction Chapter 1. Federico Garcia Lorca's grave Chapter 2. The Spanish Civil War and the Law of Historical Memory Chapter 3. Recovery as moral obligation Bibliography Appendix 1. The Law of Historical Memory List of Fi2ures Figure 1: Lorca's grave 18 Figure 2: La Fuente Grande/The Big Fountain 21 Figure 3: The Valley of the Fallen 41 Figure 4: Monument to the Missing 93 VI Introduction In October of 2009,1 happened across a newspaper article concerning the exhumation of Federico Garcia Lorca's grave. Lorca, a lecturer, poet and playwright, was murdered by a killing squad loyal to General Franco in August of 1936. The months of August and September of 1936 were the bloodiest months of the Spanish Civil War in terms of extra­ judicial killings carried out by both forces loyal to the Second Republic and the rebel Nationalists. Why was Lorca murdered? Lorca's work was highly critical of Catholic society and often times lamented the loss of Arabic and Roma artistic influences in the province of Andalusia. These sentiments were in opposition to a Nationalist Spain under traditional Catholic values. In a lecture that calls for the preservation of a distinctly Andalusian culture, entitled "Deep Song", Lorca remarks: Gentlemen, deep song, because of both its melody and its poems, is one of the strongest popular artistic creations in the world. In your hands is the task of preserving it and dignifying it, for the sake of Andalusia and her people.1 Lorca's plea for the active preservation of deep song, "for the sake of Andalusia and her people"2, exemplifies why Lorca would be taken as an enemy of a united Spain under a Nationalist regime. Lorca's position as an undesirable artist and his potential affiliation with the Communist party in Spain (although he never actually joined the party) made him one victim among thousands whose remains are now sought as part of a larger project for the recuperation of historical memory in Spain. The team of archaeologists who carried out the exhumation of Lorca's grave did not find any remains. That no remains were found prompted me to think about the 1 Federico Garcia Lorca, "Deep Song", Deep Song and other Prose, ed. and trans. Christopher Maurer. (London: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd., 1980), 40 2 Ibid., 40 1 obligation the living have towards the remains of the dead. The exhumation of Federico Garcia Lorca's grave and the more general recovery of historical memory in Spain, demonstrate recovery as commemorative, which is founded on ethical principles. This study of Lorca's grave and the Spanish Civil War is situated in the era of mass death inaugurated by the First World War. The effort of collective recovery from traumatic experience caused by war on a national level is included in this period of history. The Law of Historical Memory (2007) demonstrates recovery as a common thread between mass death experienced in the First World War and mass death experienced in the Spanish Civil War. This law establishes a dialogue between the First World War and its aftermath and the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. In this way, the legacy of the First World War is still demonstrable and very much alive. This thesis is then historically situated from 1914 through to 2007. The exhumation of Lorca's grave directed me to the Law of Historical Memory, which was passed in Spanish Parliament of December 2007.