University of Miami
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI MEMORIES THAT WON'T DESERT. TRANSNATIONAL LEGACIES OF FRANCOISM AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR IN 21ST CENTURY NOVEL, COMIC AND FILM By Julie Samit A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Miami in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Coral Gables, Florida May 2016 ©2016 Julie Samit All Rights Reserved UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy MEMORIES THAT WON'T DESERT. TRANSNATIONAL LEGACIES OF FRANCOISM AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR IN 21ST CENTURY NOVEL, COMIC AND FILM Julie Samit Approved: ________________ _________________ George Yúdice, Ph.D. Gema Pérez-Sánchez, Ph.D. Professor of Spanish and Latin Associate Professor of Spanish American Studies ________________ _________________ Yvonne Gavela-Ramos, Ph.D. Guillermo Prado, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Spanish Dean of the Graduate School ________________ Christina Lane, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Cinema and Interactive Media SAMIT, JULIE (Ph.D., Romance Studies) Memories That Won’t Desert. Transnational Legacies (May 2016) of Francoism and the Spanish Civil War in 21st Century Novel, Comic and Film. Abstract of a dissertation at the University of Miami. Dissertation supervised by Professor George Yúdice. No. of pages in text. (358) This dissertation examines contemporary representations of Francoism and the Spanish Civil War and emphasizes the Republican legacy in three different media: novel, comics, and film. Its main focus is Spain, but my corpus also includes the experience of French and Mexican exiles. These works, produced for the most part by descendants of Republicans in diverse sociocultural and sociopolitical contexts, establish a memorial network that goes beyond national boundaries, and that travels from generation to generation. I define the production of second and third generations who recuperate individual stories that have been repressed politically as “legacy narratives.” I argue that because these texts reveal individual legacies of the vanquished and indicate how memories are passed on, they actively participate to collective processes of remembrance. In Peninsular Studies, texts that deal with historical memory have often been read as “ghost stories,” highlighting trauma and repressed memories. Theoretically, these readings draw on the Derridean concept of hauntology, which sheds light on the remnant presence of what used to be in the past. By focusing mostly on trauma, and therefore adopting an individual perspective to memory, such readings do not show the links between individual stories and the broad collective, and they sometimes fail to embrace the diversity of Republican memories. Yet many “legacy narratives” tell us that not all memories have been repressed by individuals (they have not “deserted,” as the title of my dissertation suggests). While previous readings allow excavating the contents of Republican memory, they do not necessarily reveal how memory has been transmitted between generations. To understand how this transmission has taken place in different sociopolitical contexts, I examine the intersections of individual and collective memories. In order to consider the different levels of interaction between singular stories and history, I draw on Paul Ricœur's conceptualization of memory as a trajectory that moves from individuals to broader collective groups. This project contributes to Peninsular, Memory and Cultural Studies. Its aim is to provide a broad enough understanding of legacy narratives in visual and written productions. My corpus includes novels, a graphic novel and two films to highlight the active dialogue that takes place around questions of transmission regardless of the media involved. The novels -Lydie Salvayre’s Pas pleurer (2014) and Jordi Soler’s Los rojos de ultramar (2004)- and graphic novel –Antonio Altarriba and Kim’s El arte de volar (2009)- are autobiographies that show how narratives produced in Spain, France or Mexico dialogue with one another. In addition, I analyze how cinema allows expanding my definition of legacy narratives beyond autobiography, with films such as Els nens perduts del Franquisme (2002), a documentary by Montserrat Armengou and Ricard Belis and Insensibles (2012), a horror film by Juan-Carlos Medina. Despite their formal differences, I show that legacy narratives rely on collective approaches to memory and transgenerational transmission as a way to give voice to the vanquished, substitute and subvert “institutionalized” practices of collective memory. DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to Benoît Mauchamp. Merci de m’avoir aidée à tourner cette page et bien d’autres : je vais enfin pouvoir faire mémoire neuve. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Je remercie mes parents, Josette Chaume et Julio Samit Solas de leur soutien indéfectible malgré la distance. Je remercie ma sœur, Olivia Samit pour les conversations très instructives et les éclats de rire salvateurs. Je remercie George Yúdice, Yvonne Gavela-Ramos, Gema Pérez-Sánchez et Christina Lane de m’avoir laissé la liberté d’élaborer ce travail, et d’avoir pris le temps de le lire et de le commenter. Je remercie Kate Prendiville pour sa bienveillance et Michèle Rodríguez Astuguevielle pour ses observations percutantes et éclairées. Je remercie Éric Georges et son équipe pour leur aide précieuse. Sans eux je n’aurais pas pu terminer cette thèse aux États-Unis. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES vi INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1. READING COMICS, READING TIME: MEMORY AND ITS TRAJECTORY WITHIN PANELS 57 Part 1. What’s that Comic Book Saying? Become Literate in Sequential Art 59 Part 2. Drawing the Family Circle: Memory and Legacy in El arte de volar 87 Part 3. Memories from the Two Spains 117 Part 4. From War to Desencanto: Constituting the Legacy of Memory from the Margins 144 CHAPTER 2. RECUPERATING UNKNOWN VOICES: TRANSGENERATIONAL LEGACY IN EXILIC NARRATIVE 169 Part 1. Blending Legacies: Memory Integration in Lydie Salvayre’s Pas Pleurer 179 Part 2. Historical Legacy and the Challenges of Ideology 202 Part 3. Mexico and the Experience of Exile between Destierro and Transtierro 235 CHAPTER 3. THE LOST GENERATION OF FRANCOISM. RETRACING THE GENEALOGY OF SECOND GENERATIONS 268 Part 1. Documenting a Lost Generation in Els nens perduts del Franquisme 275 Part 2. Trauma Embodied in Juan Carlos Medina’s Insensibles 308 CONCLUSION 342 WORKS CITED 351 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Larcenet, Manu. Le combat ordinaire (5), vol. 1, 2003 62 2. Tío Vivo, #1 cover, 1957 70 3. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (13)-a, 2009. Modified panel #1 75 4. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (13)-a, 2009. Modified panel #2 78 5. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (13)-b, 2009 83 6. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (13)-a, 2009. Original panel 84 7. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (13)-c, 2009 91 8. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (207)-a, 2009 91 9. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (207)-b, 2009 92 10. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (19), 2009 102 11. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (15), 2009 107 12. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (149), 2009 109 13. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (161), 2009 110 14. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (162), 2009 111 15. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (83), 2009 118 16. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (23), 2009 120 17. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (26-27), 2009 124 18. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (24), 2009 131 19. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (43), 2009 135 20. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (44), 2009 137 21. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (48), 2009 139 22. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (52), 2009 141 23. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (64), 2009 147 24. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (67), 2009 148 25. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (130), 2009 156 26. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (143), 2009 157 27. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (133), 2009 163 vi 28. Altarriba, Antonio and Kim. El arte de volar (177), 2009 163 29. “Corridor,” Film Screenshot, Els nens perduts del Franquisme, 2002 277 30. “Man Walking Down Corridor,” Film Screenshot, Els nens perduts del Franquisme, 2002 279 31. “Man at Desk,” Film Screenshot, Els nens perduts del Franquisme, 2002 280 32. “María Villanueva,” Film Screenshot, Els nens perduts del Franquisme, 2002 290 33. “Mercedes Sanz-Bachiller,” Film Screenshot, Els nens perduts del Franquisme, 2002 302 34. “Girl in Forest,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 310 35. “Inés Facing Fire,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 311 36. “Benigno,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 316 37. “Benigno’s Mother,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 316 38. “Establishing Shot,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 320 39. “Town Meeting,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 322 40. “Benigno Captured,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 325 41. “Seeking Shelter,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 326 42. “Berkano,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 330 43. “Catholic Cross,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 335 44. “Three generations,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 336 45. “David Facing Fire,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 339 46. “David’s Gaze,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 339 47. “Reflection of Berkano,” Film Screenshot, Insensibles, 2012 340 48. Transgenerational Transmission under Francoism 348 49. Transgenerational Transmission in Legacy Narratives 349 vii Introduction “Lo que puede hacerse contra el olvido es muy poco, pero es imperativo hacerlo, de otra forma nos quedaremos sin cimientos y sin perspectiva”: with these words, the protagonist of Jordi Soler's novel La fiesta del Oso (2009) presents memory as an imperative, as something from which we can build and that gives us perspective.