Re-Imagining Justice: a Study of Ethics, Politics, and Law in Contemporary Spain
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RE-IMAGINING JUSTICE: A STUDY OF ETHICS, POLITICS, AND LAW IN CONTEMPORARY SPAIN by Mónica López-Lerma A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Comparative Literature) in The University of Michigan 2010 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Cristina Moreiras-Menor, Chair Professor Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola Associate Professor Dario Gaggio Associate Professor Ruth Tsoffar © Mónica López-Lerma 2010 ________________________________________________________________________ All Rights Reserved To my parents Ricardo and Pilar ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank colleagues, friends, and family who have supported me throughout this project. My first thanks go to Cristina Moreiras-Menor who, patiently and generously, has guided me throughout this process and shaped my intellectual development over these years. Her advice, expertise, understanding, friendship, encouragement, and reassurance at different stages in this project have been fundamental for its completion. I also wish to thank Alex Herrero-Olaizola, whose generosity, academic rigor, and sense of humor have accompanied me in this journey. In addition, I want to thank Dario Gaggio and Ruth Tsoffar, whom I met in the final stages of my work, for their enthusiasm and suggestions. I must also thank Francois Ost, who initially inspired and encouraged me to keep pursuing research and writing; Virginia Gordan and James Boyd White, whose help and support when I first came to the Michigan Law School I will never forget; and Gareth Williams, whose seminar and discussions provided me with the theoretical basis for my first chapter. I am grateful, too, to my friends and cousins from Spain, and the rest of the friends I have found here in Ann Arbor, for the affection and the good times that they have offered me. I also want to acknowledge the institutional and financial support from the Department of Comparative Literature, the Jean Monnet Fellowship from the European Union Center, and the Horace Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan. Each of them provided funds on several occasions to complete this project. Likewise, I wish to thank the Departments of Screen, Arts, and Cultures and of Romance Languages and Literatures in particular, where I have taught and felt at home. I owe much to Julen Etxabe, whose intellectual work and personality I admire. Without his endless affection, criticism, suggestions, patience, and love, I may have never realized this project. Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Ricardo and Pilar, whose kindness, unconditional love and support, have been an inspiration from the beginning of my work. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ iii LIST OF PICTURES ........................................................................................................ v INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1 Politics and Democracy in Alex de la Iglesia’s La Comunidad ......... 13 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 13 I. THE NEOLIBERAL “POLITICS OF CONSENSUS” ............................................. 15 II. THE POWER OF THE MARKET: CONSUMPTION AND ALIENATION ........ 22 III. THE POWER OF THE STATE: CONSENSUS AND EXCLUSION ................... 33 IV. THE POWER OF THE DEMOS ............................................................................ 49 V. THE REEMERGENCE OF SPANISH NATIONALISM ....................................... 60 CHAPTER 2 Justice and Historical Memory: Re-Imagining the Spanish Past ..... 67 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 67 I. ANTECEDENTS: PERVERSIONS OF HISTORY ................................................. 71 II. FROM TRAUMA TO JUSTICE: THE RETURN OF THE DEAD IN BELTENEBROS ............................................................................................................ 79 III. REMEMBERING TO FORGET: THE “LAW OF HISTORICAL MEMORY” ... 96 IV. AFTER THE LAW OF HISTORICAL MEMORY ............................................. 105 APPENDIX 1 .............................................................................................................. 110 APPENDIX 2 .............................................................................................................. 114 CHAPTER 3 Judging Law, Performing Justice: Pedro Almodóvar’s High Heels129 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 129 I. LGBT AND LAW UNDER FRANCO AND DEMOCRACY ............................... 131 II. POSTMODERN RE-IMAGININGS .................................................................... 137 III. LAW AS MOTHER: ETHICS AND JUSTICE OF CARE ................................. 145 IV. LAW AS PERFORMANCE: ETHICS AND JUSTICE OF OTHERNESS ........ 152 V. CINEMATIC JUDGMENT: ETHICS OF RESPONSE ........................................ 167 VI. CAMP AESTHETICS: LAW AS QUEER .......................................................... 177 VII. LGBT IN SPAIN TODAY .................................................................................. 183 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................. 185 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 191 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 193 iv LIST OF PICTURES Picture 1.1………………………………………………………………………………………...28 1.2………………………………………………………………………………………...28 1.3………………………………………………………………………………………...28 1.4………………………………………………………………………………………...28 1.5………………………………………………………………………………………...30 1.6………………………………………………………………………………………...30 1.7………………………………………………………………………………………...37 1.8………………………………………………………………………………………...37 1.9………………………………………………………………………………………...42 1.10……………………………………………………………………………………….42 1.11………….……………………………………………………………………………47 1.12……………………………………………………………………………………….47 1.13……………………………………………………………………………………….48 1.14……………………………………………………………………………………….48 1.15……………………………………………………………………………………….52 1.16……………………………………………………………………………………….52 1.17……………………………………………………………………………………….58 1.18……………………………………………………………………………………….58 1.19……………………………………………………………………………………….63 1.20……………………………………………………………………………………….63 1.21……………………………………………………………………………………….63 1.22……………………………………………………………………………………….63 2.1 Paul Klee's Angelus Novos…………………………………………………………...68 3.1……………………………………………………………………………………….157 3.2……………………………………………………………………………………….157 3.3……………………………………………………………………………………….160 3.4……………………………………………………………………………………….160 3.5……………………………………………………………………………………….165 3.6……………………………………………………………………………………….165 3.7……………………………………………………………………………………….170 3.8……………………………………………………………………………………….174 3.9……………………………………………………………………………………….174 3.10……………………………………………………………………………………...175 3.11……………………………………………………………………………………...180 v INTRODUCTION It would not be an exaggeration to say that modern Spain has been built upon two myths: partly around the myth of national reconciliation and the consensus of the transition, and partly around the myth of Europe.1 First, the transition to democracy was thought to have left behind the sharp ideological divisions that led to the Civil War (1936-1939), and the repressive dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975). Second, Europe and the European Community (EC)2 represented the principles of liberty, pluralism, and economic progress to which Spain should aspire in order to break with the dictatorial past, to recover national self-respect, and to reinvent itself.3 After the Spanish Constitution of 1978, which defines Spain as a Social and Democratic State (Estado Social y Democrático de Derecho), the arrival of Felipe González’s socialist party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE) to the government in 1982 led the country into a frantic attempt to reach the socio-economic levels of its European neighbors. 1 See Carlos Closa, The Domestic Basis of Spanish European Policy and the 2002 Presidency, tr. Stephen J. Wilkins, 16 Notre Europe, European Studies (2001), http://www.notre-europe.eu; Pablo Jáuregui, “National Pride and the Meaning of ‘Europe’: a Comparative Study of Britain and Spain,” in Whose Europe? The Turns Towards Democracy, eds. Dennis Smith and Sue Wright, (Oxford: Balckwell, 1999), pp. 275-287; Antonio Moreno Juste, “Del ‘problema de España’ a la ‘España europeizada’: excepcionalidad y normalización en la posición de España en Europa,” in La política exterior de España 1800-2003, ed. Juan Carlos Pereira (Barcelona: Ariel, 2003), pp. 295-317. 2 The term EC refers to the period before the Treaty on European Union, popularly known as the Maastricht Treaty, which came into force on 1 November 1993. The treaty created the current European Union (EU) and led to the establishment of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). 3 Jáuregui, supra at 274. 1 Democracy thus became synonymous with Europeanization, progress, and modernization. When Spain finally entered the EC in 1986, the fact was celebrated as the culmination of both modernity and democracy.4