The Poetics of Politics Narrative Production of National Identity in Galicia 1970-1989 Paula Portas This thesis is submitted to Cardiff University in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. February 2011 UMI Number: U584536 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U584536 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 APPENDIX 1: Specimen layout for Thesis Summary and Declaration/Statements page to be included in a Thesis DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not concurrently sj^bmrtted^n candidature for any degree. Signed (candidate) Date .......28 /02/ 2011........ STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of .............. PhD... (in§fiiLMCh, MD, MPhil, PhD etc, as appropriate) Signed (candidate) Date .. .28 /02/ 2011... STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. Signed (candidate) D ate 28 /02/ 2011 STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed (candidate) Date .. .28 702/ 2011 STATEMENT 4: PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BAR ON ACCESS I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loans after expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Graduate DeveloprvreotCommittee. Signed ................(candidate) Date ...28 702/ 2011 .......... 2 SUMMARY OF THESIS This thesis investigates the appearance of two distinctive Galician political communities at the wake and aftermath of the pivotal conjuncture of the transition to democracy in Spain: "the colo n/, first, and later 'the nation'. Taking the movement at its own word, it argues that nationalism was to a great extent sustained by a storied citation and (re)narrativization of the movement and the community from a hybrid 'colonized' and 'national-popular' identity to a purely nationalist 'popular' one. The main body of the thesis unravels the unstable logics, tensions and effects of the discourses of colonialism and sovereignty through an in-depth examination of their key enunciative strategy: their indexical and multilayered web of storytelling practices. The negotiation of Marxism and nationalism in the movement over time is here used as a theme to explore wider issues and mechanisms of national, collective identity construction, coherence and transformation. The thesis is divided into three parts. Chapters 1 and 2 present the theoretical and methodological context of the study, which draws on post-structural theories of discourse and narrative analysis. The second part -chapters 3 to 6- introduces the socio-historical context of the case as well as the key storylines and strategies through which the 'colon/ was performed. These narratives include the foundational myth of loss, the narratives of a modern colonization and the small tales of 'national-popular struggles'. The third part -chapters 7 to 9- examines the key narrative strategies of ventriloquism and metonymic displacement in the tales which de-ambiguated the movement towards nationalism and performed a new discourse of 'sovereignt/, which ultimately allowed the radical movement to survive the transition. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a pleasure to thank the many people who made this thesis possible. First of all, I wish to thank the School of European Studies at Cardiff University for funding this thesis -through a PhD scholarship, fieldwork and conference funding- and for providing a stimulating intellectual environment where I was able to develop the ideas present here. It is difficult to overstate my gratitude to my supervisors, Alistair Cole and Bruce Haddock, who always offered me sound advice, warm encouragement and who allowed me to grow. This thesis could not have been written without the generous support from many people in Galicia. I am indebted to several participants of the nationalist movement for taking valuable time to talk with me. The staffs at the Biblioteca Xeral in Santiago and at the Penzol archive in Vigo were always helpful. Roberto Vilamea at the UPG archive and Xabier M. Virgos at the Fundacion Galiza Sempre kindly provided access to documents and copies of very many of them. I wish to thank the secretaries in the politics department, the Arts and Social Studies and Aberconway librarians in Cardiff University. Among them, Annette Seeley and Pat Redford became almost a surrogate family. I have been fortunate to count on Carlos Naya's friendship. I discussed this thesis with him often and, with his culinary skills and w itty sense of humour, he brightened many hours. I am also greatly indebted to many other friends, among them Teri and Fon Portas, Rita Chesterton-Chuhran, Fiona Stewart, Sara Montero, Manuel Carvalho, Sonia Tourifto, Valeria Guarneros-Meza, Mark Jenkins and Arantxa Lopez. Their warm friendship, all-round intelligence and conversations on the topic of this thesis and many more made this time in Cardiff and beyond very enjoyable. Lastly, and most importantly, I am grateful to my family -m y parents and siblings- for their pride in my work, patience and steadfast support in everything that matters. 4 Introduction g Reading on nation and narration. 12 1.1 Introduction 12 1.2. From 'nation and nationalism' to national identification. 12 1.3. From the discourse of nationalism to national narratives 17 What are narratives? 21 Socio-narratology and (national) identity 23 Citationality and iterability: (re)producing nationhood 25 Counter-narratives of the nation 27 1.4. Literature on Galician nationalism: a critical note. 29 1.5. Conclusion. 32 Methodology: a natural history of the thesis. 33 2.1. Introduction 33 2.2. Research Questions and Methodology. 33 Research topic and questions 34 Discourse and qualitative research: assumptions & underpinnings 36 Research strategy: a case study. 37 2.3 On data: collection methods, process, results and limits. 39 Composing an 'archive' 40 Introduction to the data 44 2.4. Analysis: a discursive approach to narrative. 47 Four analytical steps: highs and lows. 49 2.5. Conclusion. 54 Intertextuality and the nation: resources, antagonism and dislocations 55 3.1. Introduction 55 3.2. Storied context: dislocation, symbolic resources and antagonisms. 56 Early stories of 'old nations' 57 Forever Celts: Galician nationalism's tale 57 Castile, catholic and 'castizo': narrating Spanish identity 60 Stories of Resistance: anti-colonialism and the popular front. 62 Hybridizing Leninism and local knowledges 64 The transition as dislocation 67 Galicia: uneven development and (dis)remembering 74 5 3.3. Conclusion 77 A new Attila in Galicia: the myth of loss 79 4.1. Introduction. 79 4.2. The new Attila: narrative economy and strategy 79 Who narrates? 79 Problematising collective authorship 82 4.3. Myth debunking 85 4.4. A First Episode: Galicia's fall from grace 88 Inventing traditions 89 The myth(s) of loss 90 4.5. Generic implications 96 4.6. Conclusion 98 The new Attila (II): the modem colonization of the nation 101 5.1. Introduction. 101 5.2. Second Episode: The New Colonization. 102 The colonialism story-lines 103 The 'Spanish crusf: constituting antagonism with Spain 108 The UPG and linked sites 109 The PSG and weak antagonisms 115 Narrativization and Identity: negotiating plots 117 Narrating class, popular and national identities 123 Heterogeneity and people hood 127 Homogenising the people: the 'symbiotic worker' 130 5.3. Counter-narratives of Galician nationhood 134 5.4. Paradox & the disputed communist space: a discussion. 135 5.5 Conclusion 139 Space and 'self-organization': heterotopias and the 'national-popular' 141 6.1. Introduction: the localities and local struggles. 142 6.2. Buttressing the nation through place 146 The nation as dystopia 147 Nationalism's other spaces 148 Places of exploitation I: villages 149 Places of exploitation II: neighbourhoods 155 Routes of struggle 157 6 6.3. Space, struggle and the political. 159 6.4. Conclusion 164 Epilogue part II: 'os do non'. 165 Narrating Sovereignty (I): colonialism in the world-system tales 170 7.1. Introduction: heteroglot terrains (I) 170 7.2.'These adverse circumstances': the new democracy 174 The identitary dilemma 179 7.3. Invoking and displacing colonialism: the world- system tales 181 Colonialism as a ground. 182 'War and Peace': metonymic displacement and the world-system tales. 185 Imperialism, sovereignty and political struggles. 186 From hybrid tales to dependency plots 192 'Hotspots of the planet': displacement of (national) heterotopias 194 Linking EEC to NATO: internationalising the dystopia 197 On NATO and EEC as strategies of Imperialism 199 7.4. Conclusion 202 Narrating 'sovereignty' (II): ventriloquism, equivocation and democracy 204 8.1 Introduction. 204 8.2. Heteroglot terrains (II): autonomy and the 'cardboard parliament'. 207 8.3. Re-plotting the nation: Sovereignty and ventriloquisation 214 Narratives of sovereignty: 'Galicia nacidn fronte a Constitucidn' 216 Ventriloquising democracy and rights. 219 The people and the citizens': retelling national subjectivities 226 Collective subjectivity and equivocation: performing the 'democratic self. 228 8.4. Narrative inversion: the IV congress and the struggle from within 233 8.5. Conclusion 234 Narrating 'self-organization': the myth of unity and the BNG 236 9.1. Heteroglot terrains (III): the struggle over unity.