ABSTRACT Title of Document: ESPACIOS DE MUJERES ESPAÑOLAS: MEMORIAS, REPRESIÓN, FRAGMENTOS Y ESPECTÁCULOS, 1939 - . Loredana Margaret Di Stravolo, Doctor of Philosophy, 2014 Directed By: Dr. José María Naharro-Calderón, Department of Spanish and Portuguese During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) Spain suffered a huge repression, as General Francisco Franco overtook an established Republican Government and stayed in power for nearly forty years. People lived in fear; a fear so severe that they were forced to repress their memories of wartime events. After the death of Franco in 1975, Spain established a democratic-monarchic government. Again, forgetting the past was the path taken by all political parties to avoid any confrontations, as memory slipped into oblivion. In my investigation, I will contribute to the excavation of the past and help break the silence by focusing on Spanish women's spaces during the social context of the Spanish Civil War, Spain’s postwar, Transition to Democracy and PostTransition. I will study theories of memory based on the research of Paul Ricoeur, Tzvetan Todorov, Pierre Nora, and Maurice Halbwachs, as a source to explore Spanish women's spaces and identities as well as their contributions, not only to society and culture but also to the literary world. The authors at the core of my study include: Carmen Laforet, Ana María Matute, Carmen Martín Gaite, María Luisa Elío, Mercé Rodoreda, Carmen Praga, Tomasa Cuevas, Dolores Medio, Dulce Chacón, Ricardo Vinyes and Javier Cercas. My research spans several genres, with novels and testimonies by and about women that use memory - individual and collective - as a vehicle to reconstruct their feminine identities and spaces. Although Spanish women were trapped in a patriarchal society during the postwar years, they were able to skillfully manipulate the imposed censorship to express themselves and their needs. The texts that I include in my investigations can be broken into three main phases: repressed memory, fragmented memory and spectacular memory. This dissertation shows how memory can serve as an agent for liberation especially for women of an oppressed and forced silence of the past. ESPACIOS DE MUJERES ESPAÑOLAS: MEMORIAS, REPRESIÓN, FRAGMENTOS Y ESPECTÁCULOS, 1939 - By Loredana Margaret Di Stravolo Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014 Advisory Committee: Associate Professor José María Naharro-Calderón, Chair Professor A. Lynn Bolles Professor Sandra M. Cypess Associate Professor Hernán S.M. De Pinillos Assistant Professor Mehl A. Penrose © Copyright by Loredana Margaret Di Stravolo 2014 Dedication This dissertation is lovingly dedicated to my parents, Pietro and Elisabetta Di Stravolo, my sisters, Maria and Rossella, and my husband, James D. Weir Jr. Their support, encouragement and constant love have sustained me throughout my life. Finally, but not least, I also dedicate this dissertation to all the women who have lived and survived the brutality of war, especially my grandmother, Alfonsina Zampella, who was a model of strength and had the courage to tell her war stories. ii Acknowledgements I would never have been able to finish my dissertation without the guidance of my advisor, nor without the support and encouragement from my family, my husband and my many friends. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my professor, mentor and advisor, Dr. José María Naharro-Calderón, for his continuous support of my Ph.D. study and research, his patience, and his immense knowledge in Spanish history, literature, and memory. His guidance helped me in the research and writing of this thesis. Besides my advisor, I would like to thank the rest of my thesis committee, Dr. Hernán S.M. de Pinillos, Dr. Sandra Cypess, Dr. Mehl Penrose and Dr. Lynn Bolles, for their encouragement and insightful comments. I would like to thank Dr. Eyda Mérediz, Director of Graduate Studies, for her friendship and her encouragement, and without her persistence, this dissertation would not have been possible. I also express my gratitude to the many wonderful professors that I had at the University of Maryland, in particular, Dr. Carmen Benito Vessels and Dr. Ana Patricia Rodríguez. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my friend Dr. Elisabeth Llavería-Powell for her encouragement, thoughtful feedback and, mostly, her willingness to devote endless hours of proofreading and care that kept me going. I am also grateful for our many “tertulias” of tea, coffee, good food and stimulating conversations that we shared and hope for many more in the future. I have been blessed to have met so many wonderful people that have enriched my life with their friendship and their kindness. I thank many friends for their continuous support and encouragement: Sandra and Robert Forrest, Paul and Peggy Ferraro, Renee Weintraub, Christine Calorie Sickles, Joe Santos, Fabian Faccio, Leticia Pablos, Gabriela Álvarez, Teresa Cabal and Matthias Krastel, Manel Lacorte, Ofelia Delgado, Cecilia Vázquez, Sharon Dolitsky, Jennifer Eckert, Zennia Hancock Paganini and many others that I may have forgotten to mention. I would like to thank my loving family, my in-laws, my sisters, Maria and Rossella, and especially my parents Pietro and Elisabetta Di Stravolo for supporting me emotionally and spiritually throughout my life and for always believing in me. Finally but not least, I would like to thank my husband, James D. Weir Jr., who stood by me through the good times and the bad times. I appreciate the wonderful life and adventures that we share and all the awesome casseroles he made to get us through many late nights. Words cannot express my appreciation. iii Table of Contents Dedication ..................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... iv Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Trasfondo a las memorias y las mujeres españolas. De la II República al Siglo XXI. ............................................................................................................................ 12 Chapter 2: La recuperación de las memorias reprimidas ............................................ 57 Chapter 3: Las memorias fragmentadas .................................................................... 136 Chapter 4: Las memorias espectaculares .................................................................. 186 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 244 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 251 This Table of Contents is automatically generated by MS Word, linked to the Heading formats used within the Chapter text. iv Introducción ... hay algunos que se cansan en saber y averiguar cosas, que después de sabidas y averiguadas, no importan un ardite al entendimiento ni a la memoria (Quijote II, XXII, 436). En España, con el siglo XXI, el tema de la recuperación de las memorias de la preguerra de la guerra y de la posguerra ha recibido una excelente acogida en el mundo de la edición. Por estas memorias me refiero a los relatos individuales o colectivos, orales o escritos, procedentes de las experiencas personales de protagonistas o testigos. Este tema no sólo ha inundado el mundo literario sino también la esfera mediática volviéndose objeto de un intenso debate socio-político y cultural. Asimismo, en estas últimas décadas se presenció cambios en las políticas hacia la recuperación de las memorias, con La Ley 52/2007, de 26 de diciembre, por la que se reconocen y amplían derechos y se establecen medidas a favor de quienes padecieron persecución o violencia durante la guerra civil y la dictadura o también conocida vulgarmente como la Ley de Memoria Histórica (BOE 53410) cuyo objeto principal es: …reconocer y ampliar derechos a favor de quienes padecieron persecución o violencia, por razones políticas, ideológicas, o de creencia religiosa, durante la Guerra Civil y la Dictadura, promover su reparación moral y la recuperación de su memoria personal y familiar, y adoptar medidas complementarias destinadas a suprimir elementos de división entre los ciudadanos, todo ello con el fin de fomentar la cohesión y 1 solidaridad entre las diversas generaciones de españoles en torno a los principios, valores y libertades constitucionales (BOE 53411). Sin embargo, tras años de protestas y peticiones este fenómeno socio político cultural muestra por su fuerza y mediatización, la necesidad de recuperación de las memorias aniquiladas de la Guerra Civil (1936-1939) y de la dictadura franquista (1939-1975), sin olvidar que todo ello evidencia también las prácticas represivas que siguen atormentando el presente. En este trabajo se trata de analizar la recuperación de las memorias dentro del marco socio-político español, y establecer que a pesar de los intentos oficiales por controlar las memorias sociales a través de diversos métodos represivos, las memorias individuales sobrevivieron. Esta reconstrucción