The memories of the Spanish Civil War: Consensus and Divergence

La mayor injusticia es la justicia tardía (Seneca)

Credits: 8 ECTS/4 US
Language of instruction: English

Professor University of Barcelona: Martín Iturralde

Professor CASA-Barcelona: Juanjo Romero

Course Description
Memories of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) have trapped the nation’s politics and society in
an Antigone’s Labyrinth. Segments of Spanish society is still struggling today to gain the right to a
dignified remembrance and burial for those family members who were victims of the war and Franco’s
subsequent dictatorship (1939-1975).
In the aftermath of the dictatorship, which followed the defeat of the Republican government in
1939, a heavy Curtain of Silence shrouded the memory of the civil conflict. Consequently, the trauma of
the war appeared to be overcome. However, at the beginning of the 2000’s the shadow of the war
reappeared, and this time society not only petitioned to know what happened during the war and
dictatorship, but also demanded an honorable remembrance of the victims as well as justice for them.
As a result, in 2007 the government passed the Law of Historical Memory which aimed to address these
political and social issues.
This course aims to understand the enduring debate about the Civil War in Spanish society by
analyzing the conflict, its consequences and, in particular, its narrative from a holistic point of view.
The course starts with an introduction to the historical context of 1930’s Europe, and then
examines Spain and the events of the conflict itself. In order to understand the relevance and
persistence of the Civil War in present-day society, this part of the course will focus in the context and
development of the conflict. The second part of the course will analyze how it was remembered in the
the post-war period. Particular attention will be paid to the Construction of Memory throughout the
periods of the dictatorship and Spain’s transition to democracy through the study of the political
discourse, literature works, arts and audiovisual productions of the time. Finally, the issue of Transitional
Justice from a comparative and international perspective will be discussed, emphasizing the challenges
and contradictions of the memory recovery in the context of Spain.

Activities
Complementing the classroom-based sessions (1,5 hours each), there is a wide variety of on-site
visits that include guided walking tours, visits to air-raid shelters and other specific sites linked to the
war. A study trip to Madrid focuses on Pablo Picasso’s and other avant-garde artists art work,
commemorative monuments to Franco and battlefields sites. In addition, presentations by specialists
guest speakers and film viewings complement the course.

Prerequisites
The course is designed for students from all disciplines, who may not be familiar with the topic.
Students should have level B2 English (CEFR) or equivalent.
Evaluation
20% Attendance, preparation, and Students will be evaluated not only on their attendance, but also on how
participation well they prepare for the class sessions and their degree of active
participation.
Preparation entails reading the assigned readings and film viewings,
preparing the questions in advance of the class session. Student should
bring brief notes and responses to the class discussion. Active participation
does not just mean offering comments frequently. It also means listening
to other students interventions and responding accordingly. Active
participation includes:
• Asking questions in response to stdudents’ observations
• Encouraging fellow students to clarify and expand their ideas
• Providing new perspectives by citing sources not previously
discussed in class
• Making comments linking different classmates contributions
• Expressing what you have gained from the discussion

45% Three short essays (15% each)
(800 – 1200 words each)
Papers will be related to the course discussions and materials. They should
provide alternative points of view rather than simply repeat the topics
covered in class or in the readings. The topics of the papers will be assigned
in class.
Submission dates:
Essay 1: June 16th
Essay 2: June 27th
Essay 3: July 6th

15% Group Oral Presentation In the last course session (July 7th) each group will give a 5-10 minute
(3-4 students per group) presentation on a previously selected topic. For this exercise students will
use scholarly sources (minimum of three).

20% Final take-home exam The final exam will by based on class and course materials and it will be
composed of short, open-ended questions and a longer essay question.
The exam will be distributed on July 3th, and be due by e-mail on July 7th by
5pm.

Policies
• On-line readings will be available via the University of Barcelona virtual campus
• Bring the course readings and notes to each class for discussion
• Check the e-mail regularly for class announcements
• Attendance: each absence will correspond to a deduction of two percent (2%) from the final grade.
• Be punctual: late arrivals disturbe the class dynamic
• Proper citation: Sources should be properly cited, both when quoting directly and when paraphrasing or
summarizing
• All written work should follow MLA style for scholarly writing
• Cell phones are not permitted in class
• Class protocol: students will be addressed by their legal names, however if studens request an alternate
name or gender pronoun, please inform the instructors at the very beginning of the course.

Note: Some readings and films contain graphic content, specially in terms of violence. If reading, watching or
discussing such content might pose a serious problem for any student, it is advisable not to enroll in the
course.
 COURSE SESSIONS

Session 1 [June, 12th] Introduction to the course

Course presentation
• Course aims, description, activities, assessment
• Essays and exams
• Readings (on-line): intranet access
• Course policies
• Students expectations and background enquiry

Session 2 [June, 12th] Europe in the Interwar Period (1918-1936)

The international Context of the • Effects of World War and Russian Revolution
Spanish Civil War I • First Holocaust and Violence of War
• The Collpase of Empires?
• New Political Order

Session 3 [June, 13th] Europe in the Inter-war Period (1918-1936)

The international Context of the • Birth of Mass Society
Spanish Civil War II • Youth, Violence and Action
• New Political Movements
• Cultural Ruptures – Avant-gardes and Pop Culture

Readings: Casanova, Julián: “Civil Wars, Revolutions and

Counterrevolutions in Finland, Spain and Greece (1918-1949): A
Comparative Analisys”, International Journal of Politics, Culture and
Society. 13/3, 2000. 515-537.
DOI: 10.1023/A:1022922309012
or,
Berg-Schlosser, Dirk and Gisele de Meur. “Conditions of
Authoritarianism, Fascism and Democracy in Inter-War Europe: A
Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis.” International Journal of
Comparative Sociology 39/4 (1998): 335–377.
DOI: 10.1177/0010414096029004003
[This article is recommended for those students familiar with
sociological methodologies]

Film Viewing: Riefenstahl, L.: Triumph des Willens (1935)

Excerpts: Time: 00:31:35 – 00:34:05; 01:00:00 – 01:01:00; & 00:14:00
– 00:18:15

Conference [June, 13th] Philosophers and Writers and the Civil War: Antonio Machado,
César Vallejo, María Zambrano y José Bergamín (Prof. Julio Ortega,
Brown University)

Session 4 [June, 14th] The Second Republic (1931-1936)

The Spanish Context I: Politics • The Failure of the Authoritarian Dictatorship (1923-1930)
• The Second Republic (1931-1936)
• Heritage of the Monarchy
• Politics: Old and New movements

Reading: Graham, Helen: The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short


Session 5 [June, 14th]
The Spanish Context II: Society
Session 6 [June, 15th]
The Republic of Arts I
Field Visit [June, 15th]
Essay 1 Submission [June, 16th]
Session 7 [June, 16th]
The Republic of Arts II
Field Study [June, 16th-18th]
Session 8 [June, 19th]
The Outbreak of the Civil War
Introduction. Oxford (Chapter 1)
The Second Republic (1931-1936)
• Social Forces
• The Church and the Army
• Rural Middle Classes and Fascist reaction
• Tensions of Modernization: Cities vs Countryside
• Social Violence: Riots, Rebellions, Mobs and Revolutionary
Attemps
• The Women’s Republic
Reading: Madorran, Carmen. “The Open Window: Women in Spain’s
Second Republic and Civil War.” Perspectives on Global Development
and Technology 15 (2016): 246–253
DOI: 10.1163/15691497-12341386
The Second Republic (1931-1936): The Spring of Culture
• New Cultural Athmosphere (the Residencia de Estudiantes, La
Barraca, The Misones Pedagógicas...)
• The Cultural Republic, Its Educational Policies and Its
Limitations
• The Role of the Artist during the Republic
Reading: Afinoguénova, Eugenia (2011). “Leisure and Agrarian
Reform: Liberal Governance in the Traveling Museums Of Spanish
Misiones Pedagógicas (1931-1933)”, Hispanic Review, 79/2: 261–90.
DOI: 10.1353/hir.2011.0017
The Republic Pavillion of the Paris Internationl Exhibition: Avant-garde
and International Propaganda
The Second Republic (1931-1936): The Spring of Culture
• The Silver Age of Spanish Literature
• Avant-garde in Spain: Breaking the Norms
• The Great Gap: Peasants, Workers, Artists and Republican
Intellectuals
Film Viewing: Buñuel, Luis: Un Chien Andalou (1929)
Madrid
• Reina Sofía Museum – Collections: Picasso’s Gernika and
Avant-gardes in the 1930’s
• Jarama Battlefield and Madrid’s Project for the Recovery of
the Republican Defenses
• Valle de los Caídos - Francoist Pantheon built by war prisoners
The Civil War (1936-1939)
• The Enemies of the Republic withdrawal from Democracy
 • The Preparation of the Rebellion
• 1936: Last Republic Elections and the Popular Front Victory
• The Failure of the Coup d'Etat
• Social and Political Forces (Who is Who during the War)
• Republican State Collapse
• The Internacionalization of the Conflict

Field Study [June, 19th] Orwell’s Barcelona

Session 9 [June 20th] The Civil War (1936-1939)

War and Revolution I • Violence during the War: the meanings of violence
• Revolutionary Violence
• Crusades, Repression and Violence
• A Colonial War?
• The Revolutionary process
• Republican Counter-revolution
• The Revolutionary Order

• Reading: Seidman, Michael (1982): "Work and Revolution:

Workers' Control in Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-
1938", Journal of Contemporary History, 17/3.

Film Viewing: Granada TV: The Spanish Civil War: Revolution, Counter-
Revolution and Terror. (1986)
and,
Sindicato Único de Espectáculos Públicos: The Mass Tribute to
Buenaventura Durruti. ( 1937)

Film Viewing [June, 20th] The Civil War (1936-1939): War into the War

Film Viewing: Loach, Ken: Land and Freedom (1995)

Session 11 [June, 21st] The Civil War (1936-1939)

On-site class* • Arts and War
War and Revolution III • Propaganda?
• Artists and writers during the War
* This class will be held in the “Pabellón de la • The Last Romantic War: The International Brigades
República” where the second best collection of
Civil War popsters in Spain is preserved
Watching: Civil War Popsters
Website visit: Sidbrint Project

Session 12 [June, 22nd] The Civil War (1936-1939)

War and Revolution IV • Defeat and Exile
• The inner Prison

Film Viewing: Granada TV: The Spanish Civil War: Victory and Defeat
(1986)
Conference [June, 22nd] Republican Women during the War (Prof. Mary Nash, University of
Barcelona)
Session 13 [ June, 23rd] Francoist Dictatorship (1939-1975)
Defeat and Repression • Years of Famine (Repression by Starvation)
• Repression and Punitive Work (Prisoners Forced Labor)
• Winners and Losers: the Presence of the War

Session 14 [June, 26th] Historical Memory

Buliding Memories I: Theory • Memory, Literature, History and Society
• Public Art, Propaganda and Memory

Readings: Nora, Pierre (1989): "Between Memory and History: 'Les

Lieux de Mémoire'”, Representations, 26. 7-24.
DOI: 10.2307/2928520
O’Donoghue, Stephen. 2016. “The ‘Truth’ of the Past: Fiction as an
Alternative to History in Contemporary Spanish Narratives of the Civil
War and the Holocaust.” Hispanic Research Journal 17 (4): 322–38.
DOI:10.1080/14682737.2016.1200856.

Session 15 [June, 26th] Historical Memory

Buliding Memories I: Theory • Paintings and Photos of the War
• Subjectivity and Memory

Reading: Nilsson, Maria (2013): "On Photography, History and

Memory in Spain", Hispanic Issues, 3. 1-9.

Essay 2 Submission [June, 27th]

Session 16 [June, 27th] Historical Memory
Building Memories II: Francoist • Winners and Losers in Francoist Dictatorship
Dictatorship • Arts, Religion and Propaganda
• Polictics and Memory

Film Viewing: NODO, April 1943 (section “Desfile de la Victoria”), and

December 1946 (section “En el Escorial”)

Film Viewing [June, 27th] Historical Memory

Bulding and Losing Memories

Picture analysis: Mauthausen Liberation Day

Film Viewing: Francisco Boix: Un Fotógrafo En El Infierno (2000)

Session 17 [June, 28th] Historical Memory

Building Memories II: Francoist • Memory as a Tool of Repression
Dictatorship • Shifting Memory: 25 years of Peace

Recommended: Kinder, Marsha: “Sacrifice and Massacre. On the

Cultural Specificity of Violence”, in Blood Cinema. The Reconstruction
of National Identity in Spain. UCP. Berkeley, 1993. 136-196
Session 18 [June, 28th] Historical Memory
Building Memories III: • Tensions and Forces during the Transition to Democracy
Transition • The Pact of Silence, did it really exist?
 • The Overwhelming Shadow of the War

Readings: Peris, Jaume (2011): "There was a Time, not so long ago...
Accounts and Aesthetics of Memory and Ideology of Reconciliation in
Spain", 452º Revista de Teoría de la Literatura y Literatura
Comparada, 4. 35-55.
or,
Hansen, Hans (2011). “Multiperspectivism in the Novels of the
Spanish Civil War.” Orbis Litterarum 66/2- 148–166. Web.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0730.2011.01017.x
or,
Kinder, Marsha (2003): “Uncanny Visions of History: Two Experimental
Documentaries from Transnational Spain— Asaltar Los Cielos and Tren
de Sombras.” Film Quarterly, 56/3. 12–24.
DOI:10.1525/fq.2003.56.3.12.

Session 19 [June, 29th] Historical Memory: Breaking the Hegemony

Building Memories IV: • The Exile: Memories an Myths
Divergences • Women’s Memories

Reading: Osborne, Raquel (2011): "Good Girls versus Bad Girls in Early
Francoist Prisons: Sexuality as a Great Divide", Sexualities, 14/5. 509-
525.
DOI: 0.1177/1363460711415215

Field Study [June, 29th] Air Raid Shelters in Barcelona

Session 20 [June, 30th] Historical Memory: Popular Culture

Building Memories V:
Divergences • Opposition: Culture as Battlefield
• Pop Culture and Memory of the War (Comic)

Class analysis: Comics about the War (Exile, opposition and women)
Giménez, Carlos (2010): Todo 36-39. Malos Tiempos; Roca, Paco
(2013) Los Surcos de Azar; Uceda, Rubén (2015) El Corazón Del Sueño.
Verano y Otoño de 1936.

Reading: Mangini, Shirley (1991): "Memories of Resistence: Women

Activists from the Spanish Civil War", Signs, 17/1. 171-186
DOI: 10.1086/494719

Conference [June, 30th] Memory and Identity in Carme Riera's Narrative; Two Key
Moments in Female Self Identification (Prof. M. L. Guardiola,
Swarthmore College)
Field Study [July, 1st] Historical Memory: Commemorations
Visit to the sites of Ebro Battle
• The Material Recovery of the War
• Patterns of Remembrance

Session 21 [July, 3rd] Historical Memory: Popular Culture

Building Memories VI:
Divergences
Session 22 [July, 4th]
Memory and Justice I
Conference [July, 4th]
Session 23 [July, 5th]
Memory and Justice II
Essay 3 Submission [July, 6th]
Session 24 [July, 6th]
Digging up the Past
Conference [July, 6th]
Session 25 [July, 7th]
Students Presentations
[July, 7th]
• Spanish Literature about the War (from the 70s to the
2000s)
• The Civil War in the Spanish Movies
Film Viewing: Vicente Aranda (1996) Libertarias
Justice and Memory
• Human Rights and Memory
• Transitional Justice: Origins and Limits
• Justice and History
Reading: Cohen, Stanley (1995): "State Crimes of Previous Regimes:
Knowledge, Accountability, and the Policing of the Past", Law & Social
Enquiry, 1/20. 7-50
Memory of the Exile (Prof. M. Tenorio, University of Chicago)
Justice and Memory, Pending Justice?
• The Spanish Law of Historical Memory: Context and
Comparisons
• Applying Transitional Justice in Spain
• The Stolen Children of Francoism
• The Desaparecidos and Its Legal Implications
Reading: Aguilar, Paloma (et Alii) (2011): "Attitudes toward
Transitional Justice: An Empirical Analysis of the Spanish Case",
Comparative Political Studies, 10/44. 1287-1430.
DOI: 10.1177/0010414011407468
Justice and Memory: Civil War Mass Graves
• Law, Memory and Mass Graves
• International Laws and Spanish Courts
• Where is the Civil War Museum? Historical Justice
Reading: Burbidge, Peter (2011): "Walking the Deatd of Spanish Civil
War. Judge Baltasar Garzón and the Spanish Law of Histtorical
Memory", Journal of International Criminal Justice, 9. 753-781
DOI: 10.1093/jicj/mqr027
or,
Ferrándiz, Francisco 2013. “Exhuming the Defeated: Civil War Mass
Graves in 21st-Century Spain.” American Ethnologist 40 (1): 38–54.
DOI:10.1111/amet.12004.
Civil War Mass Graves Exhumantion Experiences (Dominika Nociarová,
Antropòlegs.LAB)
Final Exam Submission

Bibliography (Short selection of books)

AGUILAR, P. (2002): Memory and Amnesia: the Role of the Spanish Civil War in the Transition to
Democracy. Berghahn
BALCELLS, L. (2007): Rivalry and Revenge: Kinlling Civilians in the Spanish Civil War. Madrid
BESAS, P. (1985): Behind the Spanish Lens. Spanish Cinema under Fascism and Democracy. Denver
BASILIO, M. (2013): Visual Propaganda, Exhibitions, and the Spanish Civil War. Burlington
BUNK, B. (2007): Ghost of Passion: Martyrdom, Gender, and the Origins of the Spanish Civil War. Durham
EALHAM, Ch.; RICHARDS, M. (2005): The Splintering of Spain: Cultural History and the Spanish Civil War,
1936-1939. Cambridge
FRASER, R. (1994): Blood of Spain: an Oral History of the Spanish Civil War. London
GREELEY, R. (2006): Surrealism and the Spanish Civil War. New Haven
GOODKIN, M.; HAYES, M.; MITCHELL, A. (2015): The Spanish Civil War and its Memory. Barcelona
HART, S.M. [Ed.] (1988): ¡No pasarán!: Art, Literature and teh Spanish Civil War. London
HIGGINBOTHAM, V. (1988): Spanish Film under Franco. Austin
LLOYD, N. (2015): Forgotten Places: Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War. Barcelona
MANGINI, S. (1995): Memories of Resistance: Women’s Voices from the Spanish Civil War. New Haven
MARTIN, S. (2014): Conscience and Conflict: British Artists and teh Spanish Civil War. Chichester
NASH, M. (1995): Defying Male Civilization: Women in the Spanish Civil War. Denver
PRESTON, P. (2006): The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge. London
SEIDMAN, M. (2002): Republic of Egos: a Social History of the Spanish Civil War. Madison
VERNON, K. [Ed.] (1990): The Spanish Civil War and the Visual Arts. Ithaca
YOUNG, C. [Ed.] (2010): The Mexican Suitcase: the Rediscovered Spanish Civil War Negatives of Capa,
Chim and Taro. New York