Plural Memory? The Appropriation of Recent History in the Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Basque Contemporary Novel

• Applicant: Dr. Inga Baumann
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2013 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 242863608

The literary research project Plural Memory? The Appropriation of Recent History in the Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Basque Contemporary Novel attempts to combine two current issues disputed controversially in the Spanish society: the unconcluded coming to terms with the Civil War and Francoism, and the growing peripheral nationalisms. I will analyse the collective memory boom discernible in Spain's literature since de mid-1990s in a comparative perspective, considering the cultural plurality of the Spanish society, i.e. the centripetal forces of the uniting Spanish nation on the one hand, and the centrifugal forces of the peripheral nationalisms on the other. Special attention shall be given to the question to what extent the texts use the reviewing of the Civil War and Francoism for (centralist or particularistic) nation-building.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Spain
• Host: Professor Dr. Antoni Rossell Mayo