What is it about?
Over the past year (mid-2017 to mid-2018) multiple forms of life-writing texts have emerged in the Spanish literary market. Following the trend of the past few years, there continue to exist biographies of historical figures and history books that aim to recreate the past. In my article, I focus on how past and present auto/biographical works in Spain seem to focus on the subject of violence and/or conflict of diverse sorts.
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Why is it important?
It is unique to this article the presentation of some key auto/biographical works that may be evidence of a potential testimonial turn in the making, with cases of the Spanish Civil War re-examined, assessing the social and historical recent past in times of turmoil. It offers insight into the current so-called Catalan question, with a memoir boom coming from politicians, and even hints at other types of testimony, such as journalists mediating trauma in conflict zones.
Perspectives
It is important to note the emergence of a new kind of auto/biographical discourse in Spain. Though the already existing tradition of writing histories and biographies continues to exist, there emerge new kinds of narrating conflict, namely testimonial accounts where the "I" speaks out against transgressions and represents a collective of others, helping to mediate traumas and unresolved issues in the recent past and in contemporary times.
Dr Ana Belén Martínez García
Universidad de Navarra
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Auto/Biography and Conflict: The Year in Spain, Biography, January 2019, Project Muse,
DOI: 10.1353/bio.2019.0022.
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