Memoria histórica y efecto fantásticoen la narrativa breve de Jesús Moncada

Abstract

The main aim of this article is to analyse the complexity of the subject of memory in the work of Jesus Moncada, as an author from Aragon writing in Catalan and introducing the Spanish Civil War issue in fantastic fiction, namely in Històries de la mà esquerra [Stories of the Left Hand] (1981). Furthermore, the short story that closes the book, “D’uns vells papers de música” [Old Sheet Music], is discussed to illustrate that matter in the context of the conflict between the real and the fantastic, on the one hand, and between history and memory, on the other hand. Thus, in the mentioned narrative fiction collective memory stands as a specter whose condition is noticed by its anachronistic return under grotesque forms, resulting from the horror facing death or the unreal, and from the irony interwoven by the narra-tor. In doing so Moncada problematizes any attempt to reconstruct historical memory based on literature.

Keywords

• contemporary catalan literature
• fantastic short stories
• jesus moncada
• historical memory
• collective memory