Estrategias literarias para la recuperación de la memoria histórica. La narrativa actual frente a la guerra civil

Abstract

The article examines the Spanish Civil War fiction of the last ten years - its commitment to save/recover the memory and its purpose to renew the narrative patterns of telling history. The analyzed texts discuss the ambiguous nature of the truth and the possibilities of an aesthetic appropriation of the past. Grounded in a subjective, present perspective, the "postmemory" writers in Spain resort to a range of innovative narrative techniques, like the Javier Cercas's "true tale", the intertextual, polyphonic strategies of Isaac Rosa, the general involvement of the authors (and the narrators) with the plot exposing its fictional illusion, the frequent use of the metafictional device, the play with conventions, etc. The article refers to the novels of Javier Cercas, Dulce Chacón, Javier Marías, Ignacio Martínez de Pisón, Alberto Méndez, Juan Manuel de Prada, Manuel Rivas, Isaac Rosa, Jordi Soler and others.

Keywords

• Spanish contemporary fiction
• Spanish Civil War
• historial memory
• postmemory literature