Entangled memories. The discourse over the disappeared in the Spanish civil war (graduation project)
Institute for Latin American Studies
In the center of my PhD project are questions on the effects of newer global developments on the formation of collective memories. Using the example of current debates over Spanish civil war, I examine the trans-nationalization of memory and its reconstruction. I will examine to what extent the recent, and much delayed, public examination of that civil war is connected with recent international developments, and in particular, with the reconstruction of Latin American experience. Due to its role as a region of exile, Latin America is understood to be a place where direct memories of that war, and the reconstruction of dictatorships, have accumulated and today made available to others. The project will clarify the numerous interwoven issues and interlacement of local and global knowledge on such topics as the "desaparecidos", what examples illustrate and are understood to contribute to transnational historiography, where to find and highlight trans-national integration and references, and otherwise place Spanish and Latin American history in a global context.