Contemporary Perspectives on the Civil War and the 'Recovery of Historical Memory' in Spain

Catalog description

This course introduces students to anthropological approaches to the study of historical memory through one important and controversial topic in contemporary Spain: the effects and after-effects of the unburial of mass graves of civilians executed during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) as well as during the postwar years. Most of the exhumations occurring during the last 15 years are of mass graves containing Republican militants and sympathizers executed in what has been labeled by historians as politicide, genocide or even Holocaust. To understand contemporary engagements with this violent past, we will explore the main landmarks of the current exhumation campaign. This includes attention to the origins of these graves, their genealogy since the end of the Civil War, and especially the impact of the exhumed bodies on various milieus from the judicial system and forensic labs to popular culture and the arts.