Traces of contamination

"This collection of essays documents the presence of Falangist and/or Francoist ideology in the intellectual and discursive practices of contemporary Spain. The volume explores a variety of texts at the end and beginning of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: memoirs, historical novels, testimonial literature, Internet political proselytism, journalistic essays, and fiction discourse. Our contributors examine the artificiality of the break with the past, in order to understand the experience of the Francoist regime, its prior alliance with fascist ideology and Falangism, and their connections to the present. Moving beyond the traditional approach to the topic of fascism in Spain or the literary and cultural study of post-Franco Spain, either as a historical phenomenon of the past, a compilation of sample work that reflects this ideology, or a dialectics between victors and losers, the essays for this book consider carefully the connections that continue to exist between this political and cultural experience and contemporary Spanish society while raising some questions about the challenges the latter could face when confronted with such historical legacies." "Exposing two general perspectives, both manifestations of an authoritarian past that still holds a relationship with the present, this collection reveals the ideological legacy of the past and its experience as a distressing conditioner of the present. The dissonant elements of post-Franco discourse critically analyzed by our contributors challenge the seamless narrative that tells the successful story of the Spanish transition to democracy."--Jacket.