Event Title

Panel I: “Identitarian Violence and Memory in Post-Transition Spain”

Presenter Information

Txetxu Aguado, Dartmouth College

Abstract

In a country where war, exile, extermination, and political and cultural repression have been so pervasive over the last century, one way of grounding a new Spanish identity — less haunted by violence emanating from the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship that followed it — would be to acknowledge and dismiss a historical legacy that appealed to a core mythologized and dehistoricized Spanish past. Identity will not be based anymore on the violences imposed upon almost everyone by birth, territory or language. Nevertheless, the good intentions underlying rejection and distance from that legacy are not enough. If a new civil identity is to emerge, all those living in Spain must place at the center of their identities the unforgettable memories of racism, xenophobia, and exclusion for ethnic or political reasons. These memories, this willingness to make the rejection of the cruelties of the past a point of departure for today's identity, will imply the construction of Spanishness from anew. In my contribution, I attempt to analyze two types of violence that work to impede the enunciation of a more inclusive identity in Spain: I am referring to ETA terrorism and the Madrid Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in March 2004. The first type of violence defines itself in relation to nation-states: a Spanish nation supposedly undermining another nation through a cultural and political striving for homogeneity. The second one justifies its fights in a theoretical framework that confronts civilizations (West against East) and religions (Christianity versus Islam). Both phenomena work "unwillingly" together and give way to responses that emphasize one more time Spanish uniformity and "Spanish" Catholic values. The alternative framework to these threats I intend to develop will plead for a democratic society grounded on notions of dependency and vulnerability (Judith Butler, Victoria Camps), where the demos will elaborate political answers (Sheila Benhabib, Fernando Savater) to overpass the etnos in a community sensitive to differences without getting blinded by them.

Presenter Bio(s)

Txetxu Aguado is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Dartmouth College. In recent publications and his book, La tarea política: narrativa y ética en la España postmoderna (Mataró, Spain: El viejo topo, 2004), he addresses the novels of such noted contemporary Spanish authors as Jorge Semprún and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán through the lens of political ethics and identity. His current research investigates notions of national, historical, and political memory in contemporary Spanish culture.

Location

Mount Holyoke College, Mary Woolley Hall, New York Room

Start Date

14-10-2011 10:30 AM

End Date

14-10-2011 11:15 AM

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS
 
Oct 14th, 10:30 AM Oct 14th, 11:15 AM

Panel I: “Identitarian Violence and Memory in Post-Transition Spain”

Mount Holyoke College, Mary Woolley Hall, New York Room

In a country where war, exile, extermination, and political and cultural repression have been so pervasive over the last century, one way of grounding a new Spanish identity — less haunted by violence emanating from the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship that followed it — would be to acknowledge and dismiss a historical legacy that appealed to a core mythologized and dehistoricized Spanish past. Identity will not be based anymore on the violences imposed upon almost everyone by birth, territory or language. Nevertheless, the good intentions underlying rejection and distance from that legacy are not enough. If a new civil identity is to emerge, all those living in Spain must place at the center of their identities the unforgettable memories of racism, xenophobia, and exclusion for ethnic or political reasons. These memories, this willingness to make the rejection of the cruelties of the past a point of departure for today's identity, will imply the construction of Spanishness from anew. In my contribution, I attempt to analyze two types of violence that work to impede the enunciation of a more inclusive identity in Spain: I am referring to ETA terrorism and the Madrid Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in March 2004. The first type of violence defines itself in relation to nation-states: a Spanish nation supposedly undermining another nation through a cultural and political striving for homogeneity. The second one justifies its fights in a theoretical framework that confronts civilizations (West against East) and religions (Christianity versus Islam). Both phenomena work "unwillingly" together and give way to responses that emphasize one more time Spanish uniformity and "Spanish" Catholic values. The alternative framework to these threats I intend to develop will plead for a democratic society grounded on notions of dependency and vulnerability (Judith Butler, Victoria Camps), where the demos will elaborate political answers (Sheila Benhabib, Fernando Savater) to overpass the etnos in a community sensitive to differences without getting blinded by them.