Public Humanities and the Spanish Civil War: Connected and Contested Histories (Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict)

This interdisciplinary collection of essays examines contemporary public history’s engagement with the Spanish Civil War. The chapters discuss the history and mission of the main institutional archives of the war, contemporary and forensic archaeology of the conflict, burial sites, the affordances of digital culture in the sphere of war memory, the teaching of the conflict in Spanish school curricula, and the place of war memory within human rights initiatives. Adopting a strongly comparative focus, the authors argue for greater public visibility and more nuanced discussion of the Civil War’s legacy, positing a virtual museum as one means to foster dialogue. Acknowledgments 6 Contents 7 Notes on Contributors 9 List of Figures 15 Chapter 1 Public Humanities and the Spanish Civil War 17 Reaching Out 17 Engaging Constructively 21 Changing Narratives and Technological Interventions 25 Toward the Future? 31 Bibliography 33 Chapter 2 Sites Without Memory and Memory Without Sites: On the Failure of the Public History of the Spanish Civil War 35 After Memory 35 Sites Without Memory and Memory Without Sites 39 The History Which is Read, Taught, and Seen—or Not 45 Pedagogy of Memory—or Not 49 Forgetting and Islands of Public History—a Balance Sheet 54 Bibliography 57 Chapter 3 The Spanish Civil War Archive and the Construction of Memory 60 State Delegation for the Recovery of Records (Delegación Del Estado Para La Recuperación de Documentos, or DERD) 62 The Salamanca Archive, Again at War... A Cultural War 69 The Salamanca Archive During the Transition to Democracy 75 Bibliography 80 Chapter 4 The Historical Memory Records Center: A Museum for Memory and the Recent History of Spain 83 The Institution 85 Infrastructure and Exhibition Areas 87 Cultural Heritage: Record Holdings and Collections 88 Exhibitions and Cultural Activities 94 The Exhibition Project: Memory and the Recent History of Spain (1931–1981) 99 Bibliography 105 Chapter 5 Museums and Material Memories of the Spanish Civil War: An Archaeological Critique 106 Introduction: Archaeology and Memory 106 Telling History Through Things 108 From Ruins to Monuments 109 From Monuments to Museums 113 An Archaeological Perspective 123 Bibliography 125 Chapter 6 The Necropolitics of Spain’s Civil War Dead 128 The Grievable Dead 131 The Ungrievable Dead 136 The Other(Ed) Dead? 143 Bibliography 147 Chapter 7 Thinking Outside the Grave: The Material Traces of Republican Lives Before the Spanish Civil War 151 Introduction 151 Memories Afforded by the Exhumation of Mass Graves 152 Memories Afforded by the Archaeology of Battle and Incarceration 157 Towards an Archaeology of Spanish Republicanism 160 The Memorial Capacity of an Archaeology of Spanish Republicanism 169 Conclusion 171 Bibliography 172 Chapter 8 Visualizing Mass Grave Recovery: Ritual, Digital Culture and Geographic Information Systems 175 Bibliography 198 Chapter 9 Digitally Mediated Memory and the Spanish Civil War 201 Introduction 201 Digitally Mediated Memory 204 Digital Architectures for the Spanish Civil War: Digital as Archive 208 Research Infrastructure 212 Digital Realms of Memory 215 Digital Challenges 222 Conclusions 225 Bibliography 225 Chapter 10 The Spanish Civil War in the Classroom: From Absence to Didactic Potential 228 Introduction: Why Should the Spanish Civil War Be Present in the Classroom? 228 Learning History for....? 231 Learning to Be 231 Learning to Know 232 Learning to Do 233 Learning to Live Together 235 The Spanish Civil War in the Classroom: A Great Void 236 Transferring the Spanish Civil War to the Classroom: Developing Its Teaching Potential 242 Key Topics with Teaching Potential 243 Final Reflections 247 Bibliography 248 Chapter 11 Veiling and Exhuming the Past: Conflict and Post-conflict Challenges 250 Introduction 250 Pharmakon with Respect to the Past 251 Managing the Past in Rwanda, Colombia, and Spain 255 Some Contributions on Transitional Justice Initiatives in Rwanda, Colombia, and Spain 259 Final Agreement to End the Conflict and Build a Stable and Lasting Peace: The Case of Colombia 270 Final Reflections 275 Bibliography 275 Final Reflections: The Way Forward 278 Bibliograpy 280 Index 281 Front Matter ....Pages i-xvi Public Humanities and the Spanish Civil War (Alison Ribeiro de Menezes)....Pages 1-18 Sites Without Memory and Memory Without Sites: On the Failure of the Public History of the Spanish Civil War (Antonio Cazorla-Sánchez, Adrian Shubert)....Pages 19-43 The Spanish Civil War Archive and the Construction of Memory (Jesús Espinosa Romero)....Pages 45-67 The Historical Memory Records Center: A Museum for Memory and the Recent History of Spain (Manuel Melgar Camarzana)....Pages 69-91 Museums and Material Memories of the Spanish Civil War: An Archaeological Critique (Alfredo González-Ruibal)....Pages 93-114 The Necropolitics of Spain’s Civil War Dead (Alison Ribeiro de Menezes)....Pages 115-137 Thinking Outside the Grave: The Material Traces of Republican Lives Before the Spanish Civil War (Layla Renshaw)....Pages 139-162 Visualizing Mass Grave Recovery: Ritual, Digital Culture and Geographic Information Systems (Wendy Perla Kurtz)....Pages 163-188 Digitally Mediated Memory and the Spanish Civil War (Paul Spence)....Pages 189-215 The Spanish Civil War in the Classroom: From Absence to Didactic Potential (Maria Feliu-Torruella)....Pages 217-238 Veiling and Exhuming the Past: Conflict and Post-conflict Challenges (Jordi Palou-Loverdos)....Pages 239-266 Back Matter ....Pages 267-286 This interdisciplinary collection of essays examines contemporary public history's engagement with the Spanish Civil War. The chapters discuss the history and mission of the main institutional archives of the war, contemporary and forensic archeology of the war, burial sites, the affordances of digital culture in the sphere of war memory, the teaching of the war in Spanish school curricula, and the place of war memory within human rights initiatives. Adopting a strongly comparative focus, the authors argue for greater public visibility and more nuanced discussion of the Civil War's legacy, positing a virtual museum as one means to foster dialogue