Volume 7 (2009)

The Holocaust in Spanish Memory

This volume is the first systematic attempt to study perceptions of the Holocaust in Spain on several levels of analysis that, quite often, have not been clearly differentiated. After the translation and cultural canonization in Spain of some of the seminal contributions to the memory of the Holocaust, many young Spanish writers started dealing with the Holocaust. In many cases these works blur and in some cases even ignore the historical realities. Several essays in this volume address this generation of novelists, as it is one aim of this volume to distinguish between the relative artistic and historical merits of the popular works themselves and the reception of those works in Spain in general – which is where their real significance lies. The critical perspective taken in some of the following essays is a consequence of a distrust of the reasons for which the Holocaust has recently become a popular topic and subject of artistic expression in Spain.