During the Spanish civil war and ensuing epoch of
repression, female voices were suppressed and as a result,
stripped of agency. Francoist historiographers legitimized
this discrimination by excluding female perspectives of the
past. Grounded in the sociology of memory and the theory
of trauma, this dissertation investigates various plays,
films and novels that attempt to revise Spain's official
history by engaging the past through the memory of others.
In chapter one, this dissertation examines earlier attempts
to fracture patriarchal thought in the play Las arrecogías
del beaterio de Santa María Egipcíaca (1970) by José Martín
Recuerda and the film Cría cuervos (1975) written and
directed by Carlos Saura. Chapters two through four
investigate more contemporary works. These are the novel
La voz dormida (2002) by Dulce Chacón, the documentary
Muerte en El Valle (2005) by C.M. Hardt, Josefina Aldecoa's
trilogy Historia de una maestra (1990), Mujeres de negro
(1994), and La fuerza del destino (1997), Lidia Falcón's
1994 play Las mujeres caminaron con el fuego del siglo and
finally Guillermo Del Toro's 2006 film El laberinto del
fauno. I argue that these works exemplify intent to
splinter Spanish cultural hegemony and accord historical
voice to women by undermining the oppressive social,
political and cultural ideologies that bind female agency.
Consequently, these works produce a new space for women to
occupy while at the same time create revolutionary female
models.