Identifier

etd-04152013-121105

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Foreign Languages and Literatures

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

This thesis analyzes postmemory, feminism, and women's writing seen in three contemporary novels written by women about women who lived and defied traditional gender roles during the Spanish Civil War and the Francisco Franco dictatorship. I discuss how these female characters and real-life women were marginalized for defying women's roles, while facing extreme injustices. They refused to adhere to the norms that the patriarchal discourse imposed on them during the era and never gave up in the fight to express their voice. I discuss the novels, La voz dormida by Dulce Chacón, Donde nadie te encuentre by Alicia Giménez Bartlett, and Su cuerpo era su gozo by Beatriz Gimeno. Each novel is written in the 21st century by female writers who did not experience the same tragedies as the characters in the novels. However, the writers give a voice to these women through the use of postmemory. The novelists rediscover the women's experiences through their writing and give them the voice that the women were denied throughout their lives. The women I discuss are all marginalized because they are women and do not conform to the established gender roles that their society has imposed. The women in La voz dormida were marginalized because they dared to fight as soldiers alongside men against Franco's forces. La Pastora in Donde nadie te encuentre was marginalized because she was born an intersexual who is also a member of the Maquis, a group also opposing Franco's forces. Finally, I speak about two lesbians who are marginalized and punished due to their sexuality and independent lifestyle. I use feminist, lesbian, and queer theory by citing philosophers such as Hélène Cixous, Adrienne Rich, Judith Butler, Monique Wittig, and Raquel Platero Méndez among others. I also include theory from Michel Foucault and scholars who write about postmemory such as Sarah Leggott and Marianne Hirsch. Through these concepts of postmemory, feminism, and women's writing, these novels finally give voice to several women who defied the roles imposed on them during the Spanish Civil War and Franco's dictatorship.

Date

2013

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Castro, Elena

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.2815

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