Publisher Description

This book examines how the political period in Spain following Franco's death, known as the Transición, is being remembered by a group of writers, filmmakers and TV producers born in the sixties and early seventies. Reading against the dominant historical account that celebrates Spain's successful democratisation, this study reveals how recent television, film and fiction recreate this past from a generational perspective, linking the experience of the Transición to the country's present political and financial crises. Privileging above all an emotional connection, these artists use personal feelings about the past to analyse and revisit the history of their coming-of-age years. Lost in Transition considers the implications of adopting such a subjective positioning towards history that encourages an unending narrative, always in search of more meaningful and intimate connections with the past. Taking into account recent theoretical approaches to memory studies, this book proposes a new look at the production of memory in contemporary Spain and its close relationship to popular culture, shifting the focus from what is remembered to how the past is recalled affectively to be made part of an ongoing and enduring everyday experience.

Author Biography

H. Rosi Song is Associate Professor of Spanish at Bryn Mawr College and the co-editor of Traces of Contamination: Unearthing the Francoist Legacy in Contemporary Spanish Discourse (Bucknell UP, 2004).

Table of Contents

[Acknowledgments] [List of Illustrations] 1.      Introduction                                                                                                                  
2.      Ordinary Memories: Feeling the Past                                                                             
3.      The Moment of Memory                                                                                                 
4.      Mediating Memory (or Telling How It Happened)                                                        
5.      Transitional Stories                                                                                                         
6.      Conclusion                                                                                                                       
Filmography Bibliography [Index]

Review

'Lost inTransition represents another valuable addition to the burgeoning area ofstudies on memory in contemporary Spain…The author shows awareness andunderstanding of the existing research on the topic and departs from theexisting bibliography by trying new critical approaches and expanding thecorpus of recent works, which represents an important contribution to thefield.'José Colmeiro, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies
 

Review Quote

'Lost in Transition represents another valuable addition to the burgeoning area of studies on memory in contemporary Spain ... The author shows awareness and understanding of the existing research on the topic and departs from the existing bibliography by trying new critical approaches and expanding the corpus of recent works, which represents an important contribution to the field.' Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies

New Feature

[Acknowledgments] [List of Illustrations] 1. Introduction 2. Ordinary Memories: Feeling the Past 3. The Moment of Memory 4. Mediating Memory (or Telling How It Happened) 5. Transitional Stories 6. Conclusion Filmography Bibliography [Index]

Description for Sales People

A timely look into contemporary memories of Spain's democratisation in the 1970s and the relationship to the current financial and political crises of Spain. An interdisciplinary study that examines fiction, television and film in light of current theories on memory, popular culture and affect. Expands discussion on the memory and legacy of the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship of Franco to include the Transici

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