The Failure of Silence and the Manipulation of Memory: How Spain's pact of oblivion has failed to rid the country of its troubled past

This thesis is an analysis of Spain’s development from dictatorship to democracy in light of the trauma that it endured during the Spanish Civil War of 1936 – 1939 and the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, which lasted until 1975. Drawing from the work of Maurice Halbwachs and Pierre Nora, this thesis seeks to use the concepts of collective memory and lieux de mémoire to analyze what role memory has played in Spanish society from 1939 to the present day. Theanalysis begins with an overview of the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s ensuing dictatorship in order to establish an understanding of the trauma endured by Spain and its people. Of importance will be the manner in which the presentation of history became manipulated anddistorted under Franco as the dictator sought to control the country’s collective memory. With this background in mind, the thesis then turns to analyze how the memory of Spain’s past has affected the country’s development in two eras: during its transition to democracy in the 1970s and in the present day. Of central importance is the pact of silence that was established during the transition to democracy, which was a tacit agreement among the Spanish people to notdiscuss the past. This pact of silence still clouds Spain’s memory today and affects modern discourse concerning the past. Yet it is clear that Spain has not been reconciled to its past, as the provocation of history inevitably results in tension and controversy. The central contention of this thesis is that the pact of silence that surrounds Spain’s past has not eliminated the trauma of the Civil War and dictatorship, as demonstrated by the controversy stirred up by people, groups and places in the present day. This contention has repercussions for the study of history as a whole, as it indicates that the past cannot be muted in order to achievereconciliation; rather, it suggests that we must engage the past in order to be reconciled to it.

al- Fayḍ al-wārid ʻalá rawḍ Marthīyat Mawlānā Khālid

taṣnīf Abū al-Thanāʼ Shihāb al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Ḥasanī al-Ḥusaynī al-Ālūsī al-Baghdādī.

Kitāb Mufarriḥ al-nafs / taṣnīf al-Imām al-ʻālim al-fāḍil Sharaf al-Dīn Abī Naṣr Muḥammad ibn ʻUmar ibn Abī al-Futūḥ al-Baghdādī thumma al-Māridīnī al-maʻrūf bi-Ibn al-Marah : manuscript, [ca. 1530]

The author's name appears as ابن المره in title page (f. 1r) and ابن المراه at the beginning of the book (f. 1v).

al- Mawārid al-ʻadhbah al-ṣāfiyah fī sharḥ al-Kāfiyah al-wāfiyah : manuscript, [ca. 1706]

Written in one column with poems in two columns, 29 lines per pages, in black and red.

Suʼāl wārid ʻalá al-Shaykh al-Ahdal wa-al-jawāb ʻanhu : manuscript, [ca. 1918]

Bound with: Risālah / ʻĪsá ibn Muḥammad ibn Nūr.

I-RID : Illinois removes illegal dumps /

"12-06."

Getting rid of unemployment.

Mode of access: Internet.

Immediate, not gradual abolition, or, An inquiry into the shortest, safest, and most effectual means of getting rid of West Indian slavery.

Goldsmiths'-Kress no. 24317.

Immediate, not gradual abolition: or, An inquiry into the shortest, safest, and most effectual means of getting rid of West Indian slavery.

First published in England, 1824.