Posthumous Tales of One, Great, Free Nation: Spanishness in post-Franco Spanish Film

An important form of transmission of knowledge about the Spanish nation is based on the continuous telling of stories in which the nation features as a suprahistorical, perennial entity. Myths of national origin, golden-age legends, and epics of national heroes are some of these stories. This mode o...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Martínez-Expósito, Alfredo
Format: Article
Language:Catalan
Published: Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona 2008-11-01
Series:Athenea Digital
Subjects:
Online Access:http://psicologiasocial.uab.es/athenea/index.php/atheneaDigital/article/view/357
Description
Summary:An important form of transmission of knowledge about the Spanish nation is based on the continuous telling of stories in which the nation features as a suprahistorical, perennial entity. Myths of national origin, golden-age legends, and epics of national heroes are some of these stories. This mode of access to knowledge assumes a suspension of disbelief for the audience, and precludes other attempts to comprehend the nation through scientific research. Subjective national identities constructed upon such suspension of disbelief have a tendency to reify, personify or even deify the nation. In the struggle between mythic and objective knowledge, the question of authenticity becomes a hotly contested arena. This paper attempts to address questions of mythical national representation in Spanish films of 1975-2000.
ISSN:1578-8946
1578-8946