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

• Main Author: Martínez-Expósito, Alfredo
• Format: Article
• Language: Catalan
• Published: Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona 2008-11-01
• Series: Athenea Digital
• Subjects: National identity; Mythic knowledge; Objective knowledge
• Online Access: http://psicologiasocial.uab.es/athenea/index.php/atheneaDigital/article/view/357

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.