ABSTRACT
The four relentless decades of the dictatorial Franco regime (1939–75) maintained a very clear objective in the reconstruction of the social order following the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). In this social project, women were to play an essential role. In a sinister twist of traditional models of femininity, the dictatorial Spanish Franco regime (1939–75), especially in its early years, sought to control and limit the potential propagation of values considered dangerous or antithetical to the establishment and perpetuation of National-Catholicism. Supported by repressive and restrictive legislation, this project had a particularly negative impact on the development of any dissenting/counter-memories of the war and the dictatorship. Furthermore, it instigated a political discourse centred on the demonisation and bestialisation of the dissident female body as the utmost symbol of political degeneration. Over time, this political discourse of repression was elevated into a discourse of ostensible Christian redemption and charity, which exalted the values of traditional femininity while, at the same time, violently and irrevocably excluding nonconforming femininity. This chapter offers a preliminary exploration of the different ways in which women’s experiences of political conflict are represented in dominant memory discourse, and how such representation is challenged and contested by means of subaltern discursive practices. Accordingly, it aims to examine the diversity of women’s experiences of, and resistance against, political violence during the Franco regime.
