From Recuperating Spanish Historical Memory to a Semantic Dissection of Cultural Memory: La malamemoria by Isaac Rosa

Abstract

This article examines the representation of the Spanish Civil War and treatment of the theme of memory in La malamemoria (1999), the first work by young novelist Isaac Rosa (b. 1974). It argues for a shift away from the prevailing critical focus on ‘recuperación de la memoria histórica’, as it is termed in Spanish, and towards an examination of the shifting landscape of cultural memory in Spain since the transition to democracy. In this regard, the article stresses the importance of Rosa's examination of the discourse of Spanish war memory, and in particular his dissection of the semantic reference of certain key concepts, including olvido, desmemoria, and the war as a collective locura. Rosa's work is briefly compared to the better known novel, Soldados de Salamina, by Javier Cercas, and its intertextual evocation of the work of Luis Martín-Santos and Juan Goytisolo is highlighted.