Those wars are also my war: An approach to practices of postmemory in the contemporary Spanish comic

Abstract

Abstract A notable feature of recent Spanish comics is their use of a viewpoint characterized by the transmission and (re)presentation of original testimonies, remade by authors who belong to later generations that had no direct experience of the Civil War. This article focuses on seven graphic works: Un largo silencio (1997), Nuestra Guerra Civil (2006), El arte de volar (2009), Los surcos del azar (2013), Las guerras silenciosas (2014), Un médico novato (2013) and Atrapado en Belchite (2015). The stories in these works recall the recent past from a common perspective, one that emphasizes the individual protagonist’s role in traumatic events. However, these narratives also employ characteristics that are specific to each story. This article reflects on the symbiosis between the shared elements of these works, and the more individual or original elements, in order to shed light on the important role of graphic narratives in the creation of spaces where memory and ‘postmemory’ can be expressed.