Turning Photographs into a Silent Film

Abstract

Nowadays, the term ‘collective memory’ is used frequently in (literary) research. It has become clear that while collective memory is something far more complicated than a simple adding up of individual memories, individual memories in their turn are never purely personal, but are always influenced by the social frame in which they take shape. The question is, where can one draw the line between individual and collective memory, and where does the individual self give way to a collective consciousness? In analyzing Escenas de cine mudo by Julio Llamazares, an attempt will be made to locate this place by focusing especially on the implied author. This ‘consciousness’ of the work emerges from a fictional world, but its values are the result of the social and cultural conditioning of the real author and (his contemporary) reader. As it turns out, the memory of a childhood during the Franco dictatorship is influenced by current views of the period in Spanish modern-day society. Collective memory changes and distorts both the image of the self and its individual memories.