"The Past That Won't Go Away": The Civil War and the Memory Wars in Spain

Code

HIST3092

School

History

Level

3

Credits

40

Semesters

Full Year UK

Summary

In 2011, Prime-Minister Mariano Rajoy publicly stated that ‘not a single euro’ of the state budget would be allocated to support the exhumation of victims of Spain’s brutal civil war and General Franco’s dictatorship. Successive democratic governments have consistently refused appeals from the United Nations to investigate past political crimes and, as a result, Spain remains to this day the second country in the world with the highest number of missing citizens, only behind Cambodia. What seems to be an anomaly in an otherwise established democracy conceals, as this module shall demonstrate, much deeper and far reaching social tensions.

This module examines the Spanish Civil War, its underlying causes and legacy for present-day Spain. The module covers four overarching themes: (1) the Second Spanish Republic of 1931-1936, (2) repression behind the lines during the civil war, (3) foreign intervention and non-intervention, and (4) the “memory wars” in present-day Spain seen through the prism of memorialisation, mass exhumations and the so-called “historians’ war”.

Commencing with the 'Disaster' of 1898, students will consider the main historical forces and conditions that gave rise to the outbreak of war in 1936. Students will develop an in-depth understanding of the war itself through propaganda, myth, revolutionary ideology, anti-clerical and gendered violence, as well as, for example, the significance of the massacre of Badajoz and the bombing of Guernica. The conflict is also considered in the wider context of the ‘European Civil War’; specifically, the role of military interventions on the part of regimes in Italy, Germany, Portugal and the Soviet Union, and the influence of non-interventions by Britain and France. Using Helen Graham’s notion of the ‘past that won’t go away’, the module concludes with a reflection on the legacy of the Civil War in contemporary Spain.

Target Students

Studentsmust have taken HIST1001orHIST1002.

Classes

• One 1-hour seminar each week for 20 weeks
• One 2-hour seminar each week for 20 weeks

Assessment

• 30% Coursework 1: 3,000 word source based assessment
• 30% Presentation: An assessed Presentation
• 40% Coursework 2: 3,500 word synoptic essay

Assessed in both autumn & spring semest

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding:
·    Read and comprehend complex primary and secondary sources
·    Acquire an understanding of the cultural, historical, social and political context of the Spanish Civil War
·    Engage in historical debates relating to the Spanish Civil War
·    Appreciate the legacy of the conflict in twenty-first century Spanish society and in contemporary historical scholarship
2)    Professional/practical skills: Students will:
⦁ Undertake relevant research and construct a reasoned argument, both orally and in
writing
⦁ Engage with the current historiographical debate
⦁ Manage a vast body of primary/secondary sources and identify and contrast key
arguments in those materials
⦁ Deliver a rigorous piece of historical research on a specific topic relating to the
Spanish Civil War
⦁ Use university library/internet/IT resources to find source materials
3)    Transferable/key skills: Students should:
⦁ Possess the ability to construct and defend a well-researched argument, both orally
and in writing 
•    Manage a vast body of source materials
⦁ Develop teamwork
⦁ Take responsibility for their own learning
⦁ Develop time-management skills
Develop cross-cultural understanding to be able to negotiate effectively between
cultures, particularly Hispanic cultures and their own culture of origin
1) Intellectual Skills: Students should:
·    Develop critical thinking
·    Become aware of, and engage with, differing historical interpretations of specific topics relating to twentieth-century Spain
·    Engage in informed discussion of historical materials (archives, films, documentaries, memoirs, newspaper reports) and/or other cultural/sociological documentation pertaining to contemporary Spain
·    Construct an original historical argument

2) Professional/practical skills: Students will: 

• Undertake relevant research and construct a reasoned argument, both orally and in writing
• Engage with the current historiographical debate 
• Manage a vast body of primary/secondary sources and identity and contrast key arguments in those materials 
• Deliver a rigorous piece of historical research on a specific topic relating to the Spanish Civil War
• Use university library/internet/IT resources to find source materials

3) Transferable/key skills: Students should:

• Possess the ability to construct and defend a well-researched argument, both orally and in writing  Manage a vast body of source materials
• Develop teamwork
• Take responsibility for their own learning
• Develop time-management skills

Develop cross-cultural understanding to be able to negotiate effectively between cultures, particularly Hispanic cultures and their own culture of origin

1) Intellectual Skills: Students should: 
• Develop critical thinking
• Become aware of, and engage with, differing historical interpretations of specific topics relating to twentieth-century Spain 
• Engage in informed discussion of historical materials (archives, films, documentaries, memoirs, newspaper reports) and/or other cultural/sociological documentation pertaining to contemporary Spain
• Construct an original historical argument
 

Conveners

• Dr Ruben Leitao Prazeres Serem