Echoes of War: Fiction of Traumatic Memories in the Aftermath of the Spanish Civil War by Libertad Ansola-Palazuelos

Dr Suk-Jun Kim, Director of Postgraduate Research at LLMVC, and Ian Grosz, second-year PhD student in Creative Writing invite Libertad Ansola-Palazuelos, a PhD student at LLMVC who researches Spanish literature in the context of Francoist Span from a gender perspective.

Show Notes

A transcript for this episode can be found online here.

In this episode, Libertad discusses her PhD research project, ‘Echoes of War: A creative Exploration in Fiction of Traumatic Memories in the Aftermath of the Spanish Civil War’. It focuses on Spanish literature in the context of Francoist Spain from a gender perspective. The research moves from women’s fiction in the 50s towards more contemporary female writers, illuminating the points of connection between generations. Among other topics, it touches upon transgenerational transmission of trauma, memory, and commemoration. The creative component of the project takes the form of short story narratives, Libertad’s personal contribution to memory and remembering as a member of the Spanish community.  

 

Libertad also discusses some of the short stories from Libertad’s MLitt thesis in the exhibition titled ‘What is Normal’. ‘What is Normal’ is a very special project that started off in 2020 in the showroom Sala Ruas, Laredo. It is a dialogue between a father and a daughter, Vicente Ansola and Libertad Ansola. In other words, a dialogue between photography and writing where suggestiveness plays a key role. The project, which combines photography and text, aims to explore the creative power of the combined arts and the ambiguity inherent in text and image. This combination invites the viewer to take part in the work and rediscover it. The narrative technique of the stories is based on the theory of showing, not telling and the power of omissions and empty spaces. The stories investigate the workings of the subconscious, and interpersonal relations. 

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