Skip to content
1981
Mobilizing Affect in Spanish Film and Screen Media from the Great Recession to the Present
  • ISSN: 2050-4837
  • E-ISSN: 2050-4845

Abstract

In this article, I explore the use of cultural emotions in state-aligned post-ETA poetics by analysing the role that illness and disability play in post-ceasefire filmic – (Marías 2014) – and literary – (Aramburu 2016) – representations of the Basque national conflict. Recent critical discussions interpret disability in Spanish film and literature as harbingers of inclusivity and cultural pluralism (Fraser 2013; Marr 2013). However, if placed in the intensely polarized context for media and cultural representations of the Basque conflict in Spain, disability plays a less salutary role. Concretely, I argue that the possibility of post-ETA closure is often envisaged via the spectacularization (and thus the instrumentalization) of disabled and ill bodies, which are used to ‘mobilize affect’ towards a series of state-sanctioned positions with regard to victimhood, forgiveness and post-conflict reconciliation.

© 2022 Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/slac_00097_1
2023-11-21
2026-04-20

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Agirre, K. (2015), Artetu arte itxaron, Aduna: Elkar.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Almodóvar, P. (1997), Carne trémula, Madrid: El Deseo.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Amenábar, A. (2014), Mar adentro, Madrid: Sogecine.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Anon. (2017), ‘Acabo de leer Patria de Aramburu, es buenísima: Refleja muy bien el conflicto vasco’, Faro de Vigo, 2 January, https://www.farodevigo.es/galicia/2017/01/02/acabo-leer-patria-aramburu-buenisima-16420435.html. Accessed 11 June 2021.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Aramburu, F. (2006), Los peces de la amargura, Barcelona: Tusquets.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Aramburu, F. (2016), Patria, Barcelona: Tusquets.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Arregi, A. and Garaño, J. (2017), Handia, Spain: Irusoin.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Bollaín, I. (2021), Maixabel, Spain: Crea SGR.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Boyd, N. (2016), ‘The warped mirror: The reflection of the ableist stare in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man’, Disability and Society, 31:10, pp. 1321–32.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Corbeaga, B. (2014), Negociador, Spain: Sayaka producciones.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Corbeaga, B. (2017), Fe de etarras, Spain: Mediapro.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Cosidó, I. (2011), ‘La derrota moral del terror’, Libertad Digital, 16 September, https://www.libertaddigital.com/opinion/ignacio-cosido/la-derrota-moral-del-terror-61045/. Accessed 12 February 2021.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Crumbaugh, J. (2007), ‘Are we all (still) Miguel Ángel Blanco? Victimhood, the media afterlife, and the challenge of historical memory’, Hispanic Review, 75:4, pp. 365–84.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Crumbaugh, J. (2010), ‘Victims discourse, victim studies, the biopolitics of counter-terrorism: The case of Iñaki de Juana chaos’, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, 44:3, pp. 657–76.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Ellis, K. and Goggin, G. (eds) (2015), Disability and the Media, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Fejzula, T. (2020), Patria, Barcelona: Planeta Comic.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Fernández Vázquez, J. (2018), ‘After the quarantine: A closer look at monuments to victims of ETA in the Basque Country and Navarre’, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 19:2, pp. 209–32.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Fesser, J. (2018), Campeones, Spain: Morena Films.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Filmin (2018), ‘Valoraciones, Fuego’, Filmin, 1 April, https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/fuego-2014#reviews. Accessed 5 February 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Fraser, B. (2013), Disability Studies and Spanish Culture: Films, Novels, the Comic and the Public Exhibition, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Freeden, M. (2013), The Political Theory of Political Thinking: The Anatomy of a Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Gabilondo, A. (2020), Patria, Spain: HBO.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Gámez Fuentes, M. J. (2005), ‘Representing disability in 90’s Spain: The case of ONCE’, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 6:3, pp. 305–18.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Gómez, M. (2021), Érase una vez en Euskadi, Spain: La Canica Films.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Graff-McRae, R. L. (2017), ‘Ghosts of gender: Memory, legacy and spectrality in Northern Ireland’s post-conflict commemorative politics’, Ethnopolitics, 16:5, pp. 500–18.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Jaio, Karmele (2020), La casa del padre, Barcelona: Destino.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Jordan, B. and Morgan-Tamosunas, R. (eds) (2000), Contemporary Spanish Cultural Studies, London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Lertxundi, Á. (2011), Etxeko hautsa, Irun: Alberdania.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Mainer, J.-C. (2016), ‘Patria voraz’, El País, 2 September, https://elpais.com/cultura/2016/08/29/babelia/1472488716_680855.html. Accessed 15 February 2021.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Marías, L. (2014), Fuego, Spain: Fausto Producciones.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Marr, M. J. (2013), The Politics of Age and Disability in Contemporary Spanish Film: Plus Ultra Pluralism, London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Martínez Lázaro, E. (2014), Ocho apellidos vascos, Spain: Lazona Films.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. McGrattan, C. and Hopkins, S. (2017), ‘Memory in post-conflict societies: From contention to integration?’, Ethnopolitics, 16:5, pp. 488–99.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. McRuer, R. (2010), ‘Disability nationalism in crip times’, Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, 4:2, pp. 163–78.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Medina, R. (2014), ‘Alzheimer’s disease: A shifting paradigm in Spanish Film: ¿Y tú quién eres? and Amanecer de un sueño’, Hispanic Research Journal, 14:4, pp. 356–72.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Miguélez-Carballeira, H. (2018), ‘Patria’, The Literary Encyclopedia, 17 July, https://www.literaryencyclopedia.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38818. Accessed 20 February 2021.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Miguélez-Carballeira, H. (2022), ‘La cultura del consenso como lenguaje literario’, in C. Claesson (ed.), España comparada: Literatura, lengua y política en la cultura contemporánea, Madrid: Comares, pp. 55–72.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Minich, J. A. (2010), ‘Life on wheels: Disability, democracy, and political inclusion in Live Flesh and The Sea Inside’, Journal of Literary and Cultural Disabilities, 4:1, pp. 17–32.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Morales, C. (2018), Lectura fácil, Barcelona: Anagrama.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Olasagarre, J. (2017), Poz adrebesa, Zarautz: Susa.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Pardo, C. (2019), ‘Vida de las mujeres infames’, Babelia, El País, 7 January, https://elpais.com/cultura/2019/01/07/babelia/1546853373_416183.html. Accessed 13 January 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  42. Portela, E. (2016), El eco de los disparos, Barcelona: Galaxia Gutenberg.
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Portero, D. (2020), ‘La equidistancia del cine español con el terrorismo de ETA’, El Mundo, 3 September, https://www.elmundo.es/opinion/2020/09/03/5f50c59afc6c83d3638b4726.html. Accessed 5 February 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  44. Quayson, A. (2007), Aesthetic Nervousness: Disability and the Crisis of Representation, New York: Columbia University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  45. Shapiro, J. P. (1993), No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement, New York: Three Rivers.
     [Google Scholar]
  46. Snyder, S. L. and Mitchell. D. T. (2000), Narrative Prosthesis: Disability and the Dependencies of Discourse, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  47. Snyder, S. L. and Mitchell, D. T. (2010), ‘Introduction: Ablenationalism and the geo-politics of disability’, Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 4:2, pp. 113–25.
     [Google Scholar]
  48. Sontag, S. (2009), Illness as Metaphor, London and New York: Penguin Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  49. Vargas Llosa, M. (2017), ‘El país de los callados’, El País, 5 February, https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/02/02/opinion/1486035878_421520.html. Accessed 15 February 2021.
     [Google Scholar]
  50. Villa, I. (2004), Saber que se puede: Recuerdos y reflexiones de una víctima del terrorismo, Madrid: Martínez Roca.
     [Google Scholar]
  51. Villa, I. (2011), Saber que se puede, veinte años después, Madrid: Martínez Roca.
     [Google Scholar]
  52. Wates, A. and Byles, H. (2015), ‘Gender and disability, asking difficult questions’, Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, 9:1, pp. 107–12.
     [Google Scholar]
  53. Ybarra, G. (2015), El comensal, Spain: Caballo de Troya.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/slac_00097_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): affect; Basque cinema; Basque conflict; illness; nationalism; Patria

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test