This panel seeks to explore and shed light to the multiplicity of voices and accounts that surround issues of memory and exile in Spain in relationship to the Spanish Civil War and its impacts as a reflection of unresolved issues that are portrayed in recent contemporary fiction. The goal is to foster an interdisciplinary discussion about how memory, and exile, that in many cases are intertwined in these narratives, deepen our understanding of how the female experience is portrayed. The intention of giving agency to the unheard women voices and those marginalized by normative discourses is prevalent in these counter discourses that, frequently, have an autobiographical component. 

This dialogue is open to a comparativist and transnational approach that goes beyond the Spanish borders, spilling into European and Latin American grounds, to further consider the diasporic consequences of the conflict and its long term effects. 

Drawing from diverse theoretical backgrounds of feminist theory, memory studies, postcolonial studies, and migration theory among others, this panel aims to discuss and understand how these narratives amplify the current discourses about historical memory and the female experience giving agency to the victims. Accordingly, these testimonies participate in the construction of a counter discourse built upon a communitive, autobiographical, and testimonial memory that aims to reevaluate and counteract certain established narratives that participate from the Spanish cultural memory and thus confronting issues of identity and nationality from the feminine perspective, inside and outside of the Spanish geographical and national boundaries.

Please send your 200 words abstracts to the NeMLA portal before September, 30th.