TY - JOUR
T1 - On the Names of the Spanish Graphic Fathers
T2 - Patrilineal Narratives in Gallardos’ Un largo silencio and Altarribas’ El arte de volar
AU - Pereira Boán, Xosé
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - The editorial flourishing of graphic narratives in Spain provided memoirs and fictionalisations of the civil war and the dictatorship at the core of the phenomenon. I analyse the transmission of paternal memories in the works of Miguel Ángel Gallardo and Francisco Gallardo (Un largo silencio, 1997) and Antonio Altarriba and Kim (El arte de volar, 2009). While both Gallardo and Altarriba collect and (re)produce their father’s memories, I point out their distinct approaches that echo two different zeitgeists of representation. The spirit of the Spanish transition–the so-called ‘Pact of Silence’–that prevails in Gallardo’s patrilineal account, was revisited throughout a sort of Lacanian père-version in Altarriba’s narrative. The latter perverts, in form and substance, the Transition as a patrilineal norm, constituting a transgression from the symbolic status quo, from the silence that actually prevails in both Gallardo’s story and the transition itself, although without abandoning the patriarchal lineage and scope. I argue that while that patrilineal account is symbolic, celebratory and literal in Un largo silencio, such patrilineality unfolds as imaginary, inquisitive and literary in Altarriba’s narrative.
AB - The editorial flourishing of graphic narratives in Spain provided memoirs and fictionalisations of the civil war and the dictatorship at the core of the phenomenon. I analyse the transmission of paternal memories in the works of Miguel Ángel Gallardo and Francisco Gallardo (Un largo silencio, 1997) and Antonio Altarriba and Kim (El arte de volar, 2009). While both Gallardo and Altarriba collect and (re)produce their father’s memories, I point out their distinct approaches that echo two different zeitgeists of representation. The spirit of the Spanish transition–the so-called ‘Pact of Silence’–that prevails in Gallardo’s patrilineal account, was revisited throughout a sort of Lacanian père-version in Altarriba’s narrative. The latter perverts, in form and substance, the Transition as a patrilineal norm, constituting a transgression from the symbolic status quo, from the silence that actually prevails in both Gallardo’s story and the transition itself, although without abandoning the patriarchal lineage and scope. I argue that while that patrilineal account is symbolic, celebratory and literal in Un largo silencio, such patrilineality unfolds as imaginary, inquisitive and literary in Altarriba’s narrative.
KW - Cultural memory Francoism
KW - Spanish civil War
KW - Spanish graphic narratives
KW - Spanish transition
KW - patriarchal narratives
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85184218279&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/21504857.2024.2313035
DO - 10.1080/21504857.2024.2313035
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85184218279
SN - 2150-4857
VL - 15
SP - 682
EP - 698
JO - Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics
JF - Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics
IS - 5
ER -