Exhuming loss : memory, materiality and mass graves of the Spanish Civil War / Layla Renshaw.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Renshaw, Layla.

Contributor:

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Series:

Publications of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Critical perspectives on cultural heritage

Critical cultural heritage series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Collective memory.

Exhumation.

Social aspects.

Forensic archaeology.

Human remains (Archaeology).

Mass burials.

History.

War victims.

Spain--History--Civil War, 1936-1939--Atrocities.

Spain.

Atrocities.

War victims--Spain--History--20th century.

Mass burials--Spain--History--20th century.

Human remains (Archaeology)--Spain.

Forensic archaeology--Spain.

Exhumation--Social aspects--Spain.

Collective memory--Spain.

Physical Description:

259 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Walnut Creek, Calif. : Left Coast Press, [2011]

Summary:

Since the 1980s, the dominant paradigm for investigations of atrocities has been the use of forensic exhumation of human remains. This book explores the political and symbolic power of exhumation and the many factors that contribute to it. Renshaw (forensic archaeology and anthropology, Kingston University, UK) examines the moral, metaphysical, and psychological aspects of exhumation in the case of mass graves of Republican civilians killed by supporters of Franco's coup in two rural communities during the Spanish Civil War. The book draws on interviews with relatives of those murdered, older members of the surrounding communities, and other forensic archaeologists. A preamble reviews the literature of the political uses of exhumation, and an introduction reviews the history of the Spanish Civil War, dictatorship, and the transition to democracy. Subsequent chapters explore Republican identity and Spanish memory politics, the creation of new individual and collective identities in the present, and the possibility of redemption and closure in the wake of trauma. The book is illustrated with b&w photos of archaeological sites. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Contents:

Republican identity and Spanish memory politics

Memory idioms and the representation of Republican loss within the confines of a Francoist discourse on the past

Materialisations of the dead before exhumation

The open grave : exposed bodies and objects in new representations of the dead

Reburial and enduring materialisations of the dead.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

1611320429

9781611320411

1611320410

9781611320428

OCLC:

687675980

Publisher Number:

99945253591