Memory As First Breath: Critiquing and Disrupting the Lingering Politics of Memory of the Francoist Regime Through an Artistic Practice Involving a Personal Archive of Photographs

This thesis examines and critiques the memory politics of the Francoist regime and the post-Franco era, looking specifically at the flooding and displacement of Faió, a village in a region called la Franja in South Aragon at the border with Catalonia. Academic literature emphasises the Pact of Forgetting (1975) and Law of Amnesty (1977) as the central moments of memory construction of the Francoist past during the Transition. This research examines the relationship between these events and the lingering discourses and affects of previous mnemonic narratives, especially those regarding territorial politics and the production of subjectivity under the regime. An analysis of the exclusion of personal accounts from political and historical research informs a critique of these politics. Examining these through a personal archive, which contains family photographs spanning three generations (from 1950 to 2000), makes it possible to identify how autobiographical narratives and affects underpin the transmission of a troubled past. I argue that these personal accounts constitute counter-narratives and memory materials previously excluded from collective memory and academic literature.

Memory studies scholars have argued that the politics of memory have historically relied on inaccessible archives, challenging the disclosure of information, research, and legal action. Despite the participation of families in these processes, there remains a need to further investigate the potential of researching personal archives. This thesis explores how a practice-based autoethnographic methodology can contribute to understanding the challenges and possibilities of situated research on personal family archives in contexts of troubled pasts. I argue that an artistic practice with a personal archive disrupts the lingering politics of the regime by multiplying the sources of historical research and political practice. Situating research within personal narratives and minor histories, this thesis proposes an alternative relationship between personal and political narratives, drawing on new materialist perspectives, in particular Deleuze and Guattari’s work on minor literature. The analysis of reproductive work by feminist scholar Silvia Federici and the nomadic perspective of Rosi Braidotti privilege the perspective of women within the family archive, further defining memory as reproductive work which provides multiple material and symbolic meanings and coordinates.