The Prison Testimony of Diego San José

Abstract

This article focuses on the analysis of De cárcel en cárcel, the testimonial work in which Diego San José gives an account of his experience of detention, trial and imprisonment between 1939 and 1944. After an introduction which attempts to contextualise the work, and its autor, in Spanish Literary Historiography and in the theoretical framework of testimony, the article studies the representation of San José’s prison journey, focusing both on its cognitive function and on its memorial and counter-discursive value. In this way, it analyses how, beyond recreating the everyday life of Franco’s prisons in the early Post Spanish Civil War period, De cárcel en cárcel attempts to denounce the repressive action of the regime, focusing on the violent acts of repression, the persecution of intellectuals, the application of a vengeful justice devoid of all logic and the dehumanisation to which the prisoners were subjected.