Spanish History in The Fairy Country: Dealing with Social Trauma in 'Pan's Labyrinth'
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7203/KAM.2.3154Keywords:
Laberinto del fauno, Del Toro, trauma social, Transición Española
Abstract
Resumen: La celebrada El laberinto del fauno (Del Toro, 2006) pone en escena un cuento de hadas situado en los convulsos tiempos de la primera posguerra civil española. La crítica ha señalado las dificultades para evaluar la conflictiva relación entre historia y fantasía en el ambiguo final feliz de la película, y ha tratado de relacionar la moraleja final con el trauma de la Guerra Civil.
En este trabajo, preferimos leer el film a la luz de otro trauma social, el que marca el momento de su producción. Si tenemos en cuenta que la Transición de una dictadura fascista a una monarquía parlamentaria no ha sido abierta ni pacíficamente debatida en las décadas siguientes y que cierto silencio sobre este tema persiste todavía hoy; es posible entender la película como una forma de abordar algunos asuntos pendientes de la cultura española contemporánea.
Palabras Clave: Laberinto del Fauno, Del Toro, Trauma Social, Memoria Histórica, Transición Española, Cultura Española.
Abstract: The successful film El laberinto del fauno (Del Toro, 2006) presents a fairy tale set in the convulsive times of the Spanish Civil War’s aftermath. The scholarship on this film already established the difficulties inherent in evaluating the conflictive relation between history and fantasy in the movie’s ambiguous happy ending and has tried to relate the film's moral with the social trauma of the Civil War.
In this essay, we chose to read the film in the light of another social trauma, that which marked the moment of its production. Considering that the Transition from a fascist dictatorship to a parliamentary monarchy has not been openly and peacefully discussed in the subsequent decades, and that a tense silence in regards to this topic continues to this very day, it is possible to understand the movie as an attempt to address some unfinished business in contemporary Spanish culture.
Key Words: Pan’s Labyrinth, Del Toro, Social Trauma, Historical Memory, Spanish Transition, Spanish Culture.
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References
Del Toro, Guillermo (2006). El laberinto del fauno. España, México y Estados Unidos: Estudios Picasso, Esperanto Films y Tequila Gang.
Deveny, Thomas. “Once upon a Time in Spain in 1944: The Morphology of El laberinto del Fauno”. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies on Film in Spanish 1, 1 (2008): 1-12.
Gavela Ramos, Yvonne. “El acto colectivo de recordar: historia y fantasía en El espíritu de la colmena y El laberinto del fauno”. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 88, 2 (2011): 179-19.
Hanley, Jane. “The walls fall down: Fantasy and power in El laberinto del fauno”. Studies in Hispanic Cinemas 4, 1 (2007): 35-45.
Juliá, Santos (2006). Memoria de la guerra y del franquismo. Madrid: Taurus.
Loureiro, Ángel (2002). “Pathetic Arguments” Labanyi, Jo (ed.) Constructing Identity in Contemporary Spain. Theoretical Debates and Cultural Practice. New York: Oxford University Press: 225–237.
Medina Domínguez, Alberto (2001). Exorcismos de la memoria: políticas y poéticas de la melancolía en la España de la Transición. Madrid: Libertarias.
Subirats, Eduardo (1995). España: Miradas fin de siglo. Madrid: Akal.
Vilarós, Teresa (1998). El mono del desencanto. Una crítica cultural de la transición española (1973–1993). Madrid: Siglo XXI.
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