Memoria suprimida: literatura bajo represión política

Abstract

Restrictive cultural policies are very frequent in dictatorial systems such as Franco’s Spain or the German Democratic Republic. Measures of restriction and suppression manifested themselves mainly in acts of censorship or in the persecution of cultural producers, sometimes with devastating consequences, such as prison sentences, forced labor or even death sentences. The works of ‘reluctant’ authors were mutilated, suppressed and eradicated from the cultural landscape of both countries, resulting in a deformation of their cultural heritage, which forms an integral part of their memory and present identity.

However, the custody of documentation from these periods, whether through existing or newly created archives, can offer a relevant opportunity to rescue at least part of this heritage from oblivion and thus create a storage memory that has the potential to enter into circulation again. This way, biased discourses about the past and the literary history of both societies can be completed or corrected.