Memoria de la Guerra Civil y modernidad: el caso de El corazón helado de Almudena Grandes

Since the publication of Soldados de Salamina (2001) by Javier Cercas, Spain has seen a significant production of historical texts—focusing mainly on the Civil War—that are written as novels. These novels are based on real facts, but the reader is never certain about what percentage is reality and what percentage corresponds to fiction created by the author. From these pseudo-historical narrations, the Spanish society is recovering and rediscovering a historical past that the democratic transition chose to keep hidden, following the 'pact of silence' between moderate members of the left parties and the more progressive francoist factions. In this essay, I analyze El corazón helado (2007), by Almudena Grandes, mainly focusing in the dialogue established between memory and history. This investigation seeks to demonstrate that this type of novel expresses a demand for ideological values that were silenced for 30 years but begin to emerge in the contemporary Spanish society as a result of the consolidation of democracy and the basic structures of the constitutional monarchy. In my opinion, Grandes' novel has a triple purpose: first, subvert the historical meaning of the Spanish Civil war; second, proclaim the necessity that the Spanish society speak about the war; and finally, eliminate the self-imposed restrictions that hinder the incorporation of this national conversation into the daily dialogue of a normal society.