Discursos de la crisis: Respuestas de la cultura española ante nuevos desafíos ed. by Jochen Mecke, Ralf Junkerjürgen, and Hubert Pöppel (review)

This anthology emanates from the XX Congreso de la Asociación Alemana de Hispanistas, held at the University of Heidelberg in 2015. During the conference, the editors of this volume, all of whom are professors at the University of Regensburg, coordinated a section entitled “Discursos de la crisis. Cultura, lengua, literatura, medios de comunicación y ética (2008–2015).” In their introduction, the editors acknowledge that Spain’s crisis of 2008, to which the book’s title refers, was a direct consequence of the global economic crisis caused by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market in the United States and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the investment bank. Spain’s economic crisis was accompanied by social and political crises, such as the abdication of King Juan Carlos I and the resurgence of Catalan separatism. Spain’s crisis spawned the social protest movement known as the Indignados, which resulted in alternative political parties.

This volume offers the American scholar valuable insight into the perennial dialogue between northern and southern Europe, specifically between Germany and Spain. The anthology includes three sections. The first section, entitled “Economía, política, cultura,” includes three essays designed to orient the reader regarding Spain’s political and social climate since the crisis of 2008. Holm-Detlev Köhler offers a historical summary of the Spanish economy, suggesting that Spain’s stagnation is endemic and that the recent crisis is actually a return to normalcy. Köhler argues that the economic boom in Spain before 2008 was merely the result of foreign investments spawned by Spain’s entry into the European Union during the Transition from Franco’s dictatorship to democracy. Walther L. Bernecker’s essay discusses Podemos and Ciudadanos, two new political parties that emerged from the crisis of 2008. Bernecker portrays these parties as populist reactions to the perceived corruption of the two-party system dominated by the PSOE and the PP since the Transition. Arturo Parada’s essay asserts that Spain’s democratic progress has been slowed by its adhesion to traditional hierarchical administration in education, politics, and business. Parada makes some pertinent comparisons between Spain’s Transition and Germany’s unification following its division during the Cold War.

The second section, “Prensa, televisión, cine, ensayo,” has six essays. Laura Mariottini has gleaned the Spanish press for rhetorical representations of the crisis. Mariottini’s entertaining essay shows how the Spanish press characterizes the tension between northern and southern Europe using nautical, bellicose, and conjugal metaphors, among others. The adversarial relationship between Spain and Germany is portrayed humorously with allegorical caricatures.

The essay by Ana Mejón and Rubén Romero Santos provides an astute comparison of two Spanish films from different eras about Spaniards who migrate to Germany. The essay compares ¡Vente a Alemania, Pepe! (1971) from the Franco era with the more recent Perdiendo el norte (2015). The producers of the latter film have acknowledged the earlier film as an influence. Indeed, the purpose of Perdiendo el norte is to show how the crisis of 2008 has forced Spaniards to repeat the historical phenomenon of the Franco era by emigrating to Germany to find work. The main difference is that unskilled workers went to Spain in the 1960s and 1970s, but now Spaniards with university degrees move to Germany for greater chances of employment. The essay comments on Spain’s collective loss of memory caused by the years of affluence between the two periods of emigration.

Ralf Junkerjürgen examines the Spanish film from 2013 titled El futuro, an unconventional hybrid film with characteristics of a documentary set in Spain in 1982. The crisis of 2008 has disappointed those who were optimistic about the future in 1982. Junkerjürgen makes incisive comments regarding the Pacto del Olvido of the Transition, which required traditional Spanish...