(Re)membering the Madrid Movida: life, death, and legacy in the contemporary corpus.

Abstract

My dissertation explores the legacy of the Movida, a cultural renaissance that took place in Madrid, Spain from 1976-1986. I examine a series of cultural products that have contributed to the legacy of this fundamental moment in contemporary Spanish history, including museum exhibits, documentaries, novels, and feature films created between 1999 and 2007. I argue that the memory of this moment is constantly evolving, creating a series of narratives about the life, death, and second life of the Movida. The resurgence of commemorative efforts about the Movida serves a number of purposes. In certain instances, the Movida is viewed through the lenses of nostalgia, mourning and melancholia. Generally, the Movida serves as a place of memory on which many people dwell. In other instances, the moment of the Movida is used for the process of working through the past. Other products I consider transform the memory of the past, sometimes offering critical perspectives about how the Movida is remembered via the concepts of pastiche and postnostalgia. Still others utilize the past as an inspiration for the present or the future, creating a "Removida" by mobilizing the concepts of parody and kitsch to engage with the past. My analysis of these products demonstrates that in recent years, the Movida has been "re-membered" and given a new and distinctive form in its second life.