Memory as reproductive labour : from traumatic remembrance to institutionalised victimhood

Palacios González, Daniel (author)

The aim of the text is to connect the idea of remembrance to that of social reproduction labour, referencing as a case study the mass graves as an outcome of the coup, the civil war, and the dictatorship in Spain since 1936. These mass graves have been the central axis for articulating memorialist discourse in contemporary Spain. The memory of the mass graves is therefore a relevant object of study. The frameworks of analysis developed by Lise Vogel, Alva Gotby, Tithi Bhattacharya, Susan Ferguson, Silvia Federici, and Hannah Proctor are applied to the results of historical and ethnographic research, which have reclaimed a way of relating to the mass graves, from mourning to monumental practices or institutional political action. The article addresses the importance of emotional labour as part of memory, and how this is a contested field in which the possibility of consciousness-raising is confronted by the state and its apparatuses, whose imperative is to reproduce the mode of production.

• Language: English
• Keywords: social reproduction theory, materialistm, women, mass graves, Spanish civil war
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Geographic coverage: Španija
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.12.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 99-120
• Numbering: Letn. 41, št. 108/109
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-177142
• UDC: 94(460):726.84
• ISSN on article: 0352-3608
• DOI: 10.51936/dr.41.108-109.99-120
• COBISS.SI-ID: 260686595
• Publication date in RUL: 16.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Družboslovne razprave
• Shortened title: Družbosl. razpr.
• Publisher: Slovensko sociološko društvo, Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0352-3608
• COBISS.SI-ID: 7530242

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Spomin kot reproduktivno delo

Abstract

Cilj članka je povezati idejo spominjanja z idejo družbeno reproduktivnega dela, pri čemer kot študijo primera navaja množična grobišča, ki so posledica državnega udara, državljanske vojne in diktature v Španiji od leta 1936 dalje. Množična grobišča so postala osrednja os, okoli katere se v sodobni Španiji artikulira memorialni diskurz. Spomin na množična grobišča je zato relevanten kot predmet raziskovanja. Članek aplicira analitične okvire, ki so jih razvile Lise Vogel, Alba Gotby, Tithi Bhattacharya, Susan Ferguson, Silvia Federici in Hannah Proctor, na rezultate zgodovinskih in etnografskih raziskav, ki so vzpostavile način odnosa do množičnih grobišč – od žalovanja do monumentalnih praks ali institucionalnega političnega delovanja. Članek obravnava pomen emocionalnega dela kot del spomina in kako je to sporno področje, kjer se možnost ozaveščanja sooča z državo in njenimi aparati, katerih imperativ je reproducirati obstoječi produkcijski način.

• Keywords: teorija družbene reprodukcije, materializem, ženske, množična grobišča, španska državaljanska vojna