The Ghost in the Constitution: Historical Memory and Denial in Spanish Society

The Ghost in the Constitution offers a reflection on the political use of the concept of historical memory foregrounding the case of
Spain. The book analyses the philosophical implications of the transference of the notion of memory from the individual consciousness to the collective subject and considers the conflation of epistemology with ethics. A subtheme is the origins and transmission of political violence, and its endurance in the form of symbolic violence and ＂negationism＂ in the post-Franco era. Some chapters treat of specific ＂traumatic＂ phenomena such as the bombing of Guernica and the Holocaust.

Joan Ramon Resina is Professor of Iberian and Latin American Cultures at Stanford University. His previous books include Barcelona’s Vocation of Modernity: Rise and Decline of an Urban Image. Stanford University Press, 2008.