Miscarriage of Justice: The Perverted Fairy Tale of Maternity and State-Sanctioned Removal of Children from Political Prisoners in Ana Cañil’s 2011 Novel Si a los tres años no he vuelto (If I Have Not Returned in Three Years)

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Ana Cañil’s novel narrativizes the cruelest measure against incarcerated Republican women: the removal of their children. Referencing testimonial tomes by Mercè Núñez. Targa, Juana Doña, and Tomasa Cuevas, Si a los tres años no he vuelto fictionalizes real-life female jailers (including the infamous María Topete) and inmates in Ventas, Madrid’s prison for nursing mothers, and Toledo’s prison for “fallen women.” Cañil’s depiction of state-sanctioned child abduction that concludes with a happily-ever-after reunited family underscores the equally fantastical fiction of Franco’s propaganda: the state’s pious magnanimity that redeemed errant political prisoners and honored their maternity in the utopian San Isidro prison for nursing mothers. This chapter investigates Cañil’s fairy-tale-like ending as a counter tale to the publicity narratives and photos in the propaganda publication Rendención.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationPalgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages189-238
Number of pages50
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022

Publication series

NamePalgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict
ISSN (Print)2634-6419
ISSN (Electronic)2634-6427

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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