Televising the Sixties in Spain: Memories and Historical Constructions

Abstract

Many works study the role of television as an agent of historical narratives and as a producer of collective memory (Edgerton, 2001; Moss 2008; Wheatley, 2007). This chapter contributes to the existing literature by offering four levels of analysis of two case studies from Spain. These exemplify the coexistence of different explanatory logics which represent, in different ways, the relationship between the present and the past: the series Cuéntame c?mo pas? (Tell Me How It Happened) and the reality show Curso del 63 (Class of 63). Observing their discursive framing and their narrative strategies the analyses focus on four levels: the cosmopolitan memory axis, the national memory, the musealization aspect, and television self-memory and the role of nostalgia.