Engraved on Spain’s Memory : A case study of political discourses present in the media concerning three cemeteries for victims of the Civil War and the Francoist dictatorship, and their contested contribution to national reconciliation.

Sammanfattning: This Degree Project (DP) deals with the current discourses present on several (web)sites of memory related to three selected cemeteries for victims of the Civil War and the Francoist dictatorship and analyzes their potential contribution to national reconciliation, taking into consideration the presumed social or political interests of the actors behind the (web)sites. Collective memory must be seen as a social construction since memory stems from the shared remembrances of society and relates to key social concepts such as identity. Memory is a changeable device forged through a transformative process in which different actors are involved, from direct witnesses to memory spaces, and recently, the Internet. Memory is also discourse and as discourse is aimed at achieving power by controlling the group. Lately, the Internet has become a battlefield for competing memories, and (web)sites of memory are an opportunity to impose, in the post-truth era, a partial version of historical events. With the purpose of providing answers about whether current discourses present on (web)sites of memory can help achieve national reconciliation, this DP makes use of Discourse Analysis as a primary method, and also in-depth semi-structured interviews - in a limited number - to attain a better understanding through the uniqueness of the knowledge generated by the respondents. The Analysis has proven that, despite the time elapsed, the current discourses present on (web)sites of memory are a continuation of the old Francoist and anti-Francoist rhetoric, their contents are designed for audiences deeply committed to sociopolitical interests and, therefore, their contribution to national reconciliation is poor. The analysis has also discovered interesting initiatives aimed at exploiting the Sites and (web)sites for educational purposes. Future research may include the repetition of a similar study in the coming years, when the new Law of Democratic Memory has come into force and the political situation in Spain has evolved. It may be also advisable to use contrasting quantitative methods and enlarge the research to other cemeteries, especially, for victims of the Francoist side.