Memory Writing and Ethics in Los Girasoles Ciegos

Abstract

Abstract: Los Girasoles Ciegos, which won both the National Literature Award and the Literary Criticism Award in Spain in 2005, reveals how the Spanish writer Alberto Méndez traces the memories of the Spanish Civil War and explores the ethical issues in the human world. The author intends to dispel the common stereotypes towards the war, play down factors of politics, and recreate the ethical scenes for the characters through memory writing in order to underscore the ethical dilemmas and identity crises that the characters encountered and to unveil the great psychic trauma that the war inflicted upon humankind. Moreover, by analyzing the ethical choices made by various narrators and narratees, authors and readers at different narrative levels while confronting memory propositions, the author manages to achieve his ethical intention, namely, persuading his readers to bear the burden of the past, rather than ignore or forget it. Los Girasoles Ciegos not only presents a diversified interpretation of history through memory writing, but also provides a new model for today’s readers to reflect on history and comprehend the present from the perspective of ethics.

Key words: Los Girasoles Ciegos, Alberto Méndez, memory writing, ethics

Zou Ping. Memory Writing and Ethics in Los Girasoles Ciegos[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2019, 41(3): 129-138.

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