Women Playwrights and the Historical Memory of the Spanish Civil War in the 21st Century

Spain's female dramatists are playing leading roles in recent social and cultural exploration of historical memory. Spanish women authors published just seven plays on the Spanish Civil War between 1939 and 1999. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, however, they have already written over ten plays recalling the hostilities of 1936, thus partaking in emerging trends among all Spanish dramatists, regardless of gender: the current proliferation of plays on the Spanish Civil War, as well as the rise in female protagonists in twenty-first century historical memory theater. These tendencies underscore a heightened interest in formerly overlooked experiences of women during the confrontation.