Scenarios of Nostalgia. Public History and the Far-Right in Current Spain

Abstract

This article analyses the risks faced by practices associated with public history owing to the resurgence of the far-right in Spain. It critically examines the historical narratives embedded in specific historical shows and reenactments, which, instead of encouraging a nuanced understanding of the past, tend to reinforce nationalist and identity-driven discourses that are fundamentally ahistorical and have a clear exclusionary potential. Furthermore, the recent rise of the genre of historical fiction and particular forms of “historiographical populism” act as vehicles to disseminate historical interpretations linked to an exclusionary Spanish nationalism, which is largely rooted in the legacy of Francoism.