La ideología hegemónica y el derecho a la maternidad: separación madre-hijo durante la dictadura franquista y la primera democracia

Beginning in the late 20th century, Spanish writers have shown great concern for matters relating to the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and its aftermath. In narratives, they reveal, explicitly or implicitly, hidden events covered by the Franco dictatorship (1939-75). This persistence in their works about the past has been examined as necessary to society in overcoming the terrible events that occurred during the Franco's regime. Also, these narratives stand as a loud voice against impunity regarding crimes committed for almost half a century and the actual ongoing denial of the State to investigate, in depth, the crimes carried out in the past. Within this denial of the State, the disappearance of children took place during the postwar up until the first democratic government, established in 1978.

The objective of this research is to show, via fiction, the oppression and the manipulation of women during the Francoist period through different institutions, among them, Sección Femenina. Also, this study aims to prove that the separation of children from Republican mothers during the dictatorship, and later on from single poor mothers during the early years of the first democracy, was in violation of both the maternity rights of women and the children's rights. This investigation focuses on the novels Mala gente que camina (2006) by Benjamín Prado, Si a los tres años no he vuelto (2011) by Ana R. Cañil and Mientras pueda pensarte (2013) by Inmaculada Chacón. These literary works contest the stealing of children as a legitimized action with the appearance of goodness. The theoretical approaches selected for this study are: the abjection concept of Julia Kristeva, the hegemonic ideology of Antonio Gramsci; and lastly, the legalization of punishment of Michel Foucault.

The originality of this research as thesis lies to shine a light on the novels mentioned above as the evidence of the violation of the rights of motherhood and the biological family as a whole during the Franco dictatorship and again later during the early stages of Spanish democracy.