Maternidad y Ausencia en Cría cuervos de Carlos Saura

Abstract

The figure of the absent mother is an element that has been pointed out in many studies on women's literature and cinema in Spain. This paper aims at analysing that absence in the framework provided by the film Raise Ravens in order to explore the different historical and subjective factors at work. It is my contention that the maternal absence articulates an illusory subject position offered to women by the dictatorship. At the same time this absence could be said to be paradigmatic of the ghostly past, whose legacy had to be negotiated when building new democratic institutions.

The figure of the absent mother is an element that has been pointed out in many studies on women's literature and cinema in Spain. This paper aims at analysing that absence in the framework provided by the film Raise Ravens in order to explore the different historical and subjective factors at work. It is my contention that the maternal absence articulates an illusory subject position offered to women by the dictatorship. At the same time this absence could be said to be paradigmatic of the ghostly past, whose legacy had to be negotiated when building new democratic institutions.

La figura de la madre ausente es un elemento que ha sido señalado en numerosos estudios sobre literatura de mujeres y cine en España. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar dicha ausencia en el marco de la película Cría cuervos para abordar las diferentes variables históricas y subjetivas que entran en funcionamiento en tal configuración. Nuestro argumento se construye sobre la idea que la figura de la ausencia maternal articula una ilusoria posición de sujeto que las mujeres de la dictadura tuvieron que vivir, pero al mismo tiempo canaliza el legado de un pasado fantasmal que había de ser negociado a la hora de construir las neuvas instituciones democráticas.