Memory Novels Lab: a digital cartography of the literary memory of the Spanish Civil War and Francoism

Memory Novels Lab. Laboratory of Memory Literature is a research group based in the Department of Spanish Philology at the University of Valencia devoted to the study of literary representations of the Spanish Civil War, Francoism, and their cultural memories. Directed by José Martínez Rubio and Luz C. Souto, the laboratory brings together researchers from several universities and works from an interdisciplinary perspective that combines literary studies, memory studies, and digital humanities methodologies.

One of the laboratory’s main research initiatives is the MNLAB database, a digital infrastructure designed to map and analyse literary production related to the memory of the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist dictatorship. So far, the project has focused primarily on the 1990–2025 time frame, which corresponds to the editorial, academic, and critical consolidation of memory narratives in Spain.

During this first phase, around 2,500 novels have been catalogued with basic bibliographic data. Of these, approximately 400 include a full analytical record based on a system of literary metadata that allows the study of aspects such as chronology, narrative settings, themes, characters, historical frameworks, and intertextual relationships. In addition, more than one hundred novels include academic video reviews, produced within the framework of educational innovation projects aimed at promoting knowledge transfer and integrating research into university teaching.

The architecture of the database and its potential for analysing memory literature have been discussed in “Del archivo al algoritmo: la base de datos MNLAB y la memoria literaria de la Guerra Civil española” (Souto, 2025), and several applied studies by both the project directors and the research team are currently in preparation.

The project adopts an Iberian and international perspective. While the core of the corpus consists of works published in Spain, the database also includes narratives produced in other countries that address the memory of the Spanish Civil War and Francoism from transnational contexts. The corpus contains works written in Spanish, Catalan, Galician, and Basque, as well as in English, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese, among other languages, enabling the study of the international circulation of these narratives and their reception across different cultural contexts.

The analysis of this multilingual corpus is coordinated by language specialists: Jesús Peris Llorca (Catalan), Diego Rivadulla (Galician), María José Olaziregi and Pío Pérez (Basque), Rita Rodríguez Varela (French), and Anthony Nuckols (English).

The next stages of the project aim to expand the database by systematically incorporating works published between 1936 and 1989, with the goal of building a corpus that will allow scholars to analyse the evolution of literary representations of the Spanish Civil War and Francoism across the entire contemporary period. Through this work, Memory Novels Lab seeks to consolidate itself as a reference digital infrastructure for the study of cultural memory in contemporary literature.

The laboratory includes researchers from the departments of Spanish Philology, English and German Philology, and French and Italian Philology at the Faculty of Philology, Translation and Communication of the University of Valencia, as well as collaborators from several European and Latin American universities.

Beyond the individual publications produced by its members, the team develops collective research, knowledge transfer, and dissemination initiatives. Among these activities is the organisation of a biennial conference devoted to memory narratives. Recent editions include Memorias periféricas de la Guerra Civil y el franquismo. Literaturas, culturas e ideologías (2022), Memorias disidentes. Género y sexualidad frente al franquismo (2024), and the forthcoming edition Memoria familiar del franquismo. Herencias y filiaciones en la literatura española, scheduled for November 2026.

The team also promotes the academic journal Diablotexto Digital, an open-access scientific publication devoted to contemporary literary studies. Published at the University of Valencia, the journal focuses particularly on the relationship between literature and cultural studies and has become an international platform for research on Spanish and Spanish American literature.

Collective volumes

Rodríguez, Rita; De Matteis, Jessica; Cano, Raúl (Eds.) (2026): Mujeres y disidencia frente a la Guerra Civil y el franquismo. Valencia: Tirant Humanidades.
Rivadulla Costa, Diego; Bascuñán Tamarit, Mariola; Callejas Moreno, Celia (2026): Memoria disidente y subversión cultural. Literatura, archivo y sexualidad ante el franquismo. Valencia: Tirant Humanidades.
Martínez Rubio, José y Santamaría, Sara (eds.) (2024): La herida colonial. Memoria e imperio en la España contemporánea. Berlin: Peter Lang.
Bautista Boned, Luis y Sánchez, Mariela (eds.) (2024): Memoria cultural y memorias periféricas de la Guerra Civil española y el franquismo. Berlin: Peter Lang.
Souto, Luz C. y Nuckols, Anthony (eds.) (2023): Repercusiones internacionales sobre la Guerra Civil y el franquismo. Memorias empuñadas desde la periferia literaria. Berlin: Peter Lang.

Special issues in journals

“Palabras de exilio y resistencia: mujeres y memoria histórica” (2026). Special issue commemorating the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936–2026). Diablotexto Digital. Revista de Crítica Literaria. Edited by Rita Rodríguez Varela.
“La industria cultural en el franquismo: prácticas censoras, campo editorial y otros productos culturales” (December 2023): Diablotexto Digital. Revista de Crítica Literaria, vol. 14. Edited by Jesús Peris and Carla Juárez.
“La memoria y los testimonios” (June 2023): Pasajes. Revista de pensamiento contemporáneo, vol. 67. Edited by Mariela Sánchez and Diego Rivadulla.
"Novela y franquismo: narrativas periféricas y la periferia de la narrativa" (June 2023): Diablotexto. Revista de Crítica Literaria, vol. 13. Edited by Jesús Peris and Carla Juárez.
“Imágenes y viñetas para la memoria del franquismo” (December 2022): Pasajes. Revista de pensamiento contemporáneo, vol. 66. Issue derived from the collaboration between the MNLAB project and the Chair of Comics Studies. Edited by Álvaro Pons, with the collaboration of Luz C. Souto.

Related research projects

2025–2026. MNLAB ADVANCE. Desarrollo de herramientas digitales para la investigación de novelas sobre la Guerra (UV-INV-AE 3672384). PI: Luz C. Souto. Programme for the Promotion of Research and Technology, Research Service, University of Valencia.

2024–2025. Subjetividades en crisis en la literatura española contemporánea (1914–1975) (CIGE/2023/74). PI: Luis Bautista Boned. Emerging Project of the Regional Ministry of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society, Generalitat Valenciana.

2021–2022. Memory Novels LAB. Laboratorio Digital de Novelas sobre Memoria Histórica Española (GV/2021/183). PI: Luz C. Souto. Emerging Project of the Regional Ministry of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society, Generalitat Valenciana.

Associated educational innovation projects

2025–2026. Memoria, literatura femenina y archivo. La incorporación de bases de datos y vídeo-reseñas en las aulas de Filología (PIEE 3897928). Coordinated by Luz C. Souto and Rita Rodríguez Varela. University of Valencia.

2024–2025. DTD_iLAB: Aprendizaje colaborativo por proyectos interdisciplinares (tercera fase) (PIEC-3328435). Consolidated Educational Innovation Group, University of Valencia. Coordinated by Jesús Peris Llorca.

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