Rafael Escudero Alday. 2025. Cuando Antígona encontró a Benjamin. Víctimas del franquismo y derecho a la memoria. Madrid: Trotta. 165 p.

Abstract

Based on Sophocles' Antigone and within the framework of Walter Benjamin's reflections on the collateral damage of the myth of progress, Rafael Escudero Alday establishes a solid and coherent foundation for the right to memory as a human right. His reflections serve to critically approach the movement for the recovery of historical memory in Spain that emerged in the 2000s in the wake of the first exhumations of mass graves of victims of the Civil War and the Franco regime. In this context, the path taken has had its ups and downs, as demonstrated by the approval of two laws to guarantee the rights to truth, justice and reparation for victims. Memory and justice for victims may be the best ally in the process of consolidating Spain's (imperfect) democracy.