"Disability and Post-ETA Poetics"

In this article, I explore the use of cultural emotions in state-aligned post-ETA poetics by analysing the role that illness and disability play in post-ceasefire filmic - Fuego/Fire (Luis Marías, 2014) - and literary - Patria/Homeland (Fernando Aramburu, 2016) - representations of the Basque national conflict. Recent critical discussions interpret disability in Spanish film and literature as harbingers of inclusivity and cultural pluralism (Fraser, 2013; Marr, 2013). However, if placed in the intensely polarised context for media and cultural representations of the Basque conflict in Spain, disability plays a less salutary role. Concretely, I argue that the possibility of post-ETA closure is often envisaged via the spectacularisation (and thus the instrumentalisation) of disabled and ill bodies, which are used to ‘mobilise affect’ towards a series of state-sanctioned positions with regard to victimhood, forgiveness and post-conflict reconciliation.