Dissidence, citizenry, and witnessing
three screenplays by Jorge Semprún
pp. 187-201
in: Ofelia Ferran, Gina Herrmann (eds), A critical companion to Jorge Semprún, Berlin, Springer, 2014Abstract
For Jorge Semprún, acknowledging the miseries of history with its pain and suffering—events of the magnitude of the concentration camp, political repression, or the disillusionment with communist societies—does not mean, on the other hand, blindly accepting these insufficiencies.1 The narrative he develops both in his literary oeuvre and in his screenplays does not yield to a conceptualization of history as an impending force of destiny or as an unavoidable scheme driven by natural powers. This is to say, his works struggle to outline just how important it is to disassociate the shortcomings of history from any type of unavoidable doom. The political is historical and history is uncompromisingly political.
