Impact case study database

Elena Fortún: reviving the cultural and literary legacy, and inspiring and co-creating new forms of artistic expression, commemoration and memorialisation

Since 2015, titles published under Capdevila-Argüelles’s co-directorship of the Biblioteca Elena Fortún series, and those drawing on Fortún’s work and collaboration with other mothers of Spanish feminism, enjoyed great commercial and critical success. El camino es nuestro [ 3.2] – an anthology of Elena Fortún and Matilde Ras’ work co-edited by Capdevila-Argüelles – marked the beginning of Fortún’s revival. Now sold out, it paved the way for De corazón y alma [ 3.4], a collection of Fortún’s correspondence with Carmen Laforet, had two editions (2,600 copies) sell out in less than three months [5.1] and a theatre adaptation produced in the Conde Duque Theatre in April 2017 [5.2]. Meanwhile, new critical editions of Fortún’s previously published ‘Celia’ work transformed this saga in Spanish children and teenage fiction into bestselling women’s history books (with sales of more than 20,000 [5.1]). Renacimiento, which publishes the Biblioteca Elena Fortún series, has strategically strengthened its portfolio of recovered feminist writers, culminating in the award of two prizes for its feminist memorialisation work [5.1].

Fortún’s previously unpublished autobiographical novel, Oculto sendero, now a best-seller, was named one of the books of the year by El País in 2017. Widely reviewed and praised in Spanish media [5.1], the book also sparked a surge of international interest in its author’s significance as a feminist and lesbian thinker in turbulent 20^th century Spain. Examples include a discussion with Capdevila-Argüelles on BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour in May 2017 [5.1], annual talks to schools in Somerset and Devon as part of the Horizon lecture series [5.3], and the English translation with a foreword by Capdevila-Argüelles, promoted by Instituto Cervantes-Chicago in December 2020 [5.1].

Fortún’s life and works are the subject of two sold-out theatre adaptations at Centro Dramático Nacional in 2019 and 2020. The director of the centre expressed appreciation for the ‘invaluable contribution’ of Capdevila-Argüelles’s published research to these productions. The ‘rigorous work of theoretical research carried out around the writer was highlighted’, creating an ‘initiative that restored the contribution of a writer who, due to incomprehensible and unacceptable prejudices, had been displaced to an unjust and discreet place in the canon of contemporary Spanish literature’ [5.2]. Meanwhile, the stage director and playwright María Folguera asserts her reliance ‘on the existing bibliography on Elena Fortún, in which Nuria Capdevila-Argüelles plays a decisive role, so much so that Capdevila-Argüelles features as a character in one of the plays’. [5.2]

The former minister of education, Ángeles González-Sinde, states that Capdevila-Argüelles’s research shows today’s feminists ‘are not alone’ and that ‘young people know that the feminist plight is not new and has a history that belongs to them’. Leading cultural figures such as the writers and journalists Almudena Grandes and Elvira Lindo, and Octavio Salazar (jurist, lawyer, writer and queer activist), have also underlined the impact of Capdevila-Argüelles’s work, with Grandes noting that it ‘has been fundamental to the recovery of such important authors as Elena Fortún, of whom […] we now know that she was much more than the great creator of Celia's books’. Lindo writes that ‘we owe it to Nuria Capdevila-Argüelles’s work to know the mothers of our feminism continued to be faithful to their vocations despite exile’, and Salazar praises Capdevila-Argüelles for bringing to light and explaining the dimensions of ‘Fortún’s rebellion against heterosexuality and patriarchy’. Judge Balaguer has specifically mentioned the influence of Capdevila-Argüelles research methodology in her book Que Nadie Muera Sin Amar El Mar [5.4; 5.5]. Finally, reinstating Fortún in Spanish cultural life led to official acts of public recognition in Spain and the UK, including public building renaming in Madrid in 2016 [5.6] and the official launch of one of Capdevila-Argüelles’s outputs [3.2] at the Spanish Embassy in London in 2015, with Spanish ambassador praising Capdevila-Argüelles’s critical essays for ‘making us aware that Elena Fortún, Matilde Ras and others made great contributions to Spanish literature’ and for ‘raising them up from oblivion’ [5.7].

Las Sinsombrero and CartasVivas: new cultural and educational products re-establishing forgotten Spanish feminist figures

Las sinsombrero, described in a 2016 article on RTVE as ‘the first big Spanish transmedia project’ [5.8], is a two-part TV documentary series with a host of associated educational and cultural programmes, first launched in 2015. The project is defined by series director Tania Balló as a ‘visual translation of the “uncertain authorship” explored by Capdevila-Argüelles in her books’ [5.8]. Spanish for ‘the hatless women’, it is now a term used to group women authors and artists from the 1927 Generation, whose recovery, legacy and memory is at the centre of Capdevila-Argüelles’s research.

Capdevila-Argüelles acted as an official advisor and one of the ‘talking heads’ for Part 1, and as advisor, narrator and script writer for Part 2 in 2018. When Part 1 was first aired on TVE 2 on 15/10/2015, Las Sinsombrero broadcast to 250,000 households, and having moved to an online catch-up service, was seen 25,000 times in the first six months. The accompanying educational material was accessed 45,000 times online in the first 12 months, with the time spent on the page surpassing ten minutes. Official RTVE data show that the documentary reached a target audience of 18-35 year olds – a significant departure for the channel, which has a typical audience of over-45s [5.8].

The educational part of the project was developed in collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Education, and in 2016/17 was included in the curriculum of the fourth year secondary and second year Baccalaureate education. Capdevila-Argüelles has also delivered multiple school talks sponsored by the ministry [5.8]. The second part of Las Sinsombrero premiered in Abycine Festival (26/10//2018), in Madrid (09/03/2019) and on national TV during the week surrounding 2019 International Women’s Day (audience: 321,000 households). Social media posts written by Capdevila-Argüelles on Las Sinsombrero Facebook and Twitter pages prompted users to comment that ‘words cannot describe how important learning about the past is’ (14/03/2017) and that ‘I look for and buy every book that you recommend in your page’ (12/05/2017) [5.8].

Capdevila-Argüelles’s work influenced other activities and enterprises such as Proyecto Wemen (a multimedia project showcasing men’s views on feminism), card game Theatre Against Oblivion, feminist tourist walks Herstoricas (in Madrid and London) and the cultural tourism project Rutas Teatrales. Her research of a ‘field […] forgotten by official history but […] of great importance for the construction of collective memory’ informed the design of the tour Mujeres que inspiran (Inspiring Women) taken by over 200 people on a single day – International Women’s Day in 2019 – as part of official City of Madrid activities. Herstóricas meanwhile assert that her research ‘and, most importantly, her methodology’:

‘…has inspired us to always challenge the absence of women in any cultural space and to rethink our cities and their history as herstory. Through works like Nuria’s Artistas y precursoras, Autoras inciertas, her extensive critical editions of Fortún […] we have rediscovered a genealogy, worked with other feminist groups and scholars, developed our cultural walks, workshops and our card game ‘Herstóricas Pioneras. ’ [5.9]

In 2019, in collaboration with Fundación Banco de Santander (FBS) and the University of Barcelona, Capdevila-Argüelles launched CartasVivas (registered patent 4015976), a series of short films featuring acclaimed Spanish actors reading letters and memoirs by women intellectuals and artists from the Spanish avant-garde, featured in Autoras inciertas and Autoras y precursoras. For FBS, which normally does not fund university-based work, this project is a culmination of the ongoing relationship with Capdevila-Argüelles. Critical reviews across a number of national and international media platforms, including El País, El Mundo, Guardian, ABC, and many others, have hailed the importance of the project in making invisible women visible today. The project engages with audiences beyond academia via the Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival, which has showcased the project in Edinburgh, Stirling and Glasgow in 2019 and 2020 and via its digital platform [5.10].

Capdevila-Argüelles’s ‘reputation as a leading feminist scholar’ led to a collaboration with Avalon Production Company on a biopic of Hildegart Rodríguez, one of the ‘autoras inciertas’. Avalon testimony declares that Capdevila-Argüelles has had a ‘critical impact on our project […] liaising with the creative team […and] revising versions of the script’. They add that the field of historical feminist memory is becoming more alive in Spain, influencing the publishing industry, film, theatre and television, and that ‘Prof Capdevila-Argüelles’s skills have no doubt played a key role in this’ [5.9].

Confirming her influence abroad, a recent evaluative review of Capdevila-Argüelles’s work in the literary supplement of Argentine broadsheet La Nación notes that pre-Francoist women’s history has finally been connected with post-Francoism, and that the importance of the public, private and secret lives of women, along with the need to know about the impact of gender violence and discrimination in all three, has been understood by Hispanic audiences and those interested in Spanish history and culture, influencing public debate as well as cultural, educational and political development [5.1].