Criadas: la representación literaria como utopía o reparación

Abstract

This article analyzes some literary or cinematographic creations of
the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, focusing on the representation of the
character of the maid. The scenes considered are from Las largas vacaciones del 36
(1976), film of Jaime Camino, Primera memoria (1975), Ana Maria Matute novel
and the poem “Baño de doméstica” (1966), by Carlos Barral. The maids are
near to their employers so that they are caught between conflicting messages
and different allegiances. However, literary or artistic recreation on domestic
scenery in 36 is an expression of social justice utopias and fantasies of symbolic
reparation that art gives rise to protest and dissent about the “state of affairs”.