Today, Galicia is one of Spain's most popular travel destinations. It is known internationally for the Camiño de Compostela - a world recognized city and pilgrimage site. Galician history, however, reveals extensive periods of political repression, social neglect and little capacity for economic sustainability. In the post-Franco period this has been changing, such that the socio-political challenges of the past have been giving way to a greater acceptance of and interest in Galicia's language, culture and heritage. This is evidenced by the still-developing and politically sanctioned processes of "normalization," reclamation and cultural reaffirmation. Since 1975 when the post-Franco period began, Galicia's increasing representation and visibility on a global stage brings into question the impact of this notoriety and the consumer-based packaging of Galician culture to domestic and international audiences. Now, at the very historical juncture when Galicia is afforded a greater freedom of expression and cultural acceptance, the impact of increasing cultural commodification and tourist marketing may result in a loss of, or at best a distortion of the region's rich cultural heritage. The packaging of Galician heritage and culture for mass consumption may play a role in the region's potential cultural demise. This dissertation seeks to better understand the potential opportunity of "normalizing" and reclaiming Galician identity and culture in the context of globalization. To this purpose, I consider a selection of narrative representations of Galicia produced in recent decades. These texts and narratives allow consideration of representations of Galicia's culture and identity and asks whether they may be supportive or harmful to the sustainability of Galician cultural heritage. The dissertation will explore how the selected narratives represent, construct, and/or appropriate Galician cultural heritage and language and whether the narratives of Galicia constructed by authors from within differ from those written by authors from without. The dissertation then investigates how the narratives differ and how might they be supportive or not of the region's history and culture. Further, the roles these narratives play in disseminating a particular view of Galician cultural and heritage is explained as well as how the narratives of the state or of those with political influence in Galicia represent the region's history and culture. By exploring both popular and hegemonic or "official" narrative representations of Galician identity, I hope to present a richer understanding than has been offered before of the current trends in representing and articulating Galician identity and culture. By considering a selection of the most resonant narratives inspired by Galicia since 1985, I shed light on the potential impact of these influential representations for this internationally recognized, highly unique and most important region of Spain.
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