Funded Scholarship
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Publication Title
Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures
Abstract
This article examines two contemporary Spanish novels, Josefina Aldecoa’s Historia de una maestra (1990) and Donato Ndongo’s Las tinieblas de tu memoria negra (1987), to assess the status of pedagogical idealism and experimentation with particular attention to Equatorial Guinea. Where previous scholarly attention to Aldecoa’s novel focuses on the protagonist’s credentials as a progressive pedagogue, this article draws attention to Gabriela’s etapa guineana to argue that the text cripples under the weight of postcolonial analysis as regards race, religion, class, and language. Drawing the novel into comparison with Ndongo’s text, the article argues that Spanish colonial pedagogy flattened, or sought to “cover over” (Dussel 1995), the dynamism and strength of autochthonous education and cultural traditions. Ndongo’s text illuminates the epistemic complexities faced by a young Fang boy interpolated between his tribal elders and the allure of the colonial classroom and Catholic priesthood. Ultimately the article threads the two novels into a conversation that both binds them together and separates them apart. Although the novels were published in Spain within three years of each other, and each focuses on education and coming-of-age in Equatorial Guinea, the article illustrates the authors’ distinct perspectives on the merits—and memories—of Spain’s colonial presence in Equatorial Guinea.
Recommended Citation
Lawson, P. (2025). Pedagogical Idealism, Race, and the Specter of Africa in Josefina Aldecoa’s Historia de una maestra and Donato Ndongo’s Las tinieblas de tu memoria negra. Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures, 79(2), 145–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/00397709.2025.2469546
