UCLA

This dissertation undertakes a cultural materialist approach to analyze residual and emerging feelings toward metanarratives of Basques and Basque-language culture as somehow innately radical, in light of the idea that we live in a time in which there is no alternative to the current late capitalist modes of production. What does it mean for one’s identity to embody resistance when resistance is seemingly futile? In the post-crisis context in which hegemonic power increasingly relies upon a precariously maintained consensus, what feelings of pride, confusion, cynicism, and hope are emerging? The objective is not to verify the truth behind such metanarratives of Basque exceptionalism, but rather to acknowledge their presence in political discourse and ideology, and to trace ways in which structures of feeling are being reshaped in the ongoing post-crisis, post-ETA context of the Basque Country.

The first chapter begins by tracing the nature and origins of both Basque exceptionalism and Basque ostracization, focusing in particular on the development of a counter-hegemonic Basque political and cultural movement in the 1960s and its evolution up to the current period. I then introduce Jacques Rancière’s concept of post-democracy and his critiques of consensus politics as theoretical tools for understanding how dissent and political contestation are neutralized within the Basque context, providing a panoramic, materialist perspective on contemporary cultural production and establishing the context for the subsequent chapters. The second chapter analyzes Fermin Muguruza’s Black is Beltza transmedia project (2014–2022), exploring its affirmations of a singular and radical Basque solidarity with ties to the African Diaspora and Third World liberation struggles. The third chapter looks at the clash of cosmopolitanism, professional-managerial class identity, and post-ETA Basque politics in Katixa Agirre’s novel Los turistas desganados (2017) and Aixa de la Cruz’s novel La línea del frente (2017), examining how both texts shed light on generational shifts in Basque identity, public perception of radical activism, and the cultural logic of late capitalism. The fourth and final chapter compares the music of the Pamplona-based groups Chill Mafia and Tatxers, focusing on how their work reflects generational critiques of neoliberalism and post-ETA consensus politics, as the former group highlights the contradictions underlying metanarratives of capitalism and Basque exceptionalism through meta-ironic humor and hedonism, while the latter group has led a post-punk revitalization of the Basque underground scene, emphasizing aesthetic innovation and appeals to material politics over Basque ethnocentrism.