Afterword: Regarding the spain of others: Sociopolitical framing of new literatures/cultures in democratic Spain

An artifact sums up perfectly the intersection of forces established in the first years of Spanish democratic culture: El imperio contraataca (1985), a video clip by the musical group Los Nikis in which Philip the Second appears in the garden of the Retiro de Madrid, accompanied by three electric guitarists, all in the dress of the Golden Age. The monarch's moves are compulsive, frenetic. He spins on the floor like a child; he shouts, applauds, laughs. Between shots, the image of a man in a straitjacket appears. The maniacal return of the empire: "Hace mucho tiempo que se acabó,/pero es que hay cosas que nunca se olvidan,/por mucho tiempo que pase./1582,/el sol no se ponía en nuestro Imperio,/me gusta mucho esa frase" (Nikis, 1985) (It ended long ago,/but there are things that are never forgotten,/no matter how much time passes./1582,/the sun did not set on our Empire,/I love that phrase a lot).¹.