(Re)negotiating Freedom of Expression in the Spanish Transition: The Case of El Papus (1973–1987)

Abstract Juxtaposing documents from judicial and administrative archives with material published in the satirical magazine El Papus (1973–1987), this essay examines the confrontation between national-Catholic discourse and new modes of visual and textual expression in late Francoism and the early years of the democratic transition in Spain. The present study represents a survey of some 44 state-produced documents and 124 journalistic pieces, applying a two-pronged methodology rooted in discourse analysis with a special focus on the content and themes deemed unfit for publication in the pages of El Papus. The results will show that a loosening of erotic and sexual mores, particularly those related to Spanish women—who were quickly emerging as political subjects in the 1970s—became the magazine’s preferred tool for interrogating the repressive structures underpinning Francoist society. As the administration and the judiciary grappled with the evolution of social norms before and during the Transition, they sought to decelerate the shifts taking place by publicly accusing editors and contributors of profanity, indecency, and/or immorality in court documents from the period. As argued here, El Papus played a decisive role in the interrogation of Francoist family values throughout the 1970s: (re)negotiating practices related to the freedom of expression in countercultural media produced in Spain.