Compulsory Reading: The Press, Books and Indoctrination in Spanish Post-War Prisons

In the present work we look at some of the propagandist mechanisms deployed in postwar Francoist prisons by way of imposed reading, without any alternative or recourse to criticism. We analyse the creation, diffusion and vicissitudes of the weekly publication Redencion ("Redemption"), and the books, libraries and readers in prisons, paying special attention to the collections published by the Redencion publishing house. We especially focus on the content and discourse Redencion presented to its target audience and conclude by attempting to calibrate the indoctrinating power of these media by looking at the memories of inmates.