Spanish Civil War Writers & Works – IDS 3932 Final Review

Vocabulary flashcards summarizing key authors, works, and terms related to the Spanish Civil War literature discussed in IDS 3932.

George Orwell

English writer (1903-1950);

-fought with the POUM militia in Aragon (against the fascists), was wounded in 1937

-wrote Homage to Catalonia (1938)

-arrived in Spain in Dec 1936

-antagonist of the Spanish communist party & supported stalin

Homage to Catalonia

Orwell’s 1938 eyewitness account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side.

-Italian militiamen

-porron

-surprised that the moors are fighting

Federico García Lorca

-born in Granada: Spanish poet-playwright (1898-1936),

-friend with salvador dali

-foundedd teatro universitario la barraca

-wrote house of Bernarda alba

-died at the start of the war

The House of Bernarda Alba

Lorca’s 1936 drama of repression in rural Andalusia; premiered post-humously in Buenos Aires (1945).

Miguel de Unamuno

-philosopher-writer (1864-1936) of the Generation of 1898; twice rector of Salamanca University.

-born in Bilbao, basque country

-died of a heart attack

-wrote 1755

-exiled in france for commenting on miguel de rivera’s dictatorship

-generagtion of 1898

-philosopher, poet & novelist

Generation of 1898

Spanish literary group (Unamuno, Machado, etc.) responding to Spain’s 1898 imperial defeat.

“1755” (poem)

Unamuno’s last poem, dated 28 Dec 1936, written three days before his death; reflects on catastrophe.

-die, dream, death

Antonio Machado

Sevillian poet (1875-1939) of the Generation of 1898; died in exile shortly after crossing into France.

-born in andalusia

-french teacher

-wrote “the crime was in Grenada,

-Meditation (orange grove, blossoming valencia

“The Crime Was in Granada”

Machado’s October 1936 elegy mourning Lorca’s assassination.

• “playing up to death”

• “unafriad of her scythe”

Miguel Hernández

Orihuela-born poet (1910-1942); served in the Republican army and died of tuberculosis in prison.

-born in Valencia to pooor parents

-spanish poet & playright

-worked with neruda
- guerra (about the young ones & an old town without an owner, the aftermath of war),
- lullaby of the onion (mother & child)

“Lullaby of the Onion”

Hernández’s tender 1939 poem written from jail after learning his infant son was surviving on onions.

Langston Hughes

Harlem Renaissance writer (1902-1989); reported from Spain for the Baltimore Afro-American in 1937.

-studied in colombia

-published for volunteer for liberty

-works: negroes in spain, too much of race, october 16th (remebering john brown)

Volunteer for Liberty

English-language newspaper of the International Brigades that published Hughes’s Spanish Civil War pieces.

“Negroes in Spain”

Hughes’s September 1936 article describing African-American volunteers’ fight against fascism.

“Too Much of Race”

Hughes’s July 1937 speech at the II International Writers’ Congress in Paris urging class solidarity over racism.

-mentions of the moors

Pablo Neruda

Chilean Nobel laureate (1904-1973) who championed the Republican cause and compiled Spain in the Heart.

-born in chile

-noble prize winner for Literature

-senator of the republic

-works: songs to the mothers of the dead militiamen “raised fists defy death”, spain in the heart, Franco in hell

Spain in the Heart (España en el corazón)

Neruda’s 1937-38 poetry collection arising from his Spanish Civil War experiences.

“Song to the Mothers of the Dead Militiamen”

Neruda’s September 1936 poem honoring Republican martyrs, first printed in El Mono Azul.

“General Franco in Hell”

Neruda’s scathing poem against the Nationalist leader, later included in Spain in the Heart.

César Vallejo

Peruvian poet (1892-1938); visited war-torn Spain and wrote fiercely anti-fascist verse.

-born in peru

-10 siblings

-died in france

-published los heraldos negros

wrote: spain, take me from this cup during the war

“Spain, Take From Me This Cup”

Vallejo’s impassioned war poem, published posthumously in 1939.

-if spain falls…children of this world

Salaria Kea

African-American nurse (1913-1991) who served at the American Hospital in Villa Paz with the Republican forces.

-born in Georgia

-father was killed at an early age

-worked at harlem hospital

“A Negro Nurse in Republican Spain”

Kea’s 1938 memoir describing her front-line medical service and interracial marriage during the war.

American Hospital in Villa Paz

Field hospital where Salaria Kea worked after arriving with the second U.S. medical unit (March 1937).

-no electricity

-no water

-instead of white vs black, it was rich v poor

James Yates

Mississippi-born African-American volunteer (1906-1993) who served in transport units of the Lincoln Brigade.

-wrote from missisipi to mardid

-moved to NY for work

-owned his own radio repair business

Mississippi to Madrid

Yates’s 1986 autobiography recounting his journey from the U.S. South to fighting fascism in Spain.

Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Nickname for U.S. volunteers in the XV International Brigade supporting the Spanish Republic.

II International Writers’ Congress (1937)

Paris meeting where Hughes delivered “Too Much of Race” and Vallejo attended as Peruvian delegate.

Second Spanish Republic

Democratic government (1931-1939) defended by the Republicans against Franco’s Nationalists.

Nicolas Guillen

-afro cuban

-1902-1989

-stalin peace price

-national poet of cuba

International brigades

-40k volunteers

-from 50 countries

fight against fascism

-most volunteers were communist

Loyals (leales)

-2nd republic

-soviet union

-international brigades

Rebels- facsits/ nationalists

-moroccan army

-started the war

-condor legion

Reforms during the civil war

-agrarian

-women’s rights

-autonomous regions

SYmbols in bernarda alba

house: prison/hell

black: death/mourning

white: purity/virginity

colored fan: happiness, youth

heath: thirst, sexula desire

olive grove/ green: sexuality/fertility

Second international writers congress

-langston hughes, hemingway, guillen, vallejo

La casa de Bernarda Alba

-story derived from reality; a situation similar to the play that he observed and decided to write on

-meant to expose the ills, social and moral spain

-commentary on social class (money= power), marriage/traditional values, the church (promescuity), contemporary spanish life

-themes of :imprisonment/oppression, death,