The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) pitted conservative forces including the army, the Church, the Falange (fascist party), landowners, and industrial capitalists against the Republic, installed in 1931 and supported by intellectuals, the petite bourgeoisie, many campesinos (farm laborers), and the urban proletariat. Provoking heated passions on both sides, the Civil War soon became an international phenomenon that inspired a number of literary works reflecting the impact of the war on foreign and national writers. While the literature of the period has been the subject of scholarship, women's literary production has not been studied as a body of work in the same way that literature by men has been, and its unique features have not been examined. Addressing this lacuna in literary studies, this volume provides fresh perspectives on well-known women writers, as well as less studied ones, whose works take the Spanish Civil War as a theme. The authors represented in this collection reflect a wide range of political positions. Writers such as Maria Zambrano, Mercè Rodoreda, and Josefina Aldecoa were clearly aligned with the Republic, whereas others, including Mercedes Salisachs and Liberata Masoliver, sympathized with the Nationalists. Most, however, are situated in a more ambiguous political space, although the ethics and character portraits that emerge in their works might suggest Republican sympathies. Taken together, the essays are an important contribution to scholarship on literature inspired by this pivotal point in Spanish history.
INTRODUCTION: Spanish Women Writers and Spains Civil War
ROBERTA JOHNSON AND MARYELLEN BIEDER
María Zambranos Enduring Drama: Remembering the Spanish Civil War
SHIRLEY MANGINI
Living the War, Writing the War: Poetic Figuration in Mercès La plaça
del Diamant
MARYELLEN BIEDER
Spaces of Enclosure in Liberata Masolivers Barcelona en llamas
LISA NALBONE
Hybrid Discourses and Double Voices: Re-evaluating the Spanish Civil War in Mercedes Salisachss Novels
CHRISTINE ARKINSTALL
The Last Battle: Gloria Fuertes and the Politics of Emotion in Her Late Civil War Poems
REYES VILA-BELDA
The Theater of Maria Aurèlia Capmany and the Reverberations of Civil War (History, Censorship, Silence)
SHARON G. FELDMAN
Carmen Laforet's Inspiration for Nada (1945)
ISRAEL ROLÓN-BARADA
Carmen Martín Gaite's Concept of Ruins
ROBERTA JOHNSON
Novels as History Lessons in Ana María Matutes Primera memoria (1960) and Demonios familiares (2014): From Betrayal to Solidarity
SILVIA BERMÚDEZ
The Phantasm of Civil War in Josefina Aldecoas Novelistic Trilogy
DAVID K. HERZBERGER
Impossible Neutrality: Civil War and Melodrama in Marina Mayorals Novels
ROSALÍA CORNEJO PARRIEGO
Montserrat Roig and the Civil War: Questions of Genre, Gender, and Authorial Presence
CATHERINE G. BELLVER
Family Documents, Analogy, and Reconciliation in the Works of Carme Riera
KATHRYN EVERLY
Dead Woman Walking: "Historical Memory," Trauma, and Adaptation in Dulce Chacóns La voz dormida
MICHAEL UGUARTE
CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES
