Spanish Civil War poetry

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Spanish Civil War poetry
Death of a Militiaman, Robert Capa
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The literature of political engagement --
Travers

• the role of the writer/artist in the face of
  rising fascism
• the writers survey of 1937
• M. Hernández all theater, all poetry and all
  art has to be, today more than ever, a weapon of
  war.
• Stephen Spender an obligation to save the world
  from fascism
• Camus It was in Spain that men learned that one
  can be right yet beaten, that force can vanquish
  spirit, that there are times when courage is its
  own recompense.

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On the right

• Song for the Desired Spain
• I want a Spain the same as that Spain
• That 200 years ago fell asleep on us
• A perfect and generous Spain, compendium
• Of constant efforts and supreme conquests.
• A Spain, like that one, fruitful and beneficent
• And, like her, hated and attacked
• Made from dreams of virtue and from love,
• And with the rigor of effort and discipline
• Captains of Flanders, seamen of Lepanto,
• Heroes and missionaries of the Indies,
• Teachers of Alcalá and Salamanca,
• Painters and sculptors of Seville!
• Theologians of Trent, craftsmen of the Escorial,
• You poets who sang to the Eucharistic God,
• You saints who felt and taught
• The internal laws of mysticism...!
• All you who enjoyed that eternal toil,

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Nationalists (fascists)

• culture for the elite
• use of traditional forms (rejection of
  fragmentation) unity, totality
• order, geometry, classical form
• extalled discipline, hierarchy, paternalistic
  authority
• the Church
• traditional Spanish womanliness motherhood
• cult of violence
• war as a sport, a game to be enjoyed, a crusade
  
• cult figures the Cid, Santiago, Virgin saints

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Look at the following poem

• The fire
• Ill explain a few things (131-133)
• The battle of Jarama River (136-7)
• Short Prayer for a Hero of the Republic (141)
  Mass (145-146)
• Like an Amadís of Gaul Women (142-143)
• Ultima Ratio Regum (153)
• Fall of a city (157)
• A Letter from Aragon (259-260)

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Discuss

• The characterization of
• the war
• education/culture
• the masses
• the fascists
• role of women
• the past and the future
• uses of religious imagery
• other imagery
• In your opinion, does the political message
  detract from its artistic value?

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Polarities

• democracy / fascism
• communism / Catholicism
• innovation / tradition
• civilization / chaos
• east / west
• light / darkness
• good / evil
• life / death

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Characteristics of Republican poetry

• war waged for by the people
• purpose a new society
• religious imagery announcing a modern day Christ
• Christian values of brotherhood
• education / literacy
• popular culture for benefit of all social
  improvement

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Characteristics

• importance of role of women
• innovation in poetic form
• influence of surrealism
• idealization of the masses
• collective love of mankind
• war as a painful necessity
• death as a source of new life