Author Description
The Spanish Civil War--the most momentous political and cultural flashpoint of the 1930s--struck deep into the conscience and conciousness of the West. This anthology offers a vivid, moving, and often surprising cross-section of the writing it generated--prose and poetry, public and private, documentary and fictional, convinced and skeptical, left-wing and right-wing. It includes contributions from a number of lesser-known authors, as well as the famous names, and the distinctive participation of women is ehre recognized and represented for the first time. The book shows writers taking sides; reflecting on the war's progress in essays, diaries, letters, journalism, poems, stories, and novels; reporting their visits to the fighting zones; and expressing their responses ranging from hope to despair, from satisfaction to horror. Included are selections from Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, Randall Jarrell, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, Wyndham Lewis, Virginia Woolf, Leon Trotsky, Vita Sackville-West, Claude Simon, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, George Orwell, John Dos Passos, Helen Waddell, David Gascoyne, Antonia White, Ford Madox Ford, and many more. The publication of this book is timed to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This anthology investigates how the Spanish Civil War functioned as a primary cultural and political catalyst for Western intellectuals during the 1930s. Editor Valentine Cunningham compiles a diverse array of primary source materials to demonstrate the ideological spectrum of writers who engaged with the conflict. By curating both public journalism and private correspondence, the text argues that the war forced a definitive confrontation between artistic conscience and political reality.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- A comprehensive collection of essays, poems, diary entries, letters, and excerpts from novels.
- Perspectives from both left-wing and right-wing political alignments.
- Inclusion of works by both canonical figures and lesser-known authors, with specific attention to female contributors.
Scope Limits
- The collection focuses primarily on the literary and intellectual response rather than a detailed military or tactical history of the war.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars and historians frequently cite this anthology as a foundational resource for understanding the intellectual climate of the 1930s. Readers note the density of the material, which effectively captures the wide range of emotional and political responses to the conflict.
Page Count:
421
Publication Date:
1986-07-17
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0192122584
ISBN-13:
9780192122582
History
Military History
Political History
Literary Criticism
Anthology
Civil War
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