Spanish Civil War poetry - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Spanish Civil War poetry

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Title: Spanish Civil War poetry


1
Spanish Civil War poetry
Death of a Militiaman, Robert Capa
2
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.

3
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,

4
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5
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

6
(No Transcript)
7
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)

8
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?

9
Polarities
  • democracy / fascism
  • communism / Catholicism
  • innovation / tradition
  • civilization / chaos
  • east / west
  • light / darkness
  • good / evil
  • life / death

10
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

11
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
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