A queer problem: writing sapphic anarchism in Spanish Civil War fiction

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, I offer an analysis of anarchist attitudes towards lesbianism in Spain in the 1930s and how these attitudes have informed my creative practice in writing a novel about the experiences of queer women in the Spanish Civil War. I propose that the anarchist lesbian is a paradox, being a figure that is simultaneously visible and invisible in the 1930s, and consider the importance of the butch stereotype in identifying lesbian women of the time, using Lucía Sánchez Saornil as a leading example of a masculine anarchist woman in the public eye and the individualist writings of Poch and Armand as examples of the generation of positive attitudes towards, and even encouraging, sapphic love. I locate my novel as a bridge between historiography and literature that seeks to rectify the lack of documentation about lesbian lives in this period. Finally, I offer a reading of Rosa Maria Arquimbau’s novel Quaranta anys perduts as an example of representation of coded lesbian anarchism in historical literature and explain how my work builds upon this genealogy of queer historical fiction about the Spanish Civil War.