“El carnet rojo obliga por igual”: Identidad de partido y representación de la mujer en el PCE (1936–39)

Abstract

This article explores several aspects of the representation of communist women’s identity during the Spanish Civil War. It examines an important narrative genre in published international communist material—heroic biographies—and highlights the importance of personification, moral exemplification, and attitudinal values in the codification of the female activist. The second part of the article analyses reports on political suitability, confidential material that also adopted criteria of a moral nature. The material studied shows certain archetypes subjected to a strong party identity, their role in the design of communist femininity and their impact on the construction of subjectivity.