Mi guerra, tu guerra: Claiming the Spanish Civil War in literature and film

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of general trends in a selection of representations of the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to the present in literature and film, arguing that two different versions of the conflict have developed since the nationalists' victory in 1939. It begins by examining how, following the rapid internationalization of the conflict in 1936, the Civil War was considered increasingly as a battle between ideological absolutes, European artists or writers in particular electing to defend one cause over the other through their artistic representations of the conflict. However, with the defeat of the Spanish Republic, the war rapidly became a metaphor for the failure of ideological commitment in many subsequent European representations of the war. Yet, while these tend to treat the Civil War as international property, the pro-nationalist propaganda of the franquist era and the silence of the Transition are now giving way in both Spanish and international literature and film to attempts to reclaim a national memory of the Civil War. The article concludes by considering how these might influence subsequent non- Spanish representations of the war.