Family Documents, Analogy and Reconciliation in the Works of Carme Riera
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Syracuse University SURFACE Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics College of Arts and Sciences 2017 Family Documents, Analogy and Reconciliation in the Works of Carme Riera Kathryn Everly Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/lll Part of the Other Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons, Spanish Literature Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Everly, Kathryn, "Family Documents, Analogy and Reconciliation in the Works of Carme Riera" (2017). Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics. 20. https://surface.syr.edu/lll/20 This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts and Sciences at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. New Hispanisms: Cultural and Literary Studies Spanish'Women'Writers Series editor: Anne .[. Cruz, University of Miami, USA and Spain's Civil'War New Hisþanisms: Cuhural and Literary Studies presents innovative studies that seek to understand how the cultural production of the Hispanic world is generated, disseminated, and consumed. Ranging from the Spanish Middle Ages to mode¡n Spain and Latin America, this series offers a forum for various critical and disciplinary approaches to cultural texts, including literature and other artifacts of Hispanic culture. Queries and proposals for Edited by Maryellen Bieder single author volumes and collections of original essays are welcome. and Roberta Johnson Masculine Virtue in Early Modern Spain Shifra Armon Policing Gender and Alicia Giménez Bartlett's Crime Fiction Nina L. Molinaro African Immigrants in Contemporary Spanish Texts Crossing the Strait Edited by Debra Faszer-McMøhon and Victoria L. Ketz The Formation of the Child in Early Modern Spain Ë Edited by Grace E. Coolidge Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Nation in Fin-de-siècle Spanish Literature and Culture Edited by .lennifer Sntith and Lisa Nalbone The Dynamics of Masculinity in Contemporary Spanish Culture Edited by Ana Corbalán and Lorraine Ryan Spanish Women Writers and Spain's Civil War Edited by Maryellen Bieder and Roberta.lobnson Ël Routledqe raytor e rrancilcroup $ \ LONDON AND NEWYORK First published 20'1 7 by Routledge Contents Z Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN rnd by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routlcdge is an imprinT of the Taylor 1y Ftancis Grcup, an infonna business O 2017 selection and editorial matter, Maryellen Bieder and Roberta [ohnson; individual chapters, the contributors fhe right of Maryellen Bieder and Roberta Johnson to be identified as the ruthors of the editorial material, and of the authors for thei¡ individual :hapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and78 ofthe Introduction: Spanish Women Writers and Spain's Civil War 1 3opyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. ROBERTA JOHNSON AND MARYELLEN BIEDER {ll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or ¡tilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now L M;aúa Zambrano's Enduring Drama: Remembering <nown or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in rny informatron storage or retrreval system, without permission in writing the Spanish Civil War L5 :rom the puhlishers. SHIRLEY MANGINI h'ademark nrúice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or Poetic Figuration -egistered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation 2 Living the War, Writing the War: øithout intent to infringe. in Mercè Rodoreda's La plaça del Diamant 35 MARYELLEN BIEDER British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data { catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library 3 Spaces of Enclosure in Liberata Masoliver's Barcelona en llamas 52 r,ibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data LISA NALBONE llP data lras been applied for. 4 Hybrid Discoulses and Double Voices: Re-evaluating SBN: 978-.1 -4724-768:i-8 (hbk) the Spanish Civil'War in Mercedes Salisachs's Novels 64 SBN: 978-1-3.1 5-54666-7 (el'¡k) CHRISTINE ARKINSTALL lypeset in Sab,rn ry codeMantra 5 The Last Battle: Fuertes and the Politics of Emotion in Her Late Civil War Poems 83 REYES VILA.BELDA 6 The Theater of Maria Aurèlia Capmany and the Reverberations of Civil War (Histor¡ Censorship, Silence) 100 SHARON G. FELDMAN 7 Carmen Laforet's Inspiration Íor Nøda (1945) 116 ISRAEL ROLON-BARADA 8 Carmen Martín Gaite's Concept of Ruins 729 ROBERTA JOHNSON Contents ) Novels as History Lessons in Ana María Matute's Introduction Primera metnoria (1960) and Demonios familiares (20L4) From Betrayal to Solidarity 744 Spanish \7omen ÏØriters and SILVIA BERMÚDEZ Spain's Civil \Øar ) The Phantasm of Civil War in Josefina Aldecoa's Novelistic Trilogy 155 Roberta lohnson and Maryellen Bieder DAVID I(. HERZBERGER I Impossible Neutrality: Civil War and Melodrama in Marina Mayoral's Novels t70 The Spanish Civil War (1936-1,939) pitted conservative force¡ including the RosRr-ÍR coRNEJo-PARRTEGo army, the Church, the Falange (Fascist party), landowners, and industrial capitalists against the Republic, installed in 1931 and supported by intellec- Montserrat Roig and the Civil War: Questions tuals, the petite bourgeoisie, many campesinos (farm laborers), and the urban of Genre, Gender, and Authorial Presence 190 proletariat. The Civil W'ar sparked international interest as it emblematized CATHERINE G. BELLVER the increasing division of the West between traditional and revolutionary factions in the wake of the Russian Revolution. It provoked heated pas- i Family Documents, Analogy, and Reconciliation sions on both sides, and it soon became an international pher:omenon when in the Works of Carme Riera 206 Germany's Hitler, siding with the Spanish conservative Nat-onalist forces, KATHRYN EVERLY sent the Luftwaffe to strafe Guernica in the Basque Country end other loca- tions; Mussolini sent ground troops. The Russians sent airplan:s and matériel Dead Woman Walking: "Historical Memory," Trauma, to support the Republican effort. The Spanish Civil \War inspired a number of and Adaptation in Dulce Chacónt La uoz dormida 221 literary works that reflect the impact of the'SØar on foreign and national writ- MICHAEL UGARTE ers, thus the label "the poet's war" (see Hugh D. Ford's A Poeís' War: British Poets and the Spaniú Ciuil War). Maryse Bertrand de Muñoz's La Guerre List of Contribwtors 235 ciuile espagnole et Ia littérature française and Katharine Bail Hoskins's Today lndex 241 tbe Strwggle: Literature and Politics in England during tbe Spanish Ciuil War chronicle French and English literary representations of the Spanish Civil lØar. Of the books that include Spanish authors, few mention Spanish women writers. The nearly 100 pages of Marilyn Rosenthal's Poetry of the Spanish Ciuil'War that address poets from Spain and Latin America who took the 'lØar as a theme, mention no women poets. Nor do Frederi:k R. Benson's Writers in Arms: Tbe Literary Impact of the Spanish Ciuil War or Carmen Moreno-Nuño's Las huellas de la Guerra Ciuil: Mito y trauma en la narratiua de la España democrática include any Spanish women writers. Under the Second Spanish Republic (L931,-1939) womer gained abso- Iute equality with men before the law; they were granted the vote and right to hold public office. Three prominent feminists held seats in Parliament- Clara Campoamor, who championed women's suffrage; and Victoria Kent and Margarita Nelken, who argued against women's having the vote f.ot feat that, influenced by their husbands and the clerg¡ they would vote for con- servative positions. Mujeres Libres [Free'S7omen], an organization founded in Madrid and Barcelona shortly before the outbreak of the Civil !Var, did not identify with the notion of feminism per se. Although its agenda seems Fømily Documents, Anølogy, and R.econciliation 207 German Shepherd. Riera won international acclaim for her brilliant histo- 13 Family Documents, Analogy, and rical novel Dins el darrer blaullntbe Last Bluelthat cielves into the plight Reconciliation in the Works of of the Jewish community living in secrecy on the island of Mallorca during the Spanish Inquisition. The novel won severai literary prizes including the Carme Riera Spanish National Prize for Narrative in 199 5. Riera's interesr in the Spanish Civil'S7ar appears in 2003 with the publication of La meitat de l'ànima. The novel coincides with a larger trend in Spanish lerters aimed to vindicate Kathryn Euerly the Spanish leftist forces of the defeated Republic, including such notable publications as Soldados de Salaminø lsoldiers of Salørnisl (2001) by Javier Cercas and La uoz dormida lThe Sleeping Voice) by Dul:e Chacón io 2002.3 However, Riera does not fall into political posturing ncr does she intend to In her 2013 memoir, Temps d'innocència [A time of innocence]' Carme Riera rectify national historical memory but rather she takes a personal approach describes her relationship to the Spanish Civil'!Øar as mediated through lan- to the'$Øar, recognizing that all history is at once national and personal and guage: "Quan io vaig néixer feira nou anys que s'havia acabat la guerra. that language is indeed a slippery slope on which to grrund historical fact. Laparaula'guerra'tenia, però, un gruix quotidià" (47) [when I was born, Her literary project is based on decoding language by revealing irs tenuous the'S7ar had been over for nine years. The word "war" had, nevertheless, meanings and by extension she sees history as a narrative, another story that an everyday feel to it].l Therefore it seems fitting that it is through writ- has many sides and many angles worth exploring. In recognition of her out- ing that Riera approached and came to understand the past and present standing and enduring contribution to Spanish literatu:e and culture Riera repercussions of the Spanish Civil War.