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The Rhetoric of Disillusionment : Orwell, Koestler and the Spanish Civil

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The Rhetoric of Disillusionment : Orwell, Koestler and the Spanish Civil The Rhetoric o-F Disillusionment: Orwell, Koestler and the Spanish Civil War by Frances Lynne Horwitz B.A. University of British Columbia, 1983 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of English @Frances Lynne Horwitz SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY June 27, 1990 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name: Frances Lynne Horwitz Degree: Master of Arts (English) Title of Thesis: The Rhetoric of Disillusionment: Orwell, Koestler and the Spanish Civil War Examining Commit tee: Chair: Kathy Mezei Graduate Chair ----L ------.------------------------.. Mason Harris Associate Professor Senior Supervisor ________________- _-__----___-_-- Geoffrey Durrant Professor Emeritus Department of English University of British Columbia External Examiner PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay . The Rhetoric of Disillusionment: Orwell, Koestler and the Snanizh CIV?!. War Author: (s i gna ture) Frances Lynne Horwi tz (name) iii ABSTRACT The subject of this work is the connection between ideological disillusionment and its written expression--how George Orwell and Arthur Koestler came to abandon or reject political ideals they once cherished--as illustrated in Orwell's Spanish Civil War text and Koestler's autobiography. Specifically, the work argues that Orwell and Koestler were inspired more by their disillusionment, in the end, than by the war itself, to write about their experiences. Orwell and Koestler's disillusionment centered, in part, on the lies about the role of dissent and revolution in the Spanish War, lies required by Russia to maintain its foreign policy. Koestler, especially, was troubled by that same government's expedient ethics which not only permitted the distortion of the truth but also the sacrifice of human life, to further its aims. As they reveal their illusions both writers are aware that they have to prove that their new vision--their disillusionment--is not just another imperfect vision, another illusion. And they develop certain strategies to demonstrate that their disillusionment is not just more smoke and mirrors. But for both, the process of rejecting their ideals led to an affirmation: this process expedited the transformation of Eric Blair into George Orwell; and for Koestler, the process led to a more personal ideology and humane ethic. Through a comparative analysis, this work explores the illusions and disillusionments of these two writers. A5 well, a brief political and social context is provided for Orwell and Koestler's textual expression of their old imperfect visions and new clearer visions. The thesis closely examines the strategies both men use to convince their readers that their disillusionments are valid. Table Of Contents INTRODUCTION The Spanish Civil War, fought in the first third of this century, was very much a rallying polnt for writers and intellectuals, and also very much a literarv phenomemon. About ten years before the War, in the 1920'~~many European intellectuals and artists--such as the French Surrealists and the German Dadaists--had come together to foment a revolution of their own. Coming out of the First World War, they wanted to smash traditional artistic, religious, political, and social institutions, which they felt had contributed to the War. The young artists and intellectuals derided established traditions and institutions: they condemned the bigotry these institutions manifested through militaristic ultra-nationalism. They condemned the short-sightedness of the political leaders who provoked ultra-nationalism resulting in war and death. The writers, poets, painters, and musicians would attempt to change the political morality that had led to the First World War by establishing new values through the creation of new art forms. To many of the artists and intellectuals, the Spanish Civil War was revolution in action. This revolution promised a clean break with the past and a possible utopian future. In this revolution the fiqht was for the survivial of art and culture in a free society. Literacy for all Spaniards was actually part of the revolution. The Spanish Republican Government, as Raymond Carr says in his introduction to a pictorial history of the Civil War, honoured intellectuals, in contrast to the Nationalists' distrust of them, and paid great attention to the education of children. The commissars attached to army units distributed newsletters and conducted a campaign against illiteracy. There were also literacy campaigns in the countryside (The Spanlsh Clvll War: A Hlstory In Plctures, 15). So, much of the Spanish population hoped that learning to read and to write, that becoming literate, would be one of the outcomes of the war for them. But as the war became, through the politics of non- intervention, part of the power conflicts of Europe, so this involvement, or lack of it, gave Spanish issues an international importance. For many intellectuals the war became a contest between the ideologies that divided the continent, a contest between fascism and democracy. For exiled or alienated German intellectuals on the Left, for example, who were seeing the rise of the Nazis in their own country, the war in Spain seemed one way to stop fascism, so they could eventually return to their own country. And, as Carr says, a generation of intellectuals in England, who were "beaten down by the depression, unemployment and the National Government" felt "the sensation of effective action" in helping the Spanish resistance (The Spanlsh Clvll War: A History In Plctures, 21). Writers in other countries, in the process of identifying with one or the other of the two main combatants of the war, transformed the war into intellectual discourse through their writings. Their writings could serve either art or propaganda. No matter what the divisiveness of sides revealed by the Spanish war, the war's impact on writers and intellectuals was huge. Those writers who were broadly liberal, saw their support in the Republic at war as "the last cause". The fact that their commitment was often ruthlessly organized and exploited by Communists not just in Spain, but in many countries, or that their writing could be self-centered, should not prevent us from recognizing the genuine nature of the writers' commitment. Carr tells us that people all over the world responded to the "last chance" call "precisely because they were liberals of one sort or another, shocked at the overthrow of a 'progressive' government. Intellectuals felt on the side of history for once; they identified with Spaniards 'fiqhting for freedom'" (The Spanlsh Civll War, 21). But the consequences of their involvement resulted in many left-wing intellectuals feelinq apolitical and disillusioned. Having to abandon certain ideals, some writers felt renewed: they had new ideas to write about; others felt a terror: they had to face an emptiness left by the rejection of ideology, but they could write about that emptiness. Some writers, in the end, were compelled more by their disillusionment than by the war itself to write about their disillusionment. Two such writers were George Orwell and Arthur Koestler. In Orwell and Koestler we have disillusioned polemicists; and both are aware that the revelation of their illusion is double-edged. Coming out of their disillusionment, they show themselves as clear-sighted now but previousl~blind in their illusions. As they write about their old imperfect visions--their illusions--they are aware that they have to demonstrate that their new visions--their disillusionments--are not just more mirages. To check such criticisms, Orwell uses two strategies: first, he creates, through his narrative, a naive, non-partisan persona who is learning through his experiences; second, he interrupts the narrative to create a highly informed persona who, with great logic, analysizes his experiences. Koestler is Orwell's strategic counterpart when he creates his alternative to a past that betrayed his trust: a private, personal cosmology and humane ethics which impress his new vision. For Koestler, who was a Communist to beqin with, and for Orwell, who was and remained an unorthodox Socialist, the Communist Party's doctrines concerning dissent, revolution, and the truth about these matters were a main source of disillusionment. Dictated by Moscow's foreign policy, the Communist Party policy maintained that dissent and revolution in Spain were traitorous acts, and that an individual who bore witness to such dissent and revolution was also a traitor. But having been itself the child of dissent and revolution, the Communist Party could not denounce traitorous acts and persons aloud. So, with twisted reasoning, the Party also maintained that to lie about such events was virtuous. These mandated lies contributed to Koestler's loss of his illusions because, as a member of the Party, he was required to use his writing to create such lies. These lies disillusioned Orwell too, which, in turn, moved him to write the truth. Orwell was also disillusioned with the lack of unity in the fiqht against Fascism; in Spain, he saw through the Popular Front. But, in the end, Orwell would be reaffirmed In his Socialism. Unlike Qrwell, Koestler was disillusioned with politics as a whole: hls illusions had involved a whole world view, Koestler's disillusionment was more profound--he had more to lose.
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