Political Poster Art of the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
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Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Theses Department of History Spring 5-11-2012 Gendering the Republic and the Nation: Political Poster Art of the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 Helen M. Greeson Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_theses Recommended Citation Greeson, Helen M., "Gendering the Republic and the Nation: Political Poster Art of the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2012. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_theses/51 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GENDERING THE REPUBLIC AND THE NATION: POLITICAL POSTER ART OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR, 1936-1939 by HELEN M. GREESON Under the Direction of Dr. Joe Perry ABSTRACT The Spanish Civil War is typically presented as a military narrative of the ideological battle be- tween socialism and fascism, foreshadowing World War II. Yet the Spanish war continued trends begun during World War I, notably the use of propaganda posters and the movement of women into visible roles within the public sphere. Employing cultural studies methods to read propaganda poster art from the Spanish war as texts, this thesis analyzes the ways in which this persuasive medium represented extremes of gender discourse within the context of letters, memoirs, and other experiential accounts. This thesis analyzes symbols present in propaganda art and considers how their meanings interacted with the chang- ing gendered identities of Republic and nation. Even within the relatively egalitarian Republic, political factions constructed conflicting representations of femininity in propaganda art, and women’s accounts indicate that despite ideological differences, both sides still shared a patriarchal worldview. INDEX WORDS: Cultural history, Feminism, Gender history, Interwar, Persuasive media, Poster, Propa- ganda, Social history, Spanish Civil War, Spanish Republic, Symbolism, Visual media, Women combatants GENDERING THE REPUBLIC AND THE NATION: POLITICAL POSTER ART OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR, 1936-1939 A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment ofRequirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2012 by Helen M. Greeson Committee: Dr. Ian C. Fletcher, Member ~ey,Member Dr. Michelle Brattain Department Chair GENDERING THE REPUBLIC AND THE NATION: POLITICAL POSTER ART OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR, 1936-1939 by HELEN M. GREESON A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2012 Copyright by Helen M. Greeson 2012 GENDERING THE REPUBLIC AND THE NATION: POLITICAL POSTER ART OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR, 1936-1939 by HELEN M. GREESON Committee Chair: Joe Perry Committee: Ian C. Fletcher Jared Poley Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University May 2012 iv For my grandmothers v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For their continuous support, constructive criticism, and willingness to listen, I wish to recognize my committee members, Joe Perry, Ian C. Fletcher, and Jared Poley. I am grateful for the expertise and patience of faculty members John Decker, Allen Fromherz, Denis Gainty, Michele Reid-Vazquez, Jacob Selwood, and Christine Skwiot. In addition, special thanks go to staff member Alta Schwartz and her husband Richard Gale for kindly offering use of their pho- tographs and providing perspective and enthusiasm. I owe a debt of gratitude to Georgia State for scholarships and other funding opportunities. Fellow Georgia State graduate students provided encouragement throughout the program, particularly Haley Aaron, Brian Biffle, Sarah Broome, Heather Howell, Charles Nathan Morgan, Alexa Ramirez, Mathew Ryan, Sally Stanhope, Lauren Thompson, and John Whitehurst. Partici- pants in the 2011 Marvels of Medieval Spain study abroad program offered welcome support with their sincere interest. Special thanks go to students Susan Knippenberg and Saakib Zafrani for accompanying me to historic sites in Spain. I would also like to mention former Oglethorpe University faculty member Alexander Martin for advising me during my undergraduate years and regarding my entry into graduate school. Many thanks go to fellow Oglethorpe alumni Glen Booth, Christy Breen, Heather Carlen Johnson, and Edgar “Chopper” Johnson. Finally, I am grateful for the support of my family. Thanks go to my husband Matt, my mother, my brother, and my late father. Without them, my graduate education would not have been possible. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................ v LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................viii 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Women in 1920s Spain ....................................................................................... 4 1.2 Course of War..................................................................................................... 8 1.3 Sources.............................................................................................................. 13 1.4 Method and Theory........................................................................................... 17 1.5 Figures............................................................................................................... 23 2 WAR AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION: VISUAL ARTS .................................. 27 2.1 Predecessors: World War I, Soviet Art, Fine Art, and Catalan Modernisme ... 27 2.2 Artists, Patrons, and Ink.................................................................................... 35 2.3 Images and Ideology: Reviewing Secondary Literature................................... 41 2.4 Figures............................................................................................................... 48 3 PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND GENDER DISCOURSE IN WARTIME......... 53 3.1 Introduction....................................................................................................... 53 3.2 Industrial and Agricultural Workers ................................................................. 55 3.3 Women as Victims of War................................................................................ 60 3.4 Women as Sexual Threats and Victims ............................................................ 67 vii 3.5 Woman Combatants.......................................................................................... 75 3.6 Elections, Voting and Gender........................................................................... 82 3.7 Conclusion: Constructing Francoist Spain........................................................ 86 3.8 Figures............................................................................................................... 91 4 CIVIL WAR IMAGERY IN GLOBAL CONTEXT.............................................. 101 4.1 Introduction..................................................................................................... 101 4.2 Memory, Spanish Global Stature, and Liberal Democracy ............................ 103 4.3 Transnational Ideologies and Regional Variations of Poster Art ................... 113 4.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 126 4.5 Figures............................................................................................................. 130 5 CONCLUSION: ECHOES OF WAR AND FASCISM......................................... 138 5.1 Figures............................................................................................................. 143 6 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................... 151 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Spanish Women Called to Arms ................................................................................. 23 Figure 1.2 The Militias Need You!............................................................................................... 23 Figure 1.3 Plaza de España, Seville.............................................................................................. 24 Figure 1.4 Detail, Plaza de España, Seville .................................................................................. 25 Figure 1.5 The Nationalists........................................................................................................... 26 Figure 2.1 Francisco de Goya, The Third of May......................................................................... 48 Figure 2.2 Second of May Monument, Madrid ............................................................................ 49 Figure 2.3 If You Tolerate This Your Children Will be Next ...................................................... 49 Figure 2.4 Pablo Picasso, Guernica.............................................................................................. 50 Figure 2.5 Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People........................................................... 51