ORBIT-OnlineRepository ofBirkbeckInstitutionalTheses Enabling Open Access to Birkbeck’s Research Degree output A Spaniard in Hertfordshire : the intellectual exile of Arturo Barea https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40291/ Version: Full Version Citation: Nieto McAvoy, Eva (2017) A Spaniard in Hertfordshire : the intellectual exile of Arturo Barea. [Thesis] (Unpublished) c 2020 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copy- right law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit Guide Contact: email A Spaniard in Hertfordshire: the Intellectual Exile of Arturo Barea Eva Nieto McAvoy Birkbeck, University of London PhD 2017 Declaration I, Eva Nieto McAvoy, declare that the work published in this thesis is my own. No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. London, 15 November 2017 2 Abstract This thesis explores the role of exile in the work of the Spanish Republican Arturo Barea (1897-1957). It suggests that, linked to the movements that exile generates (physical, social and intellectual), the concept of ‘transnational’ can be used as an analytical tool with which to interrogate Barea’s work and its interpretations. It was during his exile in Britain that Barea became a professional writer, a literary critic and a broadcaster for the BBC. He published his autobiographical trilogy The Forging of a Rebel, edited by T.S. Eliot, in London between 1941 and 1946. This work was immediately translated into several languages, but was only printed in Spanish in its Argentinian edition of 1951, and was not published in Spain until 1977. Through a combined reading of the trilogy alongside a larger body of fictional and non-fictional work the thesis offers a detailed historical analysis of the first context of production and reception of Barea’s writing in Britain, focusing on the period of 1938-1945. It highlights the challenges and opportunities of exile as a transnational and cosmopolitan experience, and demonstrates the different ways in which the homeland and the host state intersect in Barea’s work. Barea’s writings are read here as exercises of cross-cultural translation in which Spain, its people and the Spanish Civil War were construed for a British – and later international – public, while Britain, its people and their role in the Second World War were also interpreted for a Latin American audience. This thesis emphasizes the historical importance of the informal intellectual networks, the publishing landscape, and the ‘corporate cosmopolitanism’ of the BBC as the institutional sites in which Barea developed his work. A transnational and cosmopolitan approach can offer an avenue to analyse Spanish Republican exile cultural products in a wider historical setting. 3 Acknowledgments This thesis has been made possible by the financial support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. It is also the result of the patience and generous guidance of my supervisor Mari Paz Balibrea, whose work on Spanish Republican exile has been an inspiration for my research. I further wish to acknowledge the stimulating environment of the Department of Cultures and Languages at Birkbeck and the support received by John Kraniauskas, Luís Trindade, Carmen Fracchia, Jessamy Harvey, Luciana Martins, María Elena Placencia and Ann Lewis. During the course of my investigations, I have also been lucky to have the chance to share my on-going work in different forums and research seminars where I have received invaluable feedback for which I am very thankful. I want to gratefully acknowledge the help and advice of Fernando Larraz, Sebastiaan Faber, Julio Ortega, Shafquat Towheed, Michelle Brown and Mercedes Fernández Valladares. Their contributions have all enriched this thesis – needless to say that all errors are my own. I want to particularly thank Nigel Townson, Michael Eaude and William Chislett for their generosity in sharing with me all things Barean; as well as Christian Ravina for his infatigable quest to commemorate the contribution of Spanish exile culture to British history. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Marie Gillespie, who has supported my work in a number of different ways, and whose research into diasporas at the BBC World Service has been central to this thesis. I have also had the chance to meet fellow postgraduate students who have helped me through this long process. Amongst them, I particularly thank Mark Stuart-Smith, Mercedes Cebrián and Rosy Rickett. I have benefited from fellowships at several institutions and libraries such as the Hispanic Studies Department at Brown University, the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change at the Open University and the Harry Ransom Centre at the University of Texas, Austin. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Uli Rushby-Smith for allowing me to work with Arturo and Ilsa’s private papers. Hers and Eugene Ludlow’s generosity in sharing their time, memories, delicious food and coffee has had a profound impact on my work and life. The care of my friends has carried me through this thesis. Elena Veguillas’s sense of humour has made the shared experience of writing a thesis as Spanish exiles in London more enjoyable. Above all, I cannot express enough my gratitude for the many different ways in which my family has lovingly put up with me, encouraged and supported me through this research. I want to thank my uncle Rafa for bringing La forja de un rebelde into our lives, as it reminded him of the childhood he shared with my father in Lavapiés. I thank Ildikó and Reinhard Biedermann for their patience and loving support. Without the love of my parents Jean and José and my sister Érica – whose help has included travelling across the world with me in pursuit of my research – my work would not have been possible. This thesis is dedicated to them, and to Zoltán and Hannah, who are the loves of my life. 4 Table of Contents Declaration ................................................................................................................... 2 Abstract ........................................................................................................................ 3 Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................ 4 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 7 Literature Review ................................................................................................... 10 Barea and Spanish Republican Exile Studies......................................................... 18 Dialogizing Barea’s exile ....................................................................................... 25 A cosmopolitan exile? ............................................................................................ 32 Historicizing Barea’s exile ..................................................................................... 40 Chapter distribution ................................................................................................ 46 Chapter 1. The Making of the Bareas’ Transnational Network, 1937-41 .................. 49 A literary passport: Madrid, the Foreign Press Office, and the making of Valor y miedo ...................................................................................................................... 53 The French interlude: remembering Paris in Britain.............................................. 60 Reaching a safe haven? The Bareas’ arrival in Britain .......................................... 63 Finding a place for the Spanish Civil War in Britain during the Second World War ................................................................................................................................ 71 How to publish in a foreign tongue: The battle for The Forge .............................. 77 Becoming intellectuals of the British Left ............................................................. 79 A true member of the non-communist Left: writing Struggle for the Spanish Soul ................................................................................................................................ 82 The literary critic: Lorca for the Left ..................................................................... 88 Chapter 2. The Forging of a Writer: Barea’s Autobiographical Writing in Exile ..... 96 On the question of autobiography in Barea ........................................................... 97 Not Spain, but Barea ............................................................................................ 101 A mediator and ‘An honest man’ ......................................................................... 108 Arturo Barea, a modernist ethnographer? ............................................................ 116 An exile before exile ............................................................................................ 122 A writer for (and of) the people ........................................................................... 127 Chapter 3. The Key to Victory is Spain ................................................................... 136 The transnational Spanish Civil War ................................................................... 138 5 The rear of a Fifth Column .......................................................................................................