WITNESSES OF HISTORY:

Transethnicity in the literature

about the Spanish Civil War by
US volunteers
Esta foto de Autor desconocido está bajo licencia CC BY-NC-ND
 Filling the gap:

Why yet another study about the Spanish Civil war, after so many books and monographs?

• Transethnic approach  never done before

• Scholars are usually concerned with the facts, with the truth

• Comprehensive study of the literary outcome

• Special focus on the element of multiculturalism in the Republican side

 THE TERM
TRANSETHNICITY:
In Begoña Simal’s words: “Transethnicity both
emphasizes the desirability of “crossing” ethnic
boundaries and, more importantly, suggests a
problematization of the very term “ethnic”, without
entirely dismissing it.”

This thesis’ main intention  to put literary

works written by North-Americans from different
ethnic backgrounds in dialogue with each other.
That is, to create a roundtable with texts created by
people of all kinds of provenience, whether if they
were Afro-American, of Jewish ascendence or
WASPs.

Expected outcome  a considerably richer study

about the Spanish Civil war
Esta foto de Autor desconocido está bajo licencia CC BY-SA-NC
 MAIN HYPOTHESES
 Transethnicity is palpable in the literature about the SCW
 Comradeship pivotal in this unprecedented flux of volunteers
 Premature antifascists
 Transethnicity as a factor which enriches the literary works
 There are similarities in the works by people from quite different
backgrounds
Esta foto de Autor desconocido está bajo licencia CC BY-NC-ND
 Results so far obtained

• The Republican side was indeed a multicultural and transethnic context but:
- There were some personal and ideological disagreements
- Some dissidents appeared during the war and afterwards
- Many of the works focus on the war and its occurrences

• Including texts by authors from different ethnic and religious backgrounds has enhanced
the quality of the thesis

• There are many similarities between the narratives of authors who had nothing in
common but the war
 THE METHODOLOGY(-IES)

• Transethnicity – Langston Hughes, Edwin Rolfe, Alvah Bessie…

• Feminist Theory and Gender perspective – Martha Gellhorn, Gamel Woolsey,

Josephine Herbst…

• From marginal to central – James Norman, William Herrick, James Yates…

 THE STRUCTURE

 Transethnicity: A Mosaic War

 Intra-Histories: The Need for Autobiographies

 Political Lyricism in the Popular Front

 Testimonial Novels

 Fictionalized testimonies
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATENTION
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED
IT!

Alejandro Batista
University of Seville
Contact: alebatista04@gmail.com