Spanish Culture Behind Barbed Wire: Memory and Representation of the French Concentration Camps, 1939-1945By the end of the Spanish Civil War in March of 1939, almost 500,000 Spaniards had fled Francisco Franco's newly established military dictatorship. More than 275,000 refugees in France were immediately interned in hastily constructed concentration camps, most of which were located along the open shorelines of France's southernmost beaches. This book chronicles the cultural memory of this war refugee population whose stories as camp inmates in the early 1940s remain largely unknown, unlike the wide dissemination of the literature and testimony of the survivors of Nazi death camps. The hidden history of France's seaside camps for Spanish Republicans spawned a rich legacy of cultural works that dramatically demonstrate how a displaced political community began to reconstitute itself from the ruins of war, literally from the sands of exile. Combining close textual analyses of memoirs, poetry, drama, and fiction with a carefully researched historical perspective, Spanish Culture behind Barbed Wire Investigates how the most significant literature of the early post-civil war exile period appropriated the concentration camp as a discursive vehicle. |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
BarbedWire Borderlands | 21 |
The Death and Resurrection | 34 |
Copyright | |
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Spanish Culture Behind Barbed Wire: Memory and Representation of the French ... Francie Cate-Arries No preview available - 2004 |
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Alambradas Amieva Antonio arena Argelès Argelès-sur-Mer barbed wire Barcelona beach beauty begins body border Campos de concentración chapter civil collective Collioure concentration camp continue crossing cultural Cyprien dead death describes dream early edition emigration España español exile exilio experience explains face fact fear fellow Ferrer fight figure final forced France freedom French future García Gerpe going ground guards hands hope identity imagination includes inmates interned José Juan kind later letter living Machado Madrid Manuel March memoir memory Mexico City months narrator novel official Paris pieces play poem political prisoners published recalls record refers refugees representative Republic Republican sand says scene sense SERE shared soldiers space Spain Spaniards Spanish Spanish refugees spirit story suffering thousands tion writes written