Republican literature and culture during the Spanish civil war

Abstract

This article aims to describe a panorama of republican literature and culture during the war in Spain. The hatred of fascism for the intellectuality determined a commitment in defence of the culture of a Spanish intelligentsia mostly “loyal” to the republican government of the Popular Front. Thus, the Alliances of Intellectuals for the Defence of Culture were created in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia. The Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, while the communist Jesús Hernández was in charge, developed a popular front cultural policy. The most important milestones of this policy were the creation in Valencia of the House of Culture or the celebration of the Second International Congress of Writers for the Defence of Culture. Antonio Machado is undoubtedly the Spanish writer who symbolizes with greater clarity the loyalty to the republican government. A loyalty that will lead him, from Madrid to Valencia and from Valencia to Barcelona, t o die on February 22, 1939 in his French exile and to be buried, wrapped in a tricolour flag, in the cemetery of Collioure.