En los límites del comunismolas vivencias de Stephen Spender durante la Guerra Civil Española

Resumo

One of the most controversial poets of the Auden Generation, Sir Stephen Spender: had a remarkably complex relation wich Communism during the decade of the 1930s. In essays written until the beginning of 1937, Spender reveals a progressive approach to the Communist philosophy. The process culminates when, in February, 1937, Spender joins the Commumst Party and immediately travels to Spain, urged to do so by the secretary of the British Communist Party, Harry Pollitt. Alter three visits to Spain in the same year evidence of contact with the Communist Party or any interest in other forms of polítical commitment altogether disappears from Spender's works. This sequence of events strongly suggest the idea that Spender's experience in the Spanish Civil War constitutes a turning point in his political attitude, wich eventually reflects a change in his notion of literature ultimate function. This presentation explores the reasons behind Spender's visits to Spain, and how his firsthand experience of the Spanish conflict resulted in his progressive estrangement from political commitment both in his written work and his personal life.