The Spanish Civil War & Literature: Orwell, Auden, Eliot and Hemingway

In this video, I look at how the Spanish Civil War shaped the literature of the modernist movement. George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway both visited Spain during the war, and T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden asked questions about a poet's duty in the modern world.
Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: patreon.com/user?u=3517018
Or send me a one-off tip of any amount and help me make more videos:
www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
Follow me on:
Facebook: thethenandnow
Instagram: / thethenandnow
Twitter: / lewlewwaller
Sources:
L. Mirella, Realigning Modernism: Eliot, Auden, and the Spanish Civil War Author(s), Modern Language Studies
David Robinson (2015) More than a Period Piece: Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls as a Reflection of the Spanish Civil War, English Academy Review, 32:2, 88-100, DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2015.1086160
Rodden, John, and John Rossi. "The Mysterious (Un) Meeting of George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway." The Kenyon Review, New Series, 31, no. 4 (2009): 56-84. www.jstor.org/stable/40600202.
Hitchens, Christopher, Introduction to ‘Orwell in Spain’
Robert A. Martin. "Hemingway's for Whom the Bell Tolls: Fact into Fiction." Studies in American Fiction 15, no. 2 (1987): 219-225. muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed July 20, 2018).
Greenspan, Anders, Ernest Hemingway and His Growth as a Political Activist in the 1930s, Journal of Arts and Humanities, theartsjournal.org/index.php/...
Mirella, Loris. "Realigning Modernism: Eliot, Auden, and the Spanish Civil War." Modern Language Studies 24, no. 3 (1994): 93-109. doi:10.2307/3194850.
Kessel Schwartz (1967) The Pueblo, The Intellectuals and the Spanish Civil War, Kentucky Romance Quarterly, 14:4, 299-310, DOI: 10.1080/03648664.1967.9929453
Hochschild, Adam, Spain in Our Hearts
Music:
"Truth in the Stones" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

[@ThenNow]

Thank you to: Owen Pitcairn Robert Moore and Peter Tschann-Grimm For sponsoring this video on Patreon with pledges of $10+ It's a huge help and is the only way I can make these videos, so thank you!

[@ivankace3541]

i know I am kind of off topic but do anyone know of a good site to stream new series online ?

[@Nonameagain69]

As a Spaniard, I want to thank you for the quality of the footage you've used in this video. I will use it for my Spanish Civil War history course, I know my students will love it. Thanks again

[@frenchempire9471]

How did the history course go?

[@oscarmatthews879]

At 0 59 I believe there's a small mistake. The king who abdicates is Alfonso XIII, not Alfonso VIII. Aside from that, great video!!

[@ThenNow]

Thank you!

[@JavierBonillaC]

Yes, I heard that too.

[@jamespotts8197]

Then & Now has been one of the very few “staples” in my pursuit and self-education in Philosophy; I can always count on your video’s essays unfolding of intricate theories, ideologies and as well the philosophical perspectives of past and present greats in philosophy’s history. Whenever I find myself “stuck” trying to decipher a moment in philosophy’s history or on a difficult abstract concept, such as Jacques Derrida’s Deconstruction or Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality, and the latter being one of a multitude of illuminating insights that I would like to draw your attention to, that subsequently have intensified my love of philosophy with the ideas that you presented; one of the traits that “raises humans above animals is our ability to make promises” and how that breaking a promise evolves into guilt or likewise keeping a promise creates the sense of pride and its significance, this as a form of currency before any monetary system was created, as well being substantial for the foundation of many social practices/constructs like politics and social rules, it was such an illuminating event, almost as if my eyes were opened for the first time to the development of mankind’s formation of a society. Another illuminating moment was in the video essay; “The Spanish Civil War & Literature; Orwell, Auden...etc. How the old religious and political values reflected in art and literature failed, along with Auden’s utterance on how poets “must take a stance”, and the fact that he donated the proceeds of his writings to ambulance and medical aid committees, those hit-home for me being an aspiring writer, furthermore Orwell’s travels to Spain to report the civil war was powerful inspiration, but “the moment” that captured what being a writer is all about was Hemingway’s thoughts on fascism; “that fascism was the only political ideology that writer’s had a clear and necessary reason to fight against”, which I’m sure it was due to the oppression of free speech and free press, as well the death of millions of innocent humans. The words to describe “the moment”, it is ineffable, but the path that was presented to me, for a writer to take and should take is clear as a bell and one that I cannot ignore. These moments are priceless, thank you and please keep pushing forward, one never knows how a life can be changed with words! - James Potts.

[@dsjkfhdlfhfhlfhisldhfuils]

Extraordinary video, one of my favourites so far. I thank you for covering this topic.

[@pas2pb]

This is a great summary of the war and the literary atmosphere around it, thanks

[@delta_13]

Did i just realise that one of my favourite songs (For whom The bell Tolls - Metallica) Is actually about a soldier on my country's civil war? Thank you for all this information that really cleared some doubts about what led to the social context i live in. Keep up the good work.

[@TheArtemis07]

Mr Delta And Metallica’s song “One” is based on Johnny Get Your Gun, a movie about WWI.

[@DarkAngelEU]

Would you like to elaborate on what you mean with "the social context I live in"? I'm eagerly interested in Spain today, but I find it hard to find any sources on this.

[@pas2pb]

It’s also a quote from a poem by John Donne, of the same name, written in 1624: No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thine own Or of thine friend's were. Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.

[@ianmedford4855]

Such a great book too.

[@superxDification]

@@pas2pb That poem opens the book.

[@keanuclark4833]

I'm really liking your videos. It's astonishing that you aren't more popular. Just tipped 5 pounds. Hope it helps.

[@ThenNow]

Thank you! That's very much appreciated - I will have a pint on you this weekend :)

[@meezanlmt]

Agreed more views more money for him to hell hin produce. However at the same time i like that this channel.is low key and only people interested are here.

[@wcropp1]

Another first-rate video. Great job. Keep it up.

[@M4ruta]

Fascinating video. Thanks for sharing!

[@poorpartyblackburn5978]

You’ve done a great job picking your topics .

[@meezanlmt]

Please keep. Pushing these videos out i learn so much.

[@legalmonkey]

Wonderful video. Really enjoyed listening to your lecture.

[@hanabayar2952]

Thank you for the video.

[@brandonmiles8174]

Wonderful video on a topic that I believe is very underserved in today's history books and conversation.

[@libatonvhs]

Such an amazing channel

[@ThenNow]

Thank you!

[@giniwelle]

A well put together essay.

[@benjaminhamel5280]

wtf dude you deserve so much more views!!!!

[@ThenNow]

Thank you! And a huge thank you for your Patreon pledge :)

[@GreatRedMenace]

It is interesting. But with all due respect, I find it very disturbing you ignore completely the arguably much more important contribution of Spanish-speaking authors like Federico García Lorca, Antonio Machado, Miguel de Unamuno, Vicente Alexandre, Pablo Neruda, Camilo José Cela, and others. All were protagonists and victims of the war. All of them were enormously influential in the development of 20th century world literature. Yet you present this as a foreign affair, a kind of issue that is relevant through its effect in the English-speaking world. But can you treat the war without considering the words of Unamuno regarding it in late 1936? Or the murder of Lorca for being a homosexual? Or the exile and demise of Machado? Or the influence on nobel prizes like Neruda or Cela? This is why I would love if you can do another video including these Spanish-speaking writers.

[@ThenNow]

This is a very good point! It's something I am completely unfamiliar with. I will take your criticism on-board and hopefully will read up and work on a sister piece at some point in the future. Thank you

[@GreatRedMenace]

Cool, that's good. Hehe, it would be interesting to see that. Either way, I believe that I made a dumb mistake on my part: the name of Lorca was Federico García, not Gabriel García. The latter is the name of Gabriel García Márquez, de Colombian writer. Sorry about that.

[@Dieco98]

@@GreatRedMenace I think that the intention of the video was to mention the influence and views that the war had on international writers or non-hispanic writers, as a hispanic, I already was familiar with Lorca, Neruda and others, so this was very interesting.

[@tlh1981]

Get your telenovela writers out of here.

[@DarkAngelEU]

As a non-Spansh person I'd love a video essay in English that explains Spanish literature more in depth. I try learning the language but my interest in the matter far outruns my progress.

[@cheungsta06]

Thanks :)

[@uj1xt5m98ap]

A brilliant piece of work! I learnt a lot from this.

[@MagisterialVoyager]

The way you speak in this video is so lovely.

[@GustavO-qx7vq]

Alto laburo papu

[@el_equidistante]

A whole lot has been written about the spanish civil war, by spanish writers themselves and latinamericans, many at the same or higher level of the ones mentioned here. It is sad that english speakers always focus on english literature instead of universal literature.

[@federico7367]

Cool but... what about spanish anarchists writers from that time??

[@und3rcut535]

The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.- Hemingway

[@MrBlahBlahYadaYada]

Peter kemp

[@AP-yx1mm]

Alfonso the Thirteenth not Eight he was XIII and not VIII

[@ThenNow]

Thank you for the correction

[@christopherellis2663]

Missed Laurie Lee. Hemmingway had spent quite a lot of time in Spain the twenties. "Neutrality and Pacifism enable Fascism "_Orwell

[@edsolis1731]

Biased as usual

[@dickvarga6908]

fascist regimessupported the nationalists but the democracies flinched and refused to assist the democratically elected republicans even actively obstructed them because they had socialist policies. their actions encouraged fascists everywhere and they paid a huge price from 1936 to 1945 in spain, china, worldwide.

[@damianbylightning6823]

I think you'll find a bit more complicated than that. Perhaps if the Republicans hadn't had hooligans and murderers in their ranks, they'd have had more support? Perhaps if they'd not killed clergy and tortured people and imposed tyranny and ruin... The blame is never with the Republicans. How odd! How convenient! Sadly, we live in an age where clueless dupes read the history they want to read and the history industry cynically produces shit for these idiots to consume. There were plenty of justifications for backing Franco at that time. Furthermore, Falangism isn't fascism - but it does have a few of fascism's core socialist ideas - just not very many. We are descending into an echo chamber where we play a game of asymmetrical warfare on historical reality, rather than think about history. Franco bad, Republicans good - end of. We then play the game of 'Hitler trump card' - Hitler sent aid to one side and that side is, therefore, evil and the opposite side are saintly. This is only a slight exaggeration of idiot common narratives about that period - all history students should weep! I have no idea how stupid, gullible or pseudo-religious a society has to become to find broad acceptance of such as this. If you have fallen for this Romantic nonsense - even just a wee bit - ask yourself the crunch questions: 1) Are people like this? 2) Is the world like this? It isn't difficult. Scepticism, once learned, becomes something of a habit. The fact that people can't be sceptical about most contemporary sources and narratives about the Spanish conflict, tells us a lot about the rot in our collective brain.