María Zambrano amongst the philosophers. An introduction

ABSTRACT

As the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) came to an end, hundreds of thousands of Spaniards who had opposed the military rebellion which initiated the war and remained loyal to the democratically elected government were forced into exile. Amongst them was the philosopher María Zambrano (1904-1991). While little known to an English-speaking readership, she represents a unique voice engaging with some of the fundamental problems of our times. Her life was marked, like that of her contemporaries Benjamin, Husserl, Arendt, Pato?ka, Adorno, Lacan, Derrida and Blumenberg by the crisis of modernity culminating in the two World Wars. Her work is part of the same philosophical debates, currents and problems facing the Europe of her time. The aim of the volume María Zambrano amongst the philosophers, introduced in this article, is to focus on the links between Zambrano’s thought and a wide range of themes and ideas associated with these other European thinkers. A summary of Zambrano’s main philosophical concepts and preoccupations is also offered to help the reader situate the translated anthology of texts by the philosopher included in the volume.     

Index to Volume VIII 1961

In recent decades in Spanish literature, a series of stories have emerged that attempt, with varying degrees of zeal, revisionist reinterpretations of recent historical events, especially those related to the Civil War, the postwar crisis, and exile. This is demonstrated by novels like La voz dormida by Dulce Chacón (2002), La desbandá by Luis Melero (2005), Los años del miedo by Juan Eslava Galán (2008), and El corazón helado by Almudena Grandes (2007, awarded the Premio al Libro del año by the Guild of Booksellers in Madrid and the Premio Fundación José Manuel Lara). With her novel, Almudena Grandes initiates a dangerous and conflicted way of retrieving this historical memory. This essay aims to analyze the identity conflict of the children of the Spanish Republican exile in Grandes's novel.     

The Anti-Risorgimento as a transnational experience

The struggle led after 1860 by the Anti-Risorgimento (understood as the conservative opposition to Italian unification) went beyond the frontiers of new Italy. The transnationality of this campaign manifested itself in numerous ways, from international networks of financial support and militancy that were closely associated with counter-revolution and supported by the international structures of the Roman Catholic Church, to forms of transnational mobilisation such as armed volunteerism. This internationalisation of anti-Unity fighting was a conscious strategy of the movement's leaders. They relied on a tradition of solidarity and exchange within the ultraconservative camp – a sort of ‘white international’ – to further the transnational construction of a European identity of counter-revolution. In Italy, the victory of the nationalist movement endowed various anti-liberal forces with a common adversary and common goals; yet the strategy adopted by the Papacy (still a temporal power until 1870), in relation to the cause of the dispossessed sovereigns, was not devoid of ambiguity.     

Citizens of Nowhere: longing,belonging and exile among Irish Protestant writers in Britain,c.1830–1970

Since the 1970s, the literature on the history of the worldwide Irish diaspora has become increasingly sophisticated, with scholars employing a range of innovative techniques to capture aspects of the migratory experience. Many challenges remain, however, in charting the multifaceted experiences of the Irish in Britain. This article makes the case for a cultural study of Irish Protestants in Britain. It examines the contours of the Irish Protestant migratory mind-set, focusing on the writings of a number of creative émigrés, temporary and permanent, such as W.B. Yeats, Denis Ireland, Nesca Robb, and John Hewitt. Of particular relevance are articulations of longing, belonging and exile, which shaped the literary perspective of these writers, and complicated their relationships with Ireland and Britain. Attitudes regarding emigration within Protestant Ireland are also probed to tease out cross-channel ideals and fears.     

Gendering activism,exile and wellbeing: Chilean exiles in the UK

Drawing on the case of Chilean exiles in the UK this article looks at the experiences of exiles through a gender lens. The analysis argues for the need to recognise the gendered nature of spaces of political activism in order to highlight the contribution made by many Chilean women to life in exile. Using a gender lens sheds light on the multiple ways in which many women were indirectly the victims of abuse under the military regime and how this impacts on their mental health and wellbeing. The analysis also provides new insights into how forced migration impacts on gender roles and norms among those living in exile. The article primarily focuses on the experiences of women who arrived in the UK as the ‘wife of’ political activists, a group whose needs have been frequently overlooked.     

María Zambrano’s and Albert Camus’s communal ethics

ABSTRACT

Maria Zambrano and Albert Camus had much in common, especially their sympathy for the Second Spanish Republic and their ethical vision. Both intellectuals employed literary forms to explore philosophical ideas allegorically, explicitly notions related to exile and solitude. Works included in the study are ‘Delirio de Antigone,’ La tumba de Antigone, and Delirio y destino [Delirum and Destiny] by Zambrano and The Plague and The Myth of Sysifus by Camus. Zambrano’s works are interpreted as allegories of Franco’s Spain, while Camus’s novel and essay represent Vichy France under the Nazis. Like Camus, Zambrano was a master of blending political, philosophical, and literary themes and genres.     

Lo que le sucedió a María Zambrano: Dulcinea

Don Quijote is constantly present in María Zambrano’s works, especially in the years of exile. Along her career, Zambrano wrote many essays about Cervantes, in which she reflects on love, always about the character of Dulcinea. One of these essays, significantly titled “Lo que le sucedió a Cervantes: Dulcinea,” raises the lack of love as the most important topic in Quijote, and discusses from this point of view the ideal image of Dulcinea contradicted by the carnal Aldonza.     

The Hyde Park Rally of 9 March 1890: a British response to Russian atrocities

In December 1889 The Times carried a report detailing the killing of a group of Russian political exiles in Yakutsk, Siberia. Public outrage at this atrocity was compounded two months later with news of the flogging and suicide of female political prisoners in another Siberian penal colony. These events sparked a series of international protests, and the British reaction culminated in a march and rally in Hyde Park. This article examines the causes and timing of this outburst of militancy and draws attention to the wide range of organisations and individuals who were responsible for the growth of support within Britain for the cause of the Russian ant-tsarist opposition. Drawing on Russian and British archival documents and contemporary press reports, it throws fresh light on the Siberian events themselves as well as on the convergence in London of a range of disparate political groupings determined to show a unified front in support of their Russian brethren.     

Travel,migration, exile: Garibaldi's global fame

In this article, it is argued that Garibaldi's global fame owes much to his own experiences as a migrant and exile in the Americas. Overseas, Garibaldi not only acquired several practical and political skills, he also built up an important network of friends and supporters and became a hybrid figure able to adapt his image to diverse political settings. At the same time, Garibaldi relied on the trope of exile, developed by people like Ugo Foscolo, to define his opposition to, first, Italy's Restoration governments and, after Italian unification, the new moderate liberal regime. The article also looks at Garibaldi's life on Caprera and it is further argued that here Garibaldi combined elements of his previous experiences to fashion a role for himself as a ‘foreigner in Italy’. Garibaldi was a symbol of many worlds as well as a hero of two and it is precisely this hybrid nature of his appeal that can explain his global popularity.     

El exilio interior y sus máscaras: Voaxa e Carmín de Esther F. Carrodeguas

Abstract

In Santiago de Compostela, La Alameda is a place frequented by students and tourists. The passerby discerns within the crowd a statue of two small women, arm in arm, dressed in bright colors and wearing extravagant make up. “As dúas Marías,” Maruxa and Coralia Fandiño, were two sisters who were brought up in a family of anarchist leaders of the CNT. With the arrival of the civil war and the dictatorship, the illusion created by the government of the Republic and the drafting of the Statute of Autonomy was soon transformed into silence and reprisals. The Fandiño men managed to flee, but the women remained in the house and were victims of torture and rape. Their only defensive mechanism was the solidarity between them and the embracing of madness. Thus it became a daily event in Santiago: at two o’clock in the afternoon, Maruxa and Coralia went out for a walk, dressed in bright colors and flamboyantly make up to compliment the students. Voaxa e Carmín by Esther F. Carrodeguas recreates one of those walks. This article will focus on how the inner exile of the protagonists is revealed, that is, their loneliness, their fear, their isolation, through the strategies of the theater of the absurd, and the metatheater. These resources include the use of the mask, the exchange of roles and the repetitive language.