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Two Perspectives on the Spanish Civil War in Croatian Texts for Young Adults

The topic of the Spanish Civil War cropped up in Croatian texts at different periods of time. It was presented through different perspectives and narrators’ value judgments. This paper will analyze not only texts for young adults that emerged as a direct reaction to events of the time but also a number of texts written after 1945 which relate to the memories of war. These texts differ with respect to the perspectives from which the Spanish Civil War is viewed and from ideological functions. Texts published during the civil war in Spain bear an active function to promote identification and empathy in the Croatian reader for Spanish soldiers, while texts written after 1945 mostly have the function to create a myth of the historical workers’ fight for freedom and democracy. Texts which emerged as a direct reaction to the war in Spain differ among each other in their opposing ideological points of view. Texts written by Božidar Mažuranić in 1936 The Alcàzar of Toledo and Siget, and the translated novel The Alcàzar Heroes by Rudolph Timmermans from 1937 are singled out as examples representing the Spanish Civil War from the right-wing perspective, while texts such as Spain Between Death and Birth by Oto Bihalji- Merin from 1937 and Spanish Encounters by August Cesarec from 1938 as left-wing authors – participants in the war. After 1945, with the change of the national-political framework in the Second Yugoslavia the duality of viewpoints regarding the Spanish Civil War disappears. Through various manifestations, anniversaries and publications fosters the collective memory of the conflict as the home of the National liberation fight and the foundation of a new state. The results of such attempts are found in numerous publications in form of memoires written by participants in the war in international brigades which become the one and only official version of the Spanish Civil War. Even in this day and age the topic continues to attract artists in Croatia and as a result its presence is seen in music and film. However, as Croatia became independent the dual perspective is again made possible.

Spanish civil war, Croatian children's literatre, ideology, Božidar Mažuranić

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