Hemingway’s War: An American in Spain

15 September 2009

By: Lisa Kellerman

Mentor: Ron McFarland

BACKGROUND

From the short weekend camping trip to the yearlong foreign exchange, traveling fascinates me.  Leaving my comfort zone and travelling to an unknown place that is simultaneously scary and foreign, but comforting and fresh, awakes a part of me that I rarely get to see.  Time spent away from home gives one a new home in that new environment.  The cares of that place become your own cares; its sufferings become your sufferings.

As a double major in Spanish and English, I have always been interested in cross-cultural subjects, especially those concerning Spain or Latin America.  I travelled to Ecuador for a yearlong study abroad and know that my own memories and experiences of this country will always wander into my thoughts when I see any South American news flash.  Spending time there formed an unbreakable connection.

I have read across all genres, but my most beloved texts come from those centered on characters out of their cultures.  Reading the thoughts of the foreigner and discovering something new from her experiences provokes me to keep searching and finding my soul’s home.

One of my biggest embarrassments as an English major is that I have never read any substantial amount of Hemingway.  I have encountered isolated short stories, but never finished a novel of this American writing giant. Much of his work, prompted by experiences in other countries, reflects my own desire to serve a greater cause and through that, discover self-understanding.

CURRENT PROJECT

In a discussion with my mentor teacher, Ron McFarland, we began talking of George Orwell and his work in Spain during its civil war.  Ron went on to add the significant time that American Ernest Hemingway also spent in the conflict.  He began talking about the war’s influence on Hemingway in his life and his writing.  The subject caught my attention at once.  Hemingway not only worked as a journalist, but wrote short stories, his epic novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, and even a play centered on the conflict.  If this was not enough, his experiences and beliefs took him so far as to write and narrate a film calling for aid to the Spanish Republic.  I feel that when a major writer focuses so much energy on one subject, his audience should pay attention.

As a project, I would like to read Hemingway’s works concerning the Spanish Civil War and place them in their historical context, aided by doing additional research on the war itself. Last year, I took a Franco-era Spanish literature class, so have been introduced to the subject, but would enjoy a more in depth study.  I hope by linking the imagined world of his fiction and the real world of his news articles and historical documents I will uncover a new way of understanding Hemingway and his mission.

PLAN FOR THE NEXT TWO MONTHS

I plan to read For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Fifth Column and Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War, a selection of Hemingway’s press articles covering the war, and watch his film The Spanish Earth.  Through these sources, I hope to understand Hemingway’s own thoughts on Spain and its civil war.  I would like to make literary analyses of his work, but also to hypothesize over Hemingway’s own emotional attachments to the country.  It is my hope that through this study, I will see a bit of Hemingway in myself, in the way that we share connections with foreign countries and causes.  I would like to focus on Hemingway as a kind of “foreign citizen” of Spain, a man who concentrated his talents on helping a country that he had adopted as his second home.

IDEAS ABOUT HOW TO PRESENT THIS WORK

I plan on presenting this project in a comprehensive essay that explores Hemingway’s Spain through analysis of his fiction and nonfiction.  I would also like to show clips of Hemingway’s film to the class because it offers a direct connection between the writer and the revolutionary.  Because Hemingway served as narrator, we as an audience can hear his emotions as well as see them.

TENTATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY

Grebstein, Sheldon Norman. The Merrill studies in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Columbus: Merrill, 1971.

Hemingway, Ernest. By-line: Ernest Hemingway; selected articles and dispatches. New York: Scribner, 1967.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Fifth Column and Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War.  New York: Scribner, 1972.

Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Scribner, 1996.

Hemingway, Ernest, wrt. nar. The Spanish Earth.  Dir. Joris Ivens. 1937.

Josephs, Allen. From Whom the Bell Tolls: Ernest Heminway’s Undiscovered Country.  New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1994.

Koch, Stephen. The Breaking Point : Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles. New York: Counterpoint 2005.

Preston, Paul. The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge. New York: Norton, 2007.

Preston, Paul. Revolution and War in Spain, 1931-1939. New York: Methuen, 1984.

Reynolds, Michael S. Hemingway: the 1930’s. New York: Norton, 1997.

Sanderson, Rena ed. Blowing the Bridge: Essays on Hemingway and For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Greenwood, 1992.

Stanton, Edward F. Hemingway and Spain: A Pursuit. Seattle: University and Washington Press, 1989.