George Orwell and Arthur Koestler Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War

master's thesis

• Author: Marko Babić
• Mentor: Tihana Klepač (mentor)
• Committee member: Vanja Polić Jurković (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Iva Polak (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2021-02-24, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

Arthur Koestler and George Orwell were amongst the many intellectuals who rushed to Spain when the civil war broke out in 1936. Both went to Spain as news correspondents, but neither of them reported on the conflict per se. Koestler, at the time member of the Communist Party of Germany, was on a mission sent by the Communist International to gather evidence of the German and Italian governments breaching the Non-Intervention Agreement, while Orwell joined one of the many Leftist militias as soon as he arrived in Barcelona. They turned their experiences into memoirs which are one of the first illustrations of the way totalitarian regimes operate. Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia is a harsh criticism of the influence the Soviet Union had on the Republican government because it helped the Government forces hamper the revolutionary process in the Republican zone. Koestler, on the other hand, wrote Spanish Testament as a work of Communist propaganda that aimed at representing the conflict as a progressive, not revolutionary, struggle against Fascism. Still, despite the fact that both authors take firm political stances in their books, they grapple with various topics such as the possibility of a revolutionary transformation of capitalist society. Also, both works describe totalitarian methods that were employed both in the Nationalist and the Republican zones. There are two main differences between their memoirs. The first lies in the fact that Koestler was a committed Communist during his stay in Spain while Orwell had been critical of the Soviet regime before departing for Spain. The second has to do with the part of Spain that both authors were more familiar with. Orwell spent all of his time in Spain on the territory controlled by the Republican forces, whilst Koestler spent a great deal of time in the Nationalist zone. Their memoirs also carry a personal note because both authors had near-death experiences. Because of their experiences during the conflict, both authors would leave Spain with different outlooks on the 1930s reality.

• Keywords: pacifism; totalitarianism; propaganda; revolution; war
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:318539
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation; Course: Literature and Culture; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2021-02-25 11:00:13