Líneas de fuego: Género y nación en la narrativa española durante la Guerra Civil (1936-1939) (review)

In the introduction to his book, Iker González-Allende explains that his principal objective is to investigate the relationship between gender and national identity in narratives written by Spanish authors during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Not only does Líneas de fuego look at the way both masculinity and femininity are presented in several less commonly studied texts and illustrations produced during the Civil War, but it also is one of few studies that considers works from both sides of the political divide and from different generations and geographical locations (his book includes several Basque authors, for instance). One of the truly innovative aspects of his book is the way in which González-Allende proves that, despite their differing political ideologies, narratives written by Republican and Rebel (sublevados) authors during the Spanish Civil War were not so different in that both conceptualized the nation in connection to traditional gender roles.

The book is divided into two parts and includes a total of five chapters and an introduction. In the first part, González-Allende examines the three typical figures of wartime femininity: the mother, the fiancée, and the nurse. In the second, he analyzes the two most prominent masculine figures of the same period: the soldier and the enemy. In each chapter, González-Allende draws from important critical works on nationalism and gender (such as studies by Nira Yuval-Davis and George L. Mosse) to discuss the way the nation is portrayed in relation to these gendered figures of war. Yet, he also focuses on the inconsistencies and fractures in the ideologies that these texts ostensibly uphold.

Chapter 1, for instance, investigates the multiple values, meanings, and connotations that the figure of the mother conveys in two novels: Una mujer sola (1939) by Francoist writer Ana María de Foronda and Su línea de fuego (1938-40) by the Republican author Benjamín Jarnés. As González-Allende argues, both novels present the figure of the mother as the ultimate victim of war that must be protected from a ruthless enemy. Yet, he also highlights the way these texts also contradict traditional nationalistic values through their inclusion of characters that do not always conform to predetermined values. In his analysis of the maternal figure in Una mujer sola, for instance, González-Allende argues that the abundant references to the emotional bond that exists between mother and son in Foronda's work "permiten la interpretación de sentimientos incestuosos entre madre e hijo, lo que supondría un ataque a la moral propugnada por los sublevados" (77). Despite their contradictions, González-Allende argues that both conservative and Republican authors place similar emphasis on the crucial role of traditional motherhood in the formation of their respective national identities.

Similarly, in chapters 2 and 3, González-Allende focuses on the contradictory representations of the fiancée and nurse respectively in works by the Falangist Concha Espina, the Communist César M. Arconada (chapter 2), the Republican Ernestina de Champourcin, and the Carlist María Rosa Urraca Pastor (chapter 3). In his analysis of these works, González-Allende shows how the figures of the fiancée and the nurse both uphold traditional values, while also challenging them. Regarding Champourcin's Mientras allí se muere (1938, 1941), for instance, González-Allende argues that even though the nurse, Camino, shows enthusiasm for her work, she also experiences moments of personal doubt and extreme sadness that go against the ideal image of the wartime nurse, a figure that is supposed to remain strong and unwavering in her commitment to the soldiers in times of conflict.

In chapter 4, González-Allende offers a close reading of the way the soldier is portrayed in relation to the nation in the works of...