MO4939 Civil War and Dictatorship in Spain, 1936-1959
   
Lecturer Dr Kate Ferris (St Katharine's Lodge, Room 1.18)
   
Credits 60
   
Availability 2012-2013- semester 1 and 2
   
Class Hour 10 - 1
   
Description The Spanish Civil War was not only a battle between 'two Spains', between two versions of what Spaniards thought their country should be, but was also cast as an ideological showdown internationally: democracy vs. dictatorship, socialism vs. fascism. The course focuses on the political, social, cultural and economic history of the civil war and Francoist dictatorship, tracing developments from the end of the Second Spanish Republic, through the establishment of the 'New Estate' until the close of what is commonly held to be the (more) facist phase of Franco's regime, with the accession to political power of the 'technorats' and their stabilisation plan in 1959. Engaging directly with political tracts and speeches, newsreels, visual propaganda, literature, diaries and memoirs of the time, the course explores the civil war and Francoist dictatorship as they were imagined, practised and experienced.
   
   
   

Course Structure

    Semester 1: From civil war to dictatorship

    1. Course Introduction. Setting the scene: defeat and dictatorship in Spain, 1898-1930.
    2. The Second Spanish Republic 1931-1936
    3. Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera and the FET
    4. The Popular Front
    5. Spain divides - the path to war
    6. The 'two Spains' in visual propaganda
    7. Political violence
    8. International interventions: Germans, Italians
    9. International interventions: the USSR and the International Brigades
    10. Eye-witnesses to war: Hemingway, Dos Passos, Orwell and Brennan
    11. The establishment of the 'New State': fascist or authoritarian?

    Semester 2: Franco in power

    1. Victory and repression
    2. Church and state
    3. Autarchy and the ‘years of hunger’
    4. Society under Franco
    5. Culture under Franco
    6. Fascism in the city: focus on Barcelona
    7. Fascism in the countryside: focus on Andalucia
    8. Exile and resistance
    9. Basque and Catalan separatism
    10. The end of autarchy and isolationism
    11. The ‘pact of forgetting’: Memory, silence and remembering civil war and dictatorship
   
Assessment 60% examination - 3-hour paper
40% coursework
   

Learning Outcomes
  • Gainging understanding of the political, social, cultural and economic history of Spain, 1931-1959.
  • The ability to evaluate and engage with historians’ interpretations and key historiographical trends relating to 20th century Spanish history.
  • The ability to recognise, evaluate and interpret a variety of historical sources.
  • Gaining experience in making balanced and critical judgements on the basis of incomplete or problematic data, originating in a variety of cultures.
   
Restrictions None