John Dos Passos in Spain

In 1931, Ernest Hemingway wrote to John Dos Passos from Madrid: “You are the great writer of Spain”. The two friends both knew Spain, but Dos Passos got there first. In his early Spanish book, Rosinante to the Road Again (1922), Telemachus and his companion Lyaeus ramble along Spanish roads search...

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Main Author: Clara Juncker
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad de Zaragoza 2010-04-01
Series:Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/misc/article/view/9417
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author Clara Juncker
author_facet Clara Juncker
author_sort Clara Juncker
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description In 1931, Ernest Hemingway wrote to John Dos Passos from Madrid: “You are the great writer of Spain”. The two friends both knew Spain, but Dos Passos got there first. In his early Spanish book, Rosinante to the Road Again (1922), Telemachus and his companion Lyaeus ramble along Spanish roads searching for “the gesture”, the essence of Spanish life that Dos Passos hoped to emulate in words. Spain remained important to Dos Passos, even after his famous break with Hemingway in 1937. The following year, Dos Passos exorcized Spanish ghosts in a second travel narrative, Journeys Between Wars (1938). Both texts present a multicultural and multiregional Spain, at odds with centralization and unification. In Rosinante, Spain serves as a testing ground for aesthetic experiments, as young Dos Passos searches for techniques that might articulate his resistance to American systems and narratives. The Spanish gesture communicates aesthetic and political choices, and the masculinity Dos Passos associates with opposition and pride. In Journeys, the author of U.S.A. concentrates on Spanish politics, but he relies on modernist aesthetics to intervene politically. Dos Passos satirizes both Nationalists and Republicans, who subscribe to measures and stories he could not decipher but hoped to deconstruct.
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spelling doaj.art-6af064f1c66b453c9e7b3f5e8d66f0d72023-07-05T16:57:24ZengUniversidad de ZaragozaMiscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies1137-63682386-48342010-04-014210.26754/ojs_misc/mj.20109417John Dos Passos in SpainClara Juncker0University of Southern Denmark In 1931, Ernest Hemingway wrote to John Dos Passos from Madrid: “You are the great writer of Spain”. The two friends both knew Spain, but Dos Passos got there first. In his early Spanish book, Rosinante to the Road Again (1922), Telemachus and his companion Lyaeus ramble along Spanish roads searching for “the gesture”, the essence of Spanish life that Dos Passos hoped to emulate in words. Spain remained important to Dos Passos, even after his famous break with Hemingway in 1937. The following year, Dos Passos exorcized Spanish ghosts in a second travel narrative, Journeys Between Wars (1938). Both texts present a multicultural and multiregional Spain, at odds with centralization and unification. In Rosinante, Spain serves as a testing ground for aesthetic experiments, as young Dos Passos searches for techniques that might articulate his resistance to American systems and narratives. The Spanish gesture communicates aesthetic and political choices, and the masculinity Dos Passos associates with opposition and pride. In Journeys, the author of U.S.A. concentrates on Spanish politics, but he relies on modernist aesthetics to intervene politically. Dos Passos satirizes both Nationalists and Republicans, who subscribe to measures and stories he could not decipher but hoped to deconstruct. https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/misc/article/view/9417John Dos PassosErnest HemingwayModernist astheticsTravel writingSpain
spellingShingle Clara Juncker
John Dos Passos in Spain
Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies
John Dos Passos
Ernest Hemingway
Modernist asthetics
Travel writing
Spain
title John Dos Passos in Spain
title_full John Dos Passos in Spain
title_fullStr John Dos Passos in Spain
title_full_unstemmed John Dos Passos in Spain
title_short John Dos Passos in Spain
title_sort john dos passos in spain
topic John Dos Passos
Ernest Hemingway
Modernist asthetics
Travel writing
Spain
url https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/misc/article/view/9417
work_keys_str_mv AT clarajuncker johndospassosinspain