89- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Ana María Matute. Another author who often placed
children at the centre of her work, Matute wrote directly
about the Civil War in the Premio Nadal-winningPrimera
Memoria(1960).The fracture of 20thcentury Spain and
its ensuing misery are realised in the loss of innocence
for the youngsters in the story.José María Gironella. When Gironella got married
he promised his wife the Premio Nadal as a wedding
present.The smooth devil duly delivered with
Un hombre(1947).Los cipreses creen en Dios(1953)
is considered his magnum opus, the compelling story
of family tensions used as a microcosm for Spain
approaching Civil War. While he fought on the winning
side in the war and was one of the few authors to
make a decent living under Franco, Gironella’s written
interpretations of the period are pretty even-handed.The ones that got away: two Spanish writers in exile
Ramón José Sender. Novelist and thinker Sender
began writing before the Civil War –Mister Witt en el
cantónwon the national literary prize in 1935 – but first-
hand accounts of the conflict really defined his
literary career: Sender’s wife and brother were shot
by Nationalists in the Civil War while he fought for
Republicans at the front. He emigrated to the Americas
in 1939 and wrote prolifically, always concerned with
social injustice. Among his novels,Crónica del alba
(1942) is an autobiographical slant on war, while
Réquiem por un campesino español(1960), on how the
conflict impacted on rural Spain, is often considered his
best work. He became an American citizen in 1946.