No solid ground: Max Aub's roots and routes. Issue 2 (4th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Linhard, Tabea Alexa
• Is Part Of: Journal of Iberian and Latin American studies. Volume 23:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 217
• Page End: 231
• Publication Date: 2017-05-04
• Subjects: Max Aub -- exile -- postcolonial -- transnational memory -- roots and routes -- World War II; Spanish literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Portuguese literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Latin American literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Civilization, Hispanic -- Periodicals; Portugal -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Spain -- Periodicals; Portugal -- Periodicals; Latin America -- Periodicals; 306.0946
• DOI: 10.1080/14701847.2017.1334891
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-1847

Abstract

Abstract: While Max Aub's unique and prolific body of work has been the subject of numerous studies and monographs, his work remains undervalued in transnational contexts. An analysis of two of his plays, San Juan (1943) and El rapto de Europa (1946), and a collection of poems, Diario de Djelfa (1944), makes it possible to rethink the ways in which aesthetic projects, produced either during World War II or shortly afterwards, reveal a geography of the war's forced displacements, in which the Spanish Civil War, European colonialism in North Africa, and its enduring postcolonial remainders become the most important landmarks. While the present analysis centers on Aub's routes between Spain, France, Algeria, and, finally, Mexico, a persistent yearning for roots, for a sense of belonging, or, to use one of his characters' words, for "solid ground" haunts his writing. The interplay between roots and routes therefore makes it possible to consider Aub's work in a postcolonial context and within a transnational memory.