On 30 November, the presentation of the Collection ‘Literature and Civil War’ (in Spain) will be held within the framework of educational activities of the Master’s degree in Advanced Hispanic Studies: Applications and Research

The Collection ‘Literature and Civil War’, by Escolar and Mayo Ediciones, will be held on 30 November at the Classroom 107 of the Faculty of Language Studies, Translation and Communication.

Raúl Molina, Universitat de València, will be in charge of opening and moderating the conference. Participants will be: Javier Lluch, Director of the Master’s degree in Advanced Hispanic Studies; Álvaro López, doctoral student of the Complutense University of Madrid; and Emilio Peral, Tenured university professor of Spanish Literature at the Complutense University of Madrid.

Both Álvaro López and Emilio Peral are critic editors of the novel Checas de Madrid (1939) by Tomás Borrás. Furthermore, Emilio Peral is director of the Collection and the Research Project that is developing: Methods of active propaganda during the Spanish Civil War: theatre, cinema, poetry, music and press.

Checas de Madrid

Tomás Borrás (1891 - 1976) published in 1939 the novel ‘Checas de Madrid’, which narrates how ‘checas’ spread in the cities that were loyal to the Spanish Republic during the uprising in 1936.

The ‘checas’ were prisons where torture’s cruelty couldn’t be compared to any other. In the novel, the author captures the collective fear and hysteria. In addition, they stand out in the black aesthetic work of Goya and the “syncopated” style of the cinema.

The novel goes beyond its antirepublican diatribe nature and it turns into the expression of horror using a bare and direct prose.

Borrás is one of the most prominent narrators and dramatist of the beginning of the 20th century. He was close to the circle of Ledesma Ramos and Giménez Caballero. Perhaps, his literary work has sunk into oblivion, given his Falangist lineage.