Di Mario, Anna Maria
(2013)
What Remains and The failure of idealism in the Spanish civil War.
PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.
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Abstract
This thesis consists of two parts: a creative work and a reader’s companion to the novel which reflects on the process of research. The creative work is a novel entitled What Remains. Set during the Spanish civil war, it has a twin narrative structure, and through alternating chapters follows the fortunes of Michael, a Scottish volunteer fighting with the International Brigades, and Ana, a Spanish woman in Nationalist territory whose husband is fighting for the Republicans. At the start of the novel Michael volunteers to fight in the conflict and the narrative follows his progress through a year and eight months of fighting for the Republic and examines how the harsh realities of war affect his political beliefs. Ana discovers her husband has been captured by the Nationalists and makes a Faustian pact with a Nationalist captain to get her husband out of prison and back home. What Remains is an exploration of how war affects the soldier and the civilian, how they are desensitised and ultimately dehumanised by their environment. The reader’s companion is titled Faith and doubt: The failure of idealism in the Spanish civil war and is intended as an illumination of the process of researching and writing a historical novel. It guides the reader through the historical research, the texts utilised by the writer and the broader themes and contradictions of the war as discovered through the reading of nonfiction and creative works.
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