Assignment Paper

AESTHETICS AND POLITICS: INTERNATIONAL INTELLECTUALS AND THE SPANISH CIVIL
WAR
The test will consist of a series of questions, of which you will be asked to choose and answer FOUR. The
word limit for each of your four answers is 600 words. PLEASE PICK 4 QUESTIONS YOU ARE
CONFIDENT IN. THANKS.
AESTHETICS AND POLITICS: INTERNATIONAL INTELLECTUALS AND THE SPANISH CIVIL
WAR
2020
TAKE HOME TEST
YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ THE GUIDELINES TO THIS TEST IN MOODLE BEFORE YOU
START THE TEST.
Answer ANY FOUR, but ONLY FOUR of the following questions. No extra marks will be given for
answering more than four questions:
1. In what senses do Sandie Holguín and Helen Graham argue that the Spanish Civil War is a European war?
2. Were repression and violence against the enemy equally applied by both sides of the Spanish Civil War?
Justify your response by using the arguments given by Helen Graham.
3. Discuss the similarities between Roy Campbell and Georges Bernanos as conservative writers and
intellectuals.
4. Speaking of Roy Campbell, Mayte Gómez argues that he reproduced in Spain the patterns that he brought
from his relationships to black communities in South Africa. What does she mean by that and why is it
important to understand Campbell’s view of the Spanish Civil War?
5. Using the arguments put forward by Jessica Berman and Patricia Rae, to what extent can we argue that
Homage to Catalonia is a modernist text?
6. Is Orwell’s eye-witness testimony of the Spanish Civil War as expressed inHomage to Cataloniatrue?
Justify your response by using the arguments given by James D. Wilkinson, Raymond Carr and Robert
Stradling.
7. Does propaganda always tell lies? In your answer, discuss the arguments put forward by James D.
Wilkinson and Sebastiaan Faber.
8. Who are the imbeciles, or idiots, in Georges Bernanos Les grand cimetières sous la lune [Spanish Civil
War Diary]? How does he characterize them?
9. Why and how are technological advances in the culture industries important to understand the
representation of the Spanish Civil War? In your answer, refer to the work of Robert Capa.
10. What are the origins and function of humanitarian arguments? What is the political problem with
humanitarian arguments? In your response, refer to the photos taken by Robert Capa of the Spanish Civil
War