The Seventeenth International Conference on Books, Publishing & Libraries

Abstract

This paper highlights the characteristics that have created a fighter for freedom (Brenan, 2003). The study analyses the main Brenan’s books and their publishing houses. Brenan had fought against the authoritarianism of his father and social class to choose a life on his own. Thus, he decided to become a writer. Brenan was in Spain when the Spanish Civil War broke out (1936) and he had to return to England. The military uprising had made him committed to the Republican cause. He expressed the background of this war in “The Spanish Labyrinth” (1943, Cambridge University Press). Later, he wrote “The Literature of the Spanish People”(1951). Accordingly, Brenan’s reputation as a Hispanist was established and was offered the “Alfonso XIII Chair of Spanish” at Oxford, but he refused the proposal. In 1949, Brenan toured Spain and investigated the murder of Lorca, then he penned “The Face of Spain” (Turnstile Press, 1950). Hence, Brenan’s character was born in his autobiographical work “South from Granada” (Hamish Hamilton, 1957): a young man who leaves the enslaving modern society and seeks his way in the mountains. “The Spanish Labyrinth” was translated into Spanish by Ruedo Ibérico (Paris, 1962) and “The Literature of the Spanish People” by Losada (Buenos Aires, 1958). Brenan’s books were banned in Spain, but they were a cry for freedom against Francoist censorship and seed for other researchers. Nowadays, Brenan’s fight is alive online.