The short novels of exile in their historical-editorial context

Abstract

Optimistic exceptions that open the way to gold mines in the line of literary research about short novel have recently been witnessed. One of those gold mines is offered by the short novel signed by Spanish writers who lived in exile. This is a necessary field of study that, however, has to overcome a first major obstacle–namely, the absence of general studies and the dispersion of the sources that constitute the literary corpus. After successfully surmounting such an obstacle, the aim of this article is to perform a panorama of the selected texts from an extrinsic or historical perspective, accompanied by some narrative or intrinsic approximations, with a view to elucidating their singularities and their value in the history of Spanish literature. Even within a corpus that cannot be definitive, the writers who would make up it for the moment are: Cecilia G. de Guilarte, José Ramón Arana, Ramón J. Sender, Manuel Andújar, Eugenio F. Granell, Paulino Masip, Segundo Serrano Poncela, Juan Espinasa and Francisco Ayala. Thus, it will be possible to contribute to the history of a reunion that reduces the exile of Spanish literature in exile. Thereby, it can be stated that we are faced with a series of exceptional cases that, as such, must be evaluated. It will be seen how the genre of the short novel could be considered as a “discreet” solution to test the literary terrain outside of a Spain under Franco’s censorship, but also to make certain
attempts in Spain before many of these writers begin their return, initially in a more literary than vital sense. Assuming, therefore, the links between exile and literature (hand in hand with the short novel, with its wide range of differences), it is necessary to undertake the still pending task: to make up for the absence detected and to contribute to the illumination, evaluation and repositioning of the short novel cultivated during exile by Spanish writers.