George Orwell and W. H. Auden: political commitment in the years of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

Abstract

The aim of the thesis is to accurately investigate the political commitment of George Orwell and W. H. Auden in the years of the Spanish Civil War. Their active role in the places of war will constitute a central and fundamental theme of the whole script, as well as a deep literary analysis of both authors' works. After a brief introduction on the historical context, aimed at providing the right coordinates to better understand and contextualise the entire work, the first part of the thesis has as its protagonist George Orwell and his work "Homage to Catalonia", with the analysis of some essays written by the British author with Spain as a central theme. The second part of the work examines W. H. Auden's Iberian experience and in particular focuses on the analysis of two of his most significant poems: "Spain" and "September 1,1939". In conclusion, the fil rouge of the entire work is the sharing of the first-person experience at the front, as a war witness, and of the thoughts, sometimes strong and crude, that derive from it.