The Simple Geometry of ‘Linearism’. Metaphors of the Nation in the Radical Falangist Discourse of the Immediate Postwar Period in Spain

Abstract

Taking as a point of departure the understanding that metaphors, as linguistic expressions, indicate the thought processes of those who formulate them, the present article explores a specific metaphor that formed part of the discourse of radical Falangism: the definition of the Spanish nation as straight, upright, linear or vertical, in opposition to another Spain that had to be combatted, and which was portrayed as twisted. The argument put forward here is that, by analysing the various metaphorical expressions that arose in the wake of the identification of Spain with an image of linearity, it is possible to examine aspects of Falange nationalism that bring into relief the ideal of a sombre, spare, masculine and austere Spain. ***** One of the best-known speeches from the first days after the end of the Spanish Civil War is the one that was given by Rafael Sánchez Mazas, a writer and member of the Political Council of the official party of the new regime the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FET y de las JONS), in Zaragoza on 9 April 1939. It came at an exceptional moment: just a few days after the war's end, the euphoria of victory combined with the celebration of the ritual cycle of Holy Week to inspire a resounding harangue in praise of revolution, empire and the resurrection of the fatherland. The rhetoric was extreme, and among a multiplicity of proclamations, the Falangist intellectual exhorted his listeners to rule Spain leaving behind 'the tranquil, the anarchic, the picturesque and the twisted.'1 The linguistic image thus suggested was interesting: the Spain that had to be corrected and transformed was one that was twisted, bent, a deviation and malformed, in counterposition to the discourse of * Zira Box is lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Universitat de València, Spain. E-mail: zira.box@uv.es † The author participates at the following research projects: "De la dictadura nacionalista a la democracia de las autonomías: política, cultura, identidades" (HAR2011-27392) and "La nación desde la raíz: Nacionalismo español y sociedad civil en el siglo XX" (HAR2012-37963-C02-01).

Unrecovered objects: Narratives of dispossession, slow violence and survival in the investigation of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War

“…There is already a phenomenal (and growing) body of work on women and the Spanish Civil War (including Box, 2017b; Graham, 1995a; Herrmann, 2003; Ryan, 2009; Sole, 2017). Whilst this scholarship is highly attentive to gender, features of the mass grave paradigm still resist this turn.…”

“…These authors on female Republican activism have noted the concerted effort by Francoist forces to punish and repress any manifestation of Leftist or feminist ideas amongst women, pathologize feminism (Richards, 2001) and enforce retrograde models of femininity as part of 'National Catholicism'. The assertion of masculinist norms permeated Francoist ideology and rhetoric on a deep level (Box, 2017a(Box, , 2017b.…”