La imagen de España en el exilio republicano de 1939: Francisco Ayala, Max Aub y Vicente Llorens [Bilingual edition: Spanish – English]

Abstract

This article focuses on the analysis of Spanish society conducted by three Republican intellectuals: Francisco Ayala, Max Aub, and Vicente Llorens, upon their return to Spain after decades spent in exile. With a transatlantic perspective gained from their years of residence in Mexico, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the United States, these three individuals examined Spanish historical reality under Francoism in all its cultural, political, economic and social dimensions. In addition to certain commonalities, I will argue that each of these authors‘ first perception of their home country depended on several factors such as the date of their first trip to Spain, or the personal and professional circumstances that surround that journey. In this article, I have examined their personal writings –travel journals, memoirs, and diaries– as well as their personal testimonies offered in the correspondence with one another or with other intellectuals and friends who were part of the Spanish Republican exile of 1939. The critical analysis of this corpus, mostly from archives and, in some cases, studied here for the first time, is essential to complete the image of Spain reflected in these authors‘ academic works or essays.