A queer problem: writing sapphic anarchism in Spanish Civil War fiction

ABSTRACT

In this article, I offer an analysis of anarchist attitudes towards lesbianism in Spain in the 1930s and how these attitudes have informed my creative practice in writing a novel about the experiences of queer women in the Spanish Civil War. I propose that the anarchist lesbian is a paradox, being a figure that is simultaneously visible and invisible in the 1930s, and consider the importance of the butch stereotype in identifying lesbian women of the time, using Lucía Sánchez Saornil as a leading example of a masculine anarchist woman in the public eye and the individualist writings of Poch and Armand as examples of the generation of positive attitudes towards, and even encouraging, sapphic love. I locate my novel as a bridge between historiography and literature that seeks to rectify the lack of documentation about lesbian lives in this period. Finally, I offer a reading of Rosa Maria Arquimbau’s novel Quaranta anys perduts as an example of representation of coded lesbian anarchism in historical literature and explain how my work builds upon this genealogy of queer historical fiction about the Spanish Civil War.

KEYWORDS:

• Anarchism
• lesbianism
• Spanish Civil War
• literature
• interdisciplinarity

Acknowledgments

A preliminary version of this research was presented at the Anarchism in the Iberian Peninsula Symposium at the University of Leeds in 2022 and I would like to thank the organisers and other panellists for their hard work and suggestions. I would also like to thank the reviewers of this article and my PhD supervisors Dr Michael Hughes and Professor John London for their unwavering support and enthusiasm.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. All translations are my own unless stated otherwise.

2. This contrasts lesbianism described in other prison narratives by non-communist women. Of two lovers in prison, socialist Carlota O’Neill wrote: “Este amor levantó escarnios y pudores entre las honestas madres de familia [This love provoked jeers and modesty among the honest mothers with families]” (2003, 68–9). It is worth noting that she presented their case quite without judgement, perhaps even hinting at sympathy when she observed how “las otras jóvenes las miraban con miradas reprobadoras y curiosas; quizá envidiosas [the other young women looked at them with reproving and curious looks; perhaps envious ones]” and that “en la antigua Grecia, Safo les habría dedicado sus mejores versos [in ancient Greece, Sappho would have dedicated her best verses to them]” (2003, 69).

3. For further details on Spanish anarchists “borrowing” medical studies from other countries and non-anarchist sexologists instead of generating their own, see Cleminson and Cleminson and García Francisco (2007) and Turbutt (2022, 5).

4. See Cleminson and Cleminson and García Francisco (2007), 16.

5. For an extended analysis of the suggestive illustrated image of the lesbian of the early twentieth century, see Sentamans (2015, 56–66).

6. As in 1928, the Ley de vagos y maleantes that was passed in 1933 was later reappropriated under the dictatorship in 1954 to include homosexual activity and continued to exclude women.

7. Cleminson and Vázquez García have highlighted how there had been a shift in gender signifiers by the end of the 1920s and how the presentation of masculinity hardened as a result of women encroaching on what were traditionally considered more masculine areas, such as in work and in winning the vote in 1931, but also through the growth of feminism and changes to fashions and behaviours (2007, 256).

8. San de Velilla drew attention to how, even in 1932, the study of lesbianism is not as great as that of male homosexuality. He described how “Ellis atribuye este aparente desdén a la falta de datos [Ellis attributes this apparent disdain to a lack of data]” (1932, 228). It is interesting to note that this has still not been addressed in any great detail over ninety years later and consequently I believe that my creative work can be considered both timely and necessary, as indicated in this article.

9. San de Velilla described how “entre las [mujeres de elevada inteligencia] son muy frecuentes los casos de inversión [cases of inversion are very frequent among women of high intelligence]” (1932, 236).

10. For examples of such posters, see the Museo Reina Sofía’s online exhibition La imagen de la mujer republicana (https://www.museoreinasofia.es/coleccion/proyectos-investigacion/mujeres-guerra-civil-espanola/mujer-carteles-republicanos).

11. Turbutt has shown that women with concerns about their sexuality wrote into anarchist publications such as La Revista Blanca (2022, 16).

12. For more on the anarchist ideal of femininity as highlighted by La Revista Blanca and pushed by Federica Monseny, see Turbutt (2022), 10.

13. In one of the flashbacks, Josep lends Montserrat a copy of Sexualismo revolucionario to read and she explains: “That was a usual part of my education. He would turn up at the apartment with some political text in his pocket that he’d expect us to discuss the next time I saw him. It felt a lot like schoolwork, but I took pride in reading everything he gave me and trying to please him. In any case, Papà encouraged it and Mamà did not argue with him when he reasoned that Josep would appreciate my reading far more than my sewing” (Byrne 2023, n.p.).

14. Translation by Peter Bush, 2021, 137.

15. While opening interrogation marks are generally not used in modern Catalan, I have included them here to preserve Arquimbau’s original text.

16. Translation by Peter Bush (2021), 16.

17. Translation by Peter Bush (2021), 23.

18. Throughout Quaranta anys perduts Arquimbau demonstrates a fondness for playing with notions with gender, as in Hermínia’s observation of the translation of the given name “Paz” in Catalan as “Pau” and not “Paula” and Laura’s response, “I el dia que es casi, ¿el seu marit com li dirà? [What will her husband call her on her wedding day?]” (2016, 31 [2021, 25]), and in Laura’s observation of a young man with long her in her later years (2016, 170).