La huella de la amistad en los exilios de Concha M?ndez

Abstract

The poet, dramatist, and scriptwriter Concha M?ndez (1898-1986), like many of the women of the Spanish Generation of 27, has been forgotten by the scholars that have been working in this generation. Few articles analyze the work done by Concha M?ndez, but there are still some of M?ndez?s texts that are unknown and so many questions about her work that we already know. As far as we know M?ndez was influenced by her generation?s colleagues, such as the poets Alberti and Lorca. We don?t know anything about the influence from her women colleagues. Concha M?ndez was not only supported by her family, but she was condemned and rejected for being a woman who did not follow the social rules in those times in Spain. But she decided to be a poet and an independent woman. In order to pursue that, she had to suffer exile many times during her life. In her first exile M?ndez met Maruja Mallo, a painter who was always breaking the socials rules and fighting for the liberation of women. Together they enjoyed an intellectual life and they contributed to enrich it and to destroy the image of woman as an obedient and submissive mother and wife. After that experience, she traveled to Argentina. She was in her second exile when she met Consuelo Berges, a writer. Berges offered her friendship to M?ndez and also her influence in intellectual circles. Later, when M?ndez had to suffer political exile after the Spanish Civil War, she reinforced her friendship with Mar?a Zambrano, a philosopher who also lived in exile and who was always there to advise her about her works and support her from the pain of many personal incidents. All these friendships are traces in her work. My thesis is going to study all these traces in order to better know M?ndez?s works and also to expand the study of the women in the Generation of 27, which has been studied from a man?s perspective very well but still lacks study from a woman?s point of view.