THE THEME OF WAR IN THE LITERARY AND JOURNALISTIC WORKS OF JAVIER CERCAS (Based on the Novels «Soldiers of Salamina» and «The Speed of Light» and Columns in «El País Semanal»)
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Our research is focused on the comparative study of the narrative strategies of J. Cercas as a novelist and columnist. As a starting point, we have used the theme of war in his literary work (the Spanish Civil War) and in his columns (the war in Ukraine) in ‘El País Semanal’. We have come to discover that one of Cercas’s strategies is to contrast ideas at different textual levels in order to reveal different approaches. In the structure of the column, this strategy is revealed in the contrastive use (antithesis) of ‘I/we’ VS ‘the other/they’. ‘We’ is used both to refer to the writer with his circle of loyal readers, and ‘we – the Spaniards’, ‘we – the Europeans (including Ukrainians)’. On the syntactic level, we can see the parallel structures skillfully used by the author, which, as a counterpart, are invested in semantic oppositions. Thus, war is contrasted with peace, truth with lies. Among the concepts that we have included in this research that are so closely linked to the theme of war are homeland, patriotism and patriot.
Author: Lyudmila Artemova
Institution: Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4409569055