Sharpe: Mosaic Fictions

by Emily Robins Sharpe

Mosaic Fictions is the first book-length critical analysis of Canadian Spanish Civil War literature. Exploring published and archival writings, the book focuses on the extensive contributions of Jewish Canadian authors as they articulate the stakes of the Spanish Civil War (1936–9) in the language of a nascent North American multiculturalism. Placing Jewish Canadian writers within overlapping North American networks of Jewish, Black, immigrant, female, and queer writers challenges the national distinctions that dominate current critical approaches to Anglophone Spanish Civil War literature. Reframing the narrative of Spain’s noble but tragic struggle against fascism in the Spanish Civil War, the book demonstrates how marginalized North American supporters of the Spanish Republic crafted narratives of inclusive citizenship amidst a national crisis not entirely their own. Mosaic Fictions examines texts composed between the war’s outbreak and the present to illuminate the integral connections between Canada’s developing national identity and global leftist action.

240 pages, Hardcover

Published March 26, 2020

Reviews

[Laura Hartmann-Villalta · Rating 5 out of 5]

most excellent treatise on Canadian identity as shaped by and with Spanish Civil War literature. sharpe also includes readings of Black American writers like Langston Hughes and volunteer nurses such as Salaria Kea. sharpe extends her analysis from literature of the 1930s to how engagement with the SCW affected Canadian poetry & prose in the later 20th century, particularly looking at, for example, Leonard Cohen's artistic production based on the war.

highly recommend for those interested in: 20th century literature, Canadian specifically; Spanish Civil War literature; Jewish studies; women's and gender studies.