Joaquín Edwards Bello and His Chronicles About the Spanish Civil War

Abstract

Joaquín Edwards Bello (1887-1968) was an outstanding Chilean writer and chronicler. Acquainted with the European World, in general, and with Spain, in particular, among the multiple topics that he dealt with in his thousands of collaborations with media, he commented the events of the Spanish Civil War with a critical standpoint towards the facts, which differentiates him from his contemporaries (Vicente Huidobro, Pablo Neruda, Juvencio Valle, and Augusto D’Halmar, among others). The hypothesis set forth here considers that Edwards Bello defines his “posture” (Meizoz) responding to an “articulating ethos” (Maingueneau) that strengthens his “position” (Bourdieu), supported by the consistency of his own discourse (“self-reference”, Carvajal) in front of a reader audience who is acquainted with his intellectual independence. In this sense, he presents the Spanish Civil War as a symptom of the social and political decay of the country, auguring a negative future for Spain, irrespective of the outcome of the conflict.