Leggott, Sarah

About the author: Sarah Leggott is Programme Director of Spanish at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She complete her PhD at the University of Auckland. Her research interests include women in the Spanish Civil War, contemporary Spanish women writers, and autobiography and testimonial literature.

History and Autobiography in Contemporary Spanish Women’s Testimonial Writings

2001 0-7734-7584-2
This monograph explores the biographical and autobiographical works of seven 20th century women writers: Josefina Aldecoa, Mercedes Formica, Dolores Ibárruri, Pilar Jaraiz Franco, Federica Montseny, Constancia de la Mora and Isabel Oyarzábal de Palencia. Literary and political figures, these women contest traditional versions of Spanish history through their published works, and offer different perspectives on the role of women within that history. They address the past from diverse ideological standpoints – communism, republicanism, socialism, anarchism and fascism. The text examines the construction of the identity of the female historical subject within a specific sociopolitical context, drawing on relevant critical work from the fields of historicism, feminism, and cultural studies. Includes texts of personal interviews (Spanish with English translation) with Mercedes Formica and Josefina Aldecoa