El periodismo literario de Langston Hughes en Españaestudio de la empatía narrativa en su corresponsalía de la Guerra Civil

Abstract

In July 1937, the African American writer Langston Hughes traveled to Spain as a correspondent to cover the Spanish Civil War. In an exercise of observation, commentary and interpretation, the dispatches of the celebrated poet turned literary journalist provide a portrait of a Spain against the fascist insurrection that transcends the reporting practice. Through the incorporation of an essentially subjective component, Hughes endows his dispatches with a pedagogical and transformative nature that pursues the racial and class liberation of oppressed populations. This doctoral dissertation provides a detailed study of Hughes’ journalistic corpus and examines the mechanisms that lead to an identification between the contexts of oppression in Spain and the U.S. The analysis carried out unveils the textual mechanisms that elicit narrative empathy in the African American readership through a detailed approach to the characterization of the protagonists in Hughes’ dispatches.