“Remember It and Remember It to Others”. Luis Cernuda, Exile and Memory

Abstract

From his departure from Spain in February 1938, in the middle of the civil war, to give lectures in London, until his death in Mexico on November 5, 1963, Luis Cernuda will live twenty-five years of exile in which he will remain firm and loyal to the ideals of the Republic and against the dictatorship in his country. Throughout this time, with different tones and modulations, he will develop his poetic work in which the experience of exile will be fundamental while, in his letters, in his critical and essay writing, he offers his personal vision of Spain, Europe and the World in the central decades of the 20th century. We will approach these interpretative keys, putting Cernuda's meditative poetry in contact with other more explicit texts, from his conviction that the cause for which he had fought was still valid despite the defeat, and that this should be remembered as an example for the future.