Abstract
The Republic of Silence, Writing the Resistance, 1936-1945 advances the claim that the historiography of the Resistance against Fascism has largely been a process of forgetting rather than remembering. In its instrumentalist framing of resistance, much of the historiography of the Resistance has occluded the sense of futility that members of the resistance grappled with. Writing, I argue, is a point in which the conflict between the obligation and futility of resistance plays out in its most dramatic form. Why risk one’s safety to write a work that won’t change the course of history, or even fail to find a readership? By centralizing literature in this history of the Resistance, this dissertation seeks to develop a historically-informed form of criticism that resists instrumentalist forms of judgement. With defeats in Spain and the fall of the Popular Front this era marks a phase in anti-Fascism in which politics had to be imagined in the face of defeat rather than advancing a specific future. The solidarity of the resistance, as the literature of the time reveals, was a solidarity emerging out of a shared experience of futility rather than a shared vision of the historical future. While the authors I focus on come from various nationalities (from H.D. to Albert Camus, Primo Levi to Marguerite Duras, Jean Cassou to George Orwell), their belonging to the dissertation hinges on their participation in resistance activities against Fascism in Europe during this period. Each chapter accordingly addresses a dilemma—such as whether to publish one’s writing or conceal it, to write clearly or in code, to give one’s work a narrative structure, etc.—and investigates how it this shaped the styles of authors engaged in resistance across national boundaries. This method is taken here so as to demonstrate how similar stylistic tendencies evolved in authors who were not causally affiliated with one another, indicating that the ways in which many features of resistance writings emerged from shared conditions rather than direct influence. Interrogating how futility shaped each of these lived dilemmas, I argue that futility can be experienced as the starting point of creative action rather than its termination.
Committee Chair
Vincent Sherry
Committee Members
Anca Parvulescu; André Fischer; Jonathan Eburne; William Maxwell
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Author's Department
English and American Literature
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
8-19-2025
Language
English (en)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7936/ehhh-bs13
Recommended Citation
Henderson, Michael, "The Republic of Silence: Writing the Resistance Against Fascism, 1936-1945" (2025). Arts & Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 3591.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/ehhh-bs13