THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN THE WORK OF VICENTE BLASCO IBÁÑEZ

Abstract

This paper examines the image of the First World War that the Spanish writer and journalist Vicente Blasco Ibáñez creates in his works of history and fiction. The paper deals with journalistic texts written by Blasko Ibáñez, collected in a multi-volume history of the First World War (Historia de la Guerra europea de 1914) and the novel The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis). We interpret the representations of the causes of war, with a special reference to the issue of "modern war" and the news it brings, we find parallels, similarities and differences between the representations in the novel and the historical work. The aim is to question the historical and cultural context in which the author pronounces certain judgments about the war, and then about the German people, with an emphasis on how pre-war Germanophilia turns into Germanophobia expressed in the analysed novel and History.

Keywords

• history, First World War, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Historia de la Guerra europea, Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis.