The History of Friendship in Michael Roes' Geschichte der Freundschaft (2010)

After a brief summary of the recent theoretical context of masculinity studies and the notion of identity, this article will analyze the construction of masculinity in a novel by one of Morocco’s most notable authors, Tahar Ben Jelloun’s L'Homme rompu. It will refer to this theoretical context in order to highlight the full weight of discursive pressures that are exerted on the individual. It will offer an in-depth analysis of masculinity and identity in the novel and, with reference to its unofficial sister-novel, Simone de Beauvoir’s La Femme rompue, will question to what extent the existentialist concepts of individual choice and subjectivity are still valid in the current theoretical climate.

This article aims to draw critical attention to interesting features in the work of the Sardinian author, Grazia Deledda (1871-1936), an author who has not received sufficient critical attention. The article examines the relationship between identity, language and narrative in two of Deledda’s key novels, namely La madre (The Woman and the Priest / The Mother) and Il segreto dell'uomo solitario (The Secret of the Solitary Man). It analyses the way in which the two protagonists undergo a journey of self-understanding by facing their hopes and troubles in life. We see that while linguistic interaction is necessary for some, language itself serves as a weapon for others to control their own identity and even the identity of others.

This article examines a Welsh choir’s visit to Franco’s Spain at the invitation of the Francoist organisation Educación y Descans (Education and Leisure). At first the invitation sparked a debate in the local press on the principles of travelling to a country that was at the time shunned by the international community. The choir itself came from an area which had provided volunteers for the international brigades, but which was also co-incidentally involved with the establishment of an international music festival in the name of peace and understanding. The article examines the account of the choir’s journey to Spain, and discusses how the image of the Franco regime is portrayed in that account. The article also analyses to what extent the choir’s visit was used as propaganda by Franco as his foreign policy shifted with the advent of the Cold War.