Visual Legacy: A Burkean Analysis of Spanish Civil War Imagery

The images of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) continue to haunt people around the world, reminding them of the atrocities of the war and all that occurred as the consequence of overwhelming global inaction. Francisco Franco successfully obtained control of Spain as the result of this brutal war, and he maintained his position as the head of state until his death in 1975. But the effects of Franco's rule are still evident in a quietly divided Spain and around the world. In the decades since the war ended, the impact of the war's images and the surprising outcome of the war have lingered, and the endurance of their legacy raises intriguing questions about the visual rhetoric of war. The visual imagery put forth by the two sides was distinctive and an apt measure of the successes of the Nationalists and the failures of the Republicans. Using Kenneth Burke's theories as a framework, the immediate and lasting impression of Francisco Franco's image and the Nationalist visual campaign and the delayed power of Picasso's Guernica and disappointing failure of the Republican visual campaign will be investigated as integral components of the outcome of the Spanish Civil War and its lingering effects in Spain and around the world.