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Department of Modern Languages & Literatures

Dr Iker Gonzalez-Allende

Dr. Iker González-Allende

Assistant Professor of Spanish
1220 Oldfather Hall
402-472-3761
igonzalezallende2@unl.edu

 

Iker González-Allende, Assistant Professor (Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) received his B.A. in Hispanic Philology from the University of Deusto (Spain) and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He specializes in modern and contemporary Spanish peninsular literatures and cultures, with particular emphasis on gender studies and national identities. His major research interests are the Spanish Civil War, Spanish Republican exiles, Spanish women's literature, and contemporary Basque narrative.

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Books

  • Pilar de Zubiaurre. Evocaciones: Artículos y diario (1909-1958). Donostia: Saturrarán, 2009. Edition, introduction and notes. 331 pages. ISBN 978-84-934455-7-7

    This volume compiles the articles and diaries that Basque author Pilar de Zubiaurre wrote at the beginning of the 20th century and during her exile in Mexico, where she lived for thirty years. Zubiaurre played a decisive role in the culture of Spain during the 1920s and 30s, organizing gatherings, befriending the chief Spanish artists and literary figures of her time, and participating actively in the founding and development of the Lyceum Club Femenino in Madrid, the first cultural association of Spanish women.

    The articles of this book appeared originally in the newspaper Bizkaitarra (1909-10) and in Euzko Deya (1944-58), under two different pseudonyms, probably because of Zubiaurre's fear of being publicly acknowledged. In her articles, Zubiaurre shows her wish to improve the national culture and her nostalgia of the Basque country during exile. In her diaries, written from 1913 to 1943, Zubiaurre reveals the obstacles a bourgeois woman had to face at the beginning of the twentieth century in order to pursue an artistic career. The entries Zubiaurre wrote during the Spanish Civil War illustrate her political commitment to the democratic Second Republic and prove the multiple stances women can assume during war, because along with detailed descriptions of battles and attacks against the Francoist faction, she expresses sympathy towards the mothers of dead enemy soldiers.

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  • Líneas de fuego: Género y nación en la narrativa española durante la Guerra Civil (1936-1939). Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 2011. 265 pages. ISBN 978-84-9940-174-4

This book investigates the associations between gender and national identity in narratives written by Spanish authors from 1936 until 1939. Relying on scholars such as Nira Yuval-Davis and George L. Mosse, this book analyzes and compares works and illustrations from the two major sides of the Spanish Civil War, Republican and Francoist. The main argument is that both groups, despite their distinct political views, in fact exhibit a marked similarity in terms of perspectives on gender. Specifically, I argue that Republican and Francoist authors create characters that conform to traditional ideas about the roles that men and women play in the construction of the nation. I also study how the texts sometimes contradict the gender division promoted in their official ideologies. Each chapter focuses on the construction of the nation in relation to a figure of war: the mother, the fiancée, the nurse, the soldier, and the enemy. In total, I analyze fourteen works, written by authors as diverse as Ernestina de Champourcin, Rafael García Serrano, Concha Espina, and Benjamín Jarnés.

Articles & Book Chapters

Book Reviews

Graduate Courses Taught

  • Family and Nation in Contemporary Spanish Narrative
  • Gender Performance in 20th-century Spanish Drama
  • La España peregrina: Spanish Republican Exile Literature
  • Spanish Civil War Cultural Studies: Literature and Culture in 1936-1939
  • Peripheries and Center in 20th and 21st-century Spanish Narratives
  • Queer Spain: Gay Spanish Literature