‘FASCISM IN CATALONIA’ IN MERCE RODOREDA’S DEATH IN SPRING- A STUDY

Abstract

Merece Rodoreda, a renowned Catalan writer, wrote Death in Spring while in exile during the Spanish Civil War. The novel portrays the impact of fascism through symbols and images. Fascism is a political or social system that cancels democratic freedom, prohibits and persecutes political parties, closes the freedom of press, expression, and eliminates leftist ideology. The totalitarian principle of unifying the people by way of imposing a single language and culture was exerted upon Catalonia during the dictatorship of Franco. The narrator, his parents, step-mother, his daughter, cudgel man, deformed men, prisoners, pregnant women, ironsmith, his son, Senyor, and all in the village are under some sort of oppression. This novel demonstrates fascism through the depiction of customs, social divisions, and their occupations symbolically throughout. It is not a gainsaying that fascism manifests itself in imprisoning, punishing, and killing those who are fighting for democracy.