Subversion of Myth and British Cultural Approximations to the Spanish Civil War in Sylvia Townsend Warner's After the Death of Don Juan

Abstract

This paper aims to discern how Sylvia Townsend Warner in her novel After the Death of Don Juan (1938) subverts the transcendental qualities attributed to myth to present it, instead, connected to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). This paper analyses the portrayal of the Don Juan myth, situates the novel in dialogue with the Grail legend and the waste land motif, examining how mythical characters and motifs reflect left-wing British authors’ understanding of the Spanish Civil War. Firstly, the introduction discusses the reception of the conflict in left-wing British authors, the understanding of myth in the twentieth century, the mythic method, and the relevant myths. The close reading analysis of the novel recurs, mainly, to myth criticism and historiography, and focuses on: Doña Ana’s character, presented as the equivalent of the Grail hero(ine), the depiction of the fictional estate of Tenorio Viejo as the waste land and, finally, the identification between Don Saturno, Don Juan and the Fisher King. This paper argues that the novel presents myth as something artificial that has lost validity in the context of the war; it discusses the understanding of the Spanish Civil War as a class war through the entwinement of agriculture and economics with myth and, finally, it transforms the mechanics of the myths of Don Juan and the waste land to reveal aspects of the Spanish Civil War as understood by left-wing British authors.