Photograph of Professor John Klapper
Professor John Klapper

Four staff in Modern Languages have been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Research Grant, for the project ‘Inner and Outer Exile in Fascist Germany and Spain: A Comparative Study’.

Principle Investigator Professor John Klapper and co-investigators Dr Monica Jato, Dr Elisenda Marcer and Professor William Dodd have been awarded £314,730 for the three-year project, which starts in September 2016. Two research assistants and two PhD students will also be appointed.

The project will compare the cases of German writers under National Socialism (1933-45), and Spanish writers under the Franco regime (1939-75). The research will illuminate the common features of German and Spanish writers and the shared rootedness of ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ discourses of opposition to dictatorial regimes.

Alongside a focus on self-identity, terminology, literary tropes, images and the uses of history, the pioneering study will exploit archival sources to make little-known works available in English translation and will open up the field for wider interdisciplinary research. Discussions on inner and outer exile have previously been limited to an individual national case; this study is significant therefore in adopting a cross-cultural approach to exile.