Why Euzko-Gogoa? The Basque literary and intellectual identity in the diasporic cultural magazine Euzko-Gogoa 1950-1960

Abstract

A magazine written only in the Basque language with the focus of maintaining alivea culture and language on the brink of extinction under the hands of a totalitariangovernment. A cultural work created by an exiled priest who was able to develop anetwork of fellow Basque intellectuals to save and rebuild their beloved motherlandthrough their language. This dissertation examines the imagined community createdin the cultural magazine Euzko-Gogoa published in Guatemala and Biarritz(Northern Basque Country) between 1950-1960.The War of 1936 and the subsequent Franco dictatorship depleted the Basquecultural initiatives promoted during the Spanish Second Republic. This projectanalyzes the reconstruction of the defeated Basque nation made in Euzko-Gogoa¿spages that helped maintain and rebuild a wounded nation. The dissertation will giveboth a historical and cultural background of the Basque Country and the magazinewhile also analyzing the publications and the result of its work.Through different forms of analysis such as cultural, national, andpostcolonial studies, it will demonstrate how Euzko-Gogoa not only created animagined community, but also a national consciousness that would create a bridgefor the next generation of Basques. This imagined community was created basedupon a traditional Basque nationalist ideology seen in the preindustrial BasqueCountry as a reference for the nation¿s future. As described throughout thedissertation, one will understand the differences of life lived in exile and theSouthern Basque Country and how an imagined community built in the pages ofEuzko-Gogoa conflicted with the reality of a nation.