Sofía Casanova and the First World War. Changing the Public Sphere

Abstract

Sofia Casanova was a Spanish journalist and a Red Cross voluntary during World War One. Her chronicles were published by right wing diary ABC. Sofia Casanova was married with polish philosopher Wicenty Lutoslawski since 1887, lived at Polonia, and it is able to think about her as a “regular” middle-up class woman. However, if it is developed a biographic approach and it is focused in Casanova’s representations about both public and private spheres during Great War, some differences show up. Between 1914 and 1918, there was an irregular modification in gender system. The war impact in every-day life was an asymmetric modification of public-private boundaries. That historical phenomenon also depended on gender cross-wise categories as class, religion and nationalism. Sofia Casanova was in rear of the eastern front: she was both a witness and and a principal actor in all those events that modified public sphere.