War journalism in Mathieu Corman’s Salud, camarada!

Abstract

Mathieu Corman’s (1901-1975) Salud, Camarada! was published in 1937. It was never published again, neither in French nor in any other language. The book covers the Spanish Civil War from the Republican faction: the Aragon offensive, the battle for Barcelona, the siege of Madrid and the Basque front. The Belgian journalist was a privileged witness of many events, like Durruti’s funeral or the bombing of Guernica. This makes this title a very relevant journalistic work on the Spanish war. Thus, a recovery of Corman’s work has begun in recent years. A detailed analysis of Salud, Camarada! reveals a labour of considerable documentation and stylistic richness, allowing to classify it as a “reportage novel”. Besides the reportage, Corman uses other journalistic genres such as the chronicle or the interview. The frequent use of present tense and short sentences makes Salud, Camarada! similar in its way of narrating to live war coverage or cinematographic editing, based on fast cutting. Indeed, those are innovative aspects brought by this Corman's work, taking into account that neither radio nor TV could provide live coverage of wars at the time.