Political Communication and Education in War Time: The Case of Miguel Hernández

Abstract

This article is the result of a research project that deepens into the less known facets of the Spanish poet Miguel Hernandez, as political communicator and educator at the republican front during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). In the introduction, the poet is presented in his charge of political commissar, who produced political communication in the newspapers of the republican front, together with education and formation. From the methodological perspective, his texts are studied through Discourse Analysis that enables observing his way of developing his vocation as journalist/political communicator and educator: 1) journalist, as he wrote in different war newspapers; 2) political communicator due to his responsibility as political commissar; and 3) educator by means of the his texts, those of a poet compromised with the war, who is emotionally moving to every soldier in the trenchs; transversal because his texts written in a poetic style, ideologized or politized, trascend journalism. In the presentation of the results, his educative-journalist task is overwhelming He devotes his texts to education for values of soldiers. As conclusion, his social function is a mixed, multifaceted and discoursive one that is impregnated with poetry and passion, that serves to better the mood of soldiers, while being instructed, which turns Miguel Hernández into the predecessor of educommunication / media literacy (one of emergency in war time).