Madrid commemorates a lost generation of female writers, artists, scientists and thinkers silenced by FrancoMadrid commemorates a lost generation of female writers, artists, scientists and thinkers silenced by Franco

Madrid lacks neither literary history nor reminders of it. Statues of Calderón and Lorca haunt the Plaza Santa Ana, Cervantes offers his profile to passersby from the doorway of his house, and the words of writers and poets such as Francisco de Quevedo are set into the paving stones of the literary quarter.

Less visible are reminders of the female writers, artists and thinkers who emerged in the years before the Spanish civil war only to find themselves silenced or marginalised by Francoism and its monochrome view of women. But, eight decades on, their voices and stories are being heard once more.

Four months ago, Madrid city council unveiled a plaque to Elena Fortún, who was best known as a children's author until the posthumous publication last year of Hidden Path, a novel about homosexuality that has been compared to Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness.

In March, another plaque will go up on the site of the Lyceum Women's Club in Madrid, a meeting place for the leading female intellectuals of the age.

Read more - The Guardian