INTELECTUALES DE IZQUIERDA Y NACIONALSOCIALISMO: ALCANCES Y LÍMITES DE UNA RECEPCIÓN CRÍTICA (1933-1943)

Abstract

This article addresses a comparative study on the admission and deliberaton of opinions regarding National Socialism by left-wing Costa Rican intellectuals. The analysis parts from the revision made by editor Joaquín García Monge of the journal Repertorio Americano during 1933-1943; of the periodical Trabajo issued by the Communist Party in that same period; and six other books written by Vicente Sáenz, all published between 1938 and 1944. The purpose of this paper is to capture the various statements made by a body of leftist intellectuals, who proved heterogeneous within, as to trajectory and ideologies, but who in general held a critical standpoint regarding the Nazi phenomenon, while participating in different ways in the anti-Fascist movement of the 1930s and 1940s. The article reveals the wide range of connections between the National Socialism issue and their respective ideologies and individual political agendas. Furthermore, the influence of the country’s political culture and its imaginary liberal character are kept in mind within the National Socialism’s ways of thinking, of making biased criticism, and of creating political responses to the impact caused on the Costa Rican society.