El cuadro más trágico: las crónicas peregrinas de Javier Bueno en la Primera Guerra Mundial

This paper aims to provide new perspectives for the study of War Chronicle as a journalistic genre in the Spanish context; we will also pay attention to the ambiguous relations between Journalism and Literature. We analyze a corpus of 236 War Chronicles published by Javier Bueno under the pseudonym of Antonio Azpeitúa in the Spanish newspaper ABC between 1914 and 1918 as an embedded reporter in the German, Austrian and Turkish armies from the Western front to the Gallipoli campaign. Using Rhetoric, Cognitive Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis and Thematology we will focus on the framing strategies Bueno uses to describe his experience. By that means, we will show how Bueno uses topoi such as the symbolist “dead city” or the locus amoenus to describe the occupied Belgium or the life in the German Army’s rear. Furthermore, Turkey will be seen through the eyes of Orientalism. Lastly, we will focus on the rhetoric strategies the journalist uses to describe the relationship between soldiers and Nature and the extreme and unspeakable experience of the battle. In the polarized Spanish society during the IWW years, the ultimate objective of these writings is not only to inform but also to persuade the reader to take sides with the Central Powers.