Catalan Literature in the 20th Century: Key Authors
The Narrative of the 20th Century
Following a period of stagnation in linguistic production, the 1930s marked a period of increased production in Catalan fiction. This was due to the growing number of publishers and specific collections devoted to Catalan literature, as well as the creation of literary awards. The psychological novel, which deeply analyzed the inner lives of characters, became prominent. New techniques, such as interior monologue, were introduced, allowing the character’s subconscious thoughts to be expressed directly. Key figures during this period include Carles Soldevila, Mercè Rodoreda, Llorenç Villalonga, and Josep Pla.
Carles Soldevila’s Fanny (1929) is a notable psychological novel written in the form of an interior monologue. Miquel Llor’s Laura in the City of Saints offers a psychological portrait of the protagonist.
Josep Pla (1897-1981)
Born in Palafrugell in 1897 and died on Saint George’s Day in 1981, Josep Pla’s complete works, comprising over forty volumes, include The Gray Notebook, one of the best examples of Catalan prose. Pla was a journalist who also ventured into politics, going into exile due to his right-leaning positions against the Republic. After the war, in 1939, he returned to his family property in Llofriu.
As a journalist, Josep Pla created a modern literary prose, moving beyond modernist and Noucentista tendencies. He excelled in precise and accurate descriptions. He worked in various prose genres, including travel books and guides (Trip to the Old Catalan), biographies (Homenots), and political newspaper articles (Letters from Afar, Madrid: The Advent of the Republic).
A central theme in his work is time, particularly the recording of physical transformations, especially in landscape and customs. He aimed to document the world he lived in. His extensive works serve as memoirs about life and the Catalan country as a whole, capturing a world that would change after the Civil War.
Mercè Rodoreda (1909-1983)
Born in Barcelona in 1909 and died in Girona in 1983, Mercè Rodoreda is considered the most important contemporary Catalan narrator. Her novel Aloma, published in 1938, contains features that would characterize her later work. At the end of the Civil War, she was exiled to France and then Switzerland. In 1962, she published The Square of the Diamond, her most famous novel.
Rodoreda’s work revolves around themes such as the introspection of female characters, the frustration of relationships, solitude, and the destructive nature of time.
Llorenç Villalonga (1897-1980)
Llorenç Villalonga (1897-1980), from Mallorca, chronicled a lost world: the pre-tourism Mallorca. Novels like Death of a Lady (1931) and some short stories illustrate the contrast between a society looking to the past and another formed by foreigners and indigenous people, where tourism is foreshadowed as the economic base of the future. After the war, Villalonga’s work reflects nostalgia for the lost world of the Mallorcan aristocracy. His major work is Bearn or The Dolls’ Room, published in Catalan in 1961, in which the protagonist sees his world collapsing against the unstoppable force of modernity.