Jordi Cornella-Detrell

During the 1950s and 1960s, several key Catalan authors set about rewriting some of their narrative work despite the obstacles to publication in Catalan under the Franco regime. This study describes the social, political and cultural conditions that impelled Salvador Espriu, Xavier Benguerel, Sebastià Juan Arbó and Joan Sales to revise Laia, El testament, Tino Costa and Incerta glòria, concentrating particularly on the linguistic debates and literary trends from the 1950s to the early 1970s. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical perspectives, this book examines the reasons for the rewriting, including censorship and self-censorship, generational and ideological changes within the Catalan literary field, controversies over linguistic purism, the appearance of new literary trends and gender and political issues. It focuses on the (re)construction of a distinctive national identity and the impact of repression, memory, exile and silence on the representation of the war and the post-war periods. This study explores not only how writers or society at large were affected by the dictatorship, but how the armed conflict left its mark on the writing process itself.

This monograph focuses on the forms and functions of literary multilingualism, a concept defined as the use of more than one language within a single text. The analysis of a number of multilingual texts from several periods and genres aims to demonstrate that this is a rhetorical device which should be given a more prominent position in literary, stylistic and discourse analysis. Overall, this study demonstrates that textual multilingualism has manifested itself in different social and cultural contexts and, also, that this is a multifaceted phenomenon through which writers explore, question and renew their aesthetic vision and sense of identity.

quest article tracta sobre la importació, distribució, venda i consum de llibres il·legals a Barcelona durant el franquisme, un fenomen que, malgrat no haver estat estudiat, va jugar un paper clau en el desenvolupament de la cultura de postguerra. Com a resultat dels osbtacles que la censura posava a la lliure circulació de materials impresos, molts lectors àvids de novetats van haver de recórrer al mercat negre de llibres, que va esdevenir un negoci molt profitós.

Este artículo analiza el impacto de la censura durante el periodo democrático. Si le interesa una copia, por favor póngase en contacto conmigo.

This article examines the impact of censorship during the democratic period. If you would like to read it, please get in touch with me.

Resumen: Este artículo se propone analizar los expedientes de censura y la recepción en España de la obra del escritor norteamericano James Baldwin (1924-1987). Los objetivos
principales son tres: en primer lugar, poner de relieve la
importancia del contrabando de libros durante el franquismo, un aspecto de la vida cultural de posguerra que apenas ha recibido atención. Los casos de Otra vez el fuego y Otro país, importados ilegalmente de Argentina, demostrarán que los intentos de contrarrestar las políticas represivas del régimen tuvieron una magnitud y un impacto mucho mayor de lo que normalmente se cree. En segundo lugar, se pretende poner en tela de juicio el paradigma según el cual la censura es un episodio histórico confinado al periodo 1938-1978. Si bien durante la Transición se desmanteló el aparato represor de la dictadura, no se tomó ningún tipo de medidas para limitar el impacto de las actuaciones de los censores. La consecuencia, como demuestran los casos de Otro país y Ve y dilo en la montaña, es que durante la democracia se han continuado reeditando con toda naturalidad libros que sufrieron recortes. En tercer lugar, el presente artículo se adentrará en las poco estudiadas relaciones entre la industria editorial latinoamericana y la peninsular, tanto en lengua castellana como catalana. Mediante el análisis de la recepción de la obra de James Baldwin, este trabajo pretende llevar a cabo una revisión crítica de las metodologías empleadas hasta ahora en el estudio de las prácticas censorias.

Palabras clave: James Baldwin, Censura, Industria editorial,
Traducción, Franquismo.

Abstract: This article sets out to examine the censorship files devoted to American writer James Baldwin (1924-1987) and the reception of his work in Spain during the 1960s and 1970s. The goals are threefold: first, highlight the importance of the illegal book trade during Franco’s regime, a key aspect of Spanish post-war cultural life which so far has merited little attention. Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time and Another Country, for instance, were imported illegally from Argentina. As will become apparent, attempts to bypass the regime’s repressive policies had a greater impact than is commonly believed. Second, this article will challenge the idea that censorship is a historical episode limited to the period 1938- 1978. While the censorship apparatus was dismantled during the Transition, no measures were taken to limit the long-term effects of censorship. As a result, Spanish publishing houses are still publishing books (such as Baldwin’s Another Country and Go Tell It on the Mountain) with the cuts enforced by censors. Finally, this article will explore the relationship between the Latin American and the Spanish and Catalan publishing industry. By analysing the reception of James Baldwin’s work in Spain, this article will undertake a critical revision of the methodologies used so far in the study of Spanish censorship.

Key Words: James Baldwin, censorship, publishing industry,
translation, Franco’s regime.

The intention of this article is to challenge current trends in the study of censorship under Franco by focusing on the changing function of a number of translated works published both in Franco’s and democratic Spain. The goal is threefold: first, to demonstrate the key role of translation in the Catalan cultural recovery of the 1960s; second, to prove that the impact of censorship on the Spanish publishing industry extends well beyond Franco’s regime, because publishers are still reissuing works that were expurgated by the censors; third, to explore the links between historical memory, cultural artefacts, and censorship and reflect on the status that should be given to the books published during the dictatorship. This article demonstrates that after the regime’s downfall, expurgated works have been subjected to four different strategies: a) some have never been republished; b) some have been reprinted without any modification; c) some have been retranslated; d) some have undergone a thematic and/or linguistic revision.

Aquest article estudia la presència de la medicina i el discurs mèdic a la “trilogia femenina” de Carles Soldevila: Fanny (1929), Eva (1931) i Valentina (1933). Totes tres novel·les examinen detalladament el paper social de la professió mèdica i la seva contribució a l'establiment i el reforç de diferències de classe. Fanny s'estructura al voltant del contrast entre la neurastènia i la sífilis, dues patologies imbuïdes de prejudicis morals, classistes i de gènere. Eva i Valentina, d'altra banda, tracten del desequilibri de poder que comporta la relació metge-pacient i qüestionen l'objectivitat del discurs científic. Mitjançant l'anàlisi de diversos documents històrics, la noció freudiana de transferència, certs aspectes de l'obra de Michel Foucault i els conceptes de neurastènia, sífilis, higienisme, incest i transmissió genètica, aquest article pretén posar de manifest la importància del discurs mèdic i les narratives de la malaltia en la societat catalana dels anys 30. Per tal de demostrar que l'interès en aquests assumptes no era en absolut exclusiu de Soldevila, l'article també examina breument les novel·les El doctor Rip (1931), de Salvador Espriu, i La glòria del doctor Larén (1936), de Pere Calders.

In the early 1960s, when Franco’s dictatorship lifted some of the restrictions imposed on the cultural sector, translation into Catalan experienced a sudden and unparalleled growth. This article, which sets out to explore the causes and consequences of the expansion of the publishing industry, focuses on particular in the role of translation in the revival of Catalan culture. Among the topics to be considered are: the new rules of censorship, the impact of the meetings held by the Consejo Nacional del Movimiento in 1961, the organization of the XVI Congreso Internacional de Editores (Barcelona, 1962), the easiness with which Catalan publishers were able to buy translation rights, the impact of translation on Catalan authors, the increasing competition among publishing houses and, finally, the initiatives of several leading Spanish companies to tap into the Catalan book market.