Angel Guimera, Chronicles of Willful Forgetting

Summer would be a good opportunity to read fifteen hundred pages ofhidden heartto resume josep pla who signed it Xavier Bla. A much-talked-about text because of the importance of everything it implies: hardly a book in the Catalan context begins with so much information. A complete life detailed and laid out on a tray. An authentic realistic novel of the nineteenth century, it tells the history of a nation and a culture from the perspective of a man who made the banner of total freedom. The volume of Xavier Pla’s work makes it possible to observe any phenomenon of the twentieth century, because certainly Josep Pla was involved..

For example, a phenomenon that deserves a lot of attention is the resumption of publishing after the Civil War. The first publications approved in Catalan were titles of little interest, such as complete works or specialties. This would eventually change and Josep Pla would be the protagonist. The role of the publisher Selecta was crucial. Josep M. Crozet was the editor, and Josep Miracle, initially a proofreader, later an editor. A He chooses We owe it to him that, even today, he isThe only publishing house that has published complete bibliographies of most Catalan playwrights.Books that we can now only find in old libraries, but which were essential for the transmission and reading of the Catalan literary heritage.

But it is true that Selecta has hacked a lot of texts: it has made mistakes by cutting up texts or replacing colloquial words, for example. Since then, publishers such as Barcino, Club Editor, Ela Geminada, Adesiara, Group 62 and reference publishers such as Jordi Cornudella, Andreu Rossinyol, Jordi Raventós, Lluïsa Julià, Adriana Bàrcia, Gemma Bartolí or Agnès Prats have recovered original texts, previously in Selecta, from high-profile authors such as Victor Catalan, Rowera, Santiago Rusiñol, Joseph Maria de Sagara a Angel GuimeraBut this does not detract from the importance of Selecta’s literary project.

If we go back to the biography, there is a chapter of great importance. The publisher Josep Miracle sent Josep Pla the volumes of Guimera’s complete works. He wants Pla to talk about them in Destino and repeat them. Pla talks about them in Destino, but not very well. Xavier Pla reproduces the content of the article entitled Memories. Don Angel Guimera. It was published on November 18, 1948. The text is fierce with the Miracle edition. It also criticizes the introduction by Josep Maria de Sagarra. For Pla, it is absolutely certain that Guimera, in 1948, had fallen into oblivion. In 1949, Pla published in the magazine Selecta, but the tensions with Josep Miracle explain his position perfectly. For Josep Pla, the romantic literature of the third or fourth generation represented by Guimera has nothing to do with the turn towards realism that he advocates.

For Josep Pla, the romantic literature of the third or fourth generation represented by Guimera has nothing to do with the turn towards realism that he advocates.

This story may seem insignificant, but it directly embodies the difficulties we still face today with Ángel Guimera. What remains of the first recovery? Josep Miracle published the most complete biographical studies of the author, and later, on stage, new generations came to know Guimera through an adaptation of the musical. March I am a torrentand through multiple representations of Lowlands From recent years.

The beginning of a new qualitative shift?

Today it is celebrated The centenary of the writer’s death. Angel Guimera, playwright, poet and politician, died 100 years ago, on July 18, 1924. The commemoration leaves many questions unanswered, but what is clear is that recent years have been rich in the study of his work and make us think that we can be optimistic. New specialists have reached out to Angel Guimera and have found new literary perspectives. The most important thing has been to separate the fictional idea that new generations have of the author, but this is not easy: Guimera arrived through the channels of the media with the titles of the best known works, but the complexity of the character and style. The intense work has been completely buried.

Guimara has reached the media channels with the most famous titles, but the complexity of the character and the intense work have been completely buried.

Xavier Alberti, Albert’s arrival a Tony Sala They published books that definitively changed the field of Guimera studies. Although Josep Maria Bennett and Journey a Richard Salvat They have already pointed out the modern reading tools of the texts of the Guimera books. Tradition and creation By Tony Sala (another publisher), also Gamera man symbol By Xavier Alberti it allows us to interpret Guimera as a great European author and makes us want to read him. Beyond institutional tributes, we must reconnect Guimera to his time, and this is not easy.

Works like March I am a sl a Lowlands They can continue to question us, but they cannot deprive us of reading his poems, prose essays, and other plays.

Guimera’s presence on Catalan stages has become a regular occurrence, but in many cases only the most famous works have been performed. This season, National Theater It has been scheduled. SpiderIt is one of the most important pieces of the playwright’s final stage. It will also be necessary to restore works such as Jesus is back a Wheat Festivalothers. Works like March I am a torrent a Lowlands They can continue to challenge us, but they cannot deprive us of reading their poetry and prose essays, as well as their other plays. The Guimera Year should allow for more readings of little-known texts and, above all, reveal the characters’ relationship with homoeroticism, with the representation of nature, the technological world, war, Europe, the city, anarchy, desire, love… We love Guimera!