The imaginary toponym La Rigala, which is revealed to be an anagram of an area of El Vendrell (L'Argila), where & Agrave;ngel Guimer & agrave; owned a plot of land, is reiterated in several of his works: the short story 'El Nen Jueu'; the comedy La Baldirona;the dramas En P & oacute;lvora, Maria Rosa, La Festa del Blat and La pecadora;and the unfinished play La Nit de Nadal. Regarding their dates, they span from the end of the 1880s, when he was drawing closer to realism, to the early twentieth century. This fictitious place is used in different ways and does not constitute a coherent microcosm, but its recurrence in several works contributes to establishing relationships and playing with a rural mythical space, beyond the -sometimes critical- tribute to the land where his paternal family came from and where he spent part of childhood and young adulthood.
This paper examines the reception of Sagarra's translation of the Commedia during the Franco era. The first section describes live readings of the text for private audiences, according to diaries from that period; due to the censorship of the time, those readings were held exclusively for small groups of friends and colleagues. Reference is also made to the speech that Sagarra made at the 16th Annual Festival of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans. The second part examines the distribution of the bibliophile edition based on archival documentation preserved by the editors. The first volume was a clandestine publication, which was later followed by second and third volumes, which were published legally. The final section describes the reviews that appeared in the press of the second edition published in Cl & agrave;ssics de Tots els Temps. There were twelve in total, and although some of these reviews were commissioned by the editors of the collection, similar ideas prevail in each review.
Catalan playwright & Agrave;ngel Guimer & agrave; (1845-1924) has often been compared to William Shakespeare, to such an extent that he has been referred to as 'the Catalan Shakespeare'. The themes and romantic structure of his historical tragedies have led some critics to draw parallels with the English playwright, while others have dismissed the comparison as ideologically driven and exaggerated. During the Catalan Renaixen & ccedil;a, the need to establish a national literary tradition positioned Guimer & agrave; as a cornerstone for building a local theatrical canon akin to those of the major European bodies of literature. This article examines how the Shakespeare-Guimer & agrave; analogy has been strategically employed by Catalan critics in the effort to construct a distinct dramatic identity. From a historiographical and comparative perspective, it traces critical debates surrounding this issue from the late nineteenth century to the present, focusing on the contributions of intellectuals, playwrights and theatre practitioners such as Yxart, Maragall, Esquerra, Salvat and Benet i Jornet. The aim is to understand how Guimer & agrave; came to occupy a central role in shaping a solid theatrical model for Catalan literature-through both his dramaticproduction and its reception-and how this process reflects broader tensions between national culture, canonical ambition and European legitimacy.
This article explores the use of magic and mythology in the works of Catalan poet Maria-Merc & egrave; Mar & ccedil;al (1952-1998). It particularly examines the way these two spaces result from the tensions between the individual embodied female experience and the preexisting symbolism through poetry. Thus, this article attempts to analyse the specific interaction between body and language in her work and ultimately asserts that magic and mythology can be taken as valid methodologies to contribute to feminist action. To illustrate these points, I shall take the myth of the birth of Athena and Mar & ccedil;al's specific interpretation of the myth to explore the position of the woman writer within the liter ary and cultural tradition and how the female subject has undergone a process of assimilation, not expulsion, from the language.
Jean Renart and Ramon Vidal de Besal & uacute; have been considered the pioneers in incorporating lyrical fragments into their narrative works. By comparing them and focusing on Guillaume de Dole and Abrils issia, the way that Ramon Vidal acts compared to the original troubadour texts and their adaptation to Abrils issia is analyzed. Furthermore, a date is proposed and a fragment previously considered anonymous is identified.
