Josep Maria Espinàs

Josep M. Espinàs (Barcelona, 1927) is one of the most popular writers of Catalan literature. Author of essays, books on walking trips and autobiographical works, he writes regularly for newspapers and magazines and is a frequent guest on radio and television programmes.

Josep Maria Espinàs is the author of an extensive narrative oeuvre in which the realist, testimonial element prevails. As early as the 1950s, he was one of the first to incorporate neorealist literary forms into his writing, combining models from Spanish literature (for example Delibes and Camilo J. Cela) while rendering homage to Italian cinema, which had become prominent as one option for criticising the reality of the post-war world. Espinàs was awarded the 1953 Joanot Martorell Prize for his novel Com ganivets o flames (Like Knives or Flames) and would become a leading figure among the writers of realist narrative. With novels like El gandul (The Layabout - 1955) and Tots som iguals (We Are All Equal) he sharpened his focus on fiction with a markedly social character. Notable in these works are the sharp contrasts between the economic and housing situations of people from different social classes. In Combat de nit (Combat by Night - 1959) he presents a group of workers from a perspective that borders on that of the epic in telling the story of truck drivers who are pitted against machines. The characters are depersonalised, are nameless and only described by their physical features, while their journey and the places they visit are given an objectified treatment through inner monologues and description. Espinàs also published collections of short stories: Varietés (Variety - 1959), winner of the 1958 Víctor Català Prize, and Els joves i els altres (The Young and Others - 1960). Espinàs' realism starts out from a sceptical view of society. He focuses on the human tragicomedy and the anonymous figures that give shape to the urban universe of a society without hope. His condition as a journalist is manifest in his extraordinary gifts as an observer and social critic and his adoption of a disenchanted perspective densely tinged with humour. Sceptical and individualistic, his approach in the 1960s did not fit well with the revolutionary one. He was a faithful contributor to the newspaper Avui from the date of its founding until January 1999, writing one of its most popular columns. He was thus able to amplify his journalistic contribution, which had previously been limited to the Spanish-language publications Noticiero Universal, Destino and El Correo Catalán. Espinàs has always combined journalism and literature. The best fruit of this vocation has been the series of television interviews collected in book form and his works about travelling on foot around Catalonia, from the legendary Viatge al Pirineu de Lleida (Journey to the Lleida Pyrenees - 1957), which he wrote with Camilo José Cela, to the more recent books in which he visits regions that are far removed from the centralism of Barcelona, always drawing attention to social groups and problems that are a long way from the mainstream centres of interest. In recent years he has started to write fiction again: the novel Vermell i passa (Red and Go - 1992) and the magnificent collection of short stories Un racó de paraigua (A Corner of Umbrella - 1997).

Enric Bou, «El context cultural a partir del 1959» (The Cultural Context after 1959), Literatura catalana contemporània (Contemporary Catalan Literature), (Barcelona, UOC-Proa, 1999).

Regular reading of a newspaper column not only brings to light the writer's views about the world but also the inner weft that sustains his writing: what he talks about, when he talks about it, how he alternates his focuses of interest? And then it might happen when you are such a faithful follower that, if there are any tricks, you discover them and you feel let down and, if not, you stay fascinated and you learn quite a lot about this trade called column writing. After Joan de Sagarra, who published in Tele/eXprés I had never read any newspaper columnist with any fidelity until 1976 when Josep Maria Espinàs began to write his daily articles, which he continued to do for more than twenty years in Avui and more recently in El Periódico. Continue reading...