1 - Introduction: The Rewriting of Laia, El testament, Tino Costa and Incerta glòria

Summary

During the 1950s and 1960s four key Catalan authors, namely Salvador Espriu (1913–1985), Xavier Benguerel (1905–1990), Sebastià Juan Arbó (1902–1984) and Joan Sales (1912–1983), set about rewriting some of their narrative work, a paradoxical task in view of the obstacles to publication in Catalan during the Franco regime. These writers decided to revise their literary production in a context where it might have seemed more urgent and necessary to offer new works to the public because, as Fuster pointed out, ‘Les “reedicions” no podien ser un remei, sinó més aviat el contrari, perquè en repetir obres i autors coneguts exclusivament, la curiositat dels consumidors hagué de dispersar-se cap a llibres escrits en altres idiomes.’ The main goal of this study is to analyse why Arbó, Benguerel, Espriu and Sales revised, respectively, Tino Costa (1947, 1968), El testament (1955, 1963, 1967), Laia (1932, 1934, 1952, 1968) and Incerta glòria (1956, 1969, 1971). Mercè Rodoreda, who rewrote Aloma (1938, 1968), might also be included in this group but, although references to her work will be made, the reason for not taking this novel into account is that it has already merited several studies. In order to comprehend the singularity of these rewriting processes, we have to take into account that it is not until the mid-1990s that we find a similar trend: Terenci Moix, Quim Monzó and Jordi Coca also followed the same path.