Personal Books by Josep Vallverdú: Frustration as he becomes Older

Abstract

Josep Vallverdú has focussed his career on essays and what he calls “personal books” since the late eighties, in addition to continuing to produce children’s literature. His personal books cover an extensive range of forms, including memoirs, diaries, press articles, notes on his own writings and books on travelling in Catalonia and elsewhere. This diversity shares recurrent topics that express the author’s point of view on literary, political and social issues, as well as on the transformation of Catalan culture since the beginning of the modern
revival. These contextual changes also entail gradual shifts in Vallverdú’s thoughts as he becomes older, which reflect a recent disappointment that can be clearly detected in his later diaries. The presence of this frustration raises the question of whether he regrets not having achieved the status of a more recognised writer or whether he is disillusioned because the collective project of cultural revival for which he has always fought has not been achieved. By
following his literary activity and setting his complaints in context, we assess the scope of Vallverdú’s satisfaction with the success of his work. At the same time, we address the author’s frustration at the impossibility of overcoming the shortcomings that continue to overshadow the goal of his efforts: the normalisation of Catalan culture in the post-Franco era.