Aurora Bertrana. The image in the mirror

Abstract

Aurora Bertrana (Girona 1892-Berga 1974) was a Catalan travelling writer. She was the first woman (1935) to join the Geographic Society of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. During the 2nd Republic, she was regarded as one of the most prominent feminist and progressive intellectuals of the country. Her narrative work is diverse: her first period is focused on her travels around exotic countries such as Polynesia and Morocco. Another important face of hers were her autobiographic accounts. But, how was Aurora Bertrana really? What does she explains and hide in her Memòries? We will comment on her biographic trajectory throughout the history that she wrote about herself. A life narrated like an exciting novel –maybe her best?–: enjoyable, tragicomic, with plenty of travels and adventures. However, like the stendhalian novel, it’s only an image in the mirror, only the part of herself that she wanted to reveal.

Keywords: exoticism, travelling woman, memories, Catalan narrative, feminism.