Blog del Instituto Cervantes de Dublín

Somos ya 900 los miembros de esta página, la página del Instituto Cervantes de Dublín en Facebook, y vamos a celebrarlo durante el día E.

El próximo 18 de junio, desde las 15:30 hasta las 17:00, la biblioteca invita a todos los miembros de la página a encontrarse.

Pretendemos de este modo fomentar el intercambio de información, los intercambios de conversación, la creación de grupos de lectura, y desde luego, conocernos unos a otros.

Como somos muchos, para asistir al encuentro os pedimos que confirméis vuestra asistencia respondiendo a nuestra invitación en la propia página de Facebook. Si no eres miembro todavía, anímate, aún estás a tiempo de serlo.

A la misma hora, de 15:30 a 17:00, organizamos un mercadillo de libros (Pop in Day): Si eres profesor y buscas materiales para preparar tus clases, o si eres estudiante y buscas libros para practicar tu español, quizás te interese acercarte a nuestro bazar . La mayor parte de ellos están duplicados en nuestra biblioteca y los ponemos a tu disposición completamente gratis.

A todos los que vengáis durante esa hora y media al encuentro os ofrecemos:

• Carné gratuito de la biblioteca por 6 meses. Los que ya tenéis carné válido, podréis renovarlo de forma gratuita por 3 meses más.

• La posibilidad de encontrar un buen intercambios de conversación

• Visitas guiadas.

• Intercambio de libros / Bookcrossing: cambiad los libros en español que ya no vais a leer por otros que no habéis leído.

Y después, a las 17:00 todos estáis invitados al concierto de música cubana en nuestro Café literario

Aquí tenéis el programa completo de actividades previstas para eldíaE en el Instituto Cervantes de Dublín.

There are already 900 members of Instituto Cervantes’s Facebook site, and we’d like to celebrate our new friends.

The 18th of June, from 3:30pm to 5pm, the library invites you to a social gathering for members of Instituto Cervantes Dublin Facebook page. We hope this gathering will encourage you to exchange information with other members, possibly start conversation exchanges, create book clubs, and of course, get to know each other in person.

If you’d like to come to this gathering, please confirm your attendance by replying to the invitation on our Facebook page. If you’re not yet a member, join up, it’s not too late!

To all of you who come to the gathering, we’d like to offer you:

• Free library membership for 6 months. For those of you who already have a valid library card, you can renew your card for free for 3 months.

• Spanish-English conversation exchange

• Guided tours.

• Book exchange / “Bookcrossing”: exchange books in Spanish you no longer want for others you’d like to read.

At 3:30pm we are organizing a Pop in Day as well: If you’re a teacher, and you’re looking for materials to prepare your classes, or if you’re a student and you’re looking for books to practice your Spanish, you might find just the thing in our book fair. Most of them are copies of books which we have here in the library, we’d like to donate our spare copy to you free of charge.

Later on, at 6pm, you’re all invited to a concert of Cuban music in our Café Literario.

Instituto Cervantes is organising lots more activities to celebrate EldíaE.   Please follow the link to find the full programme.

El día 18 de junio, con motivo de la celebración del Bloomsday, el asturiano Alfonso Zapico, premio autor revelación de 2010 en el Salón Internacional del Cómic de Barcelona, presenta en el Irish Writers’ Centre de Dublín su obra Dublinés, una novela gráfica centrada en la vida de James Joyce en la que Zapico ha invertido 3 años de su vida profesional.

Por ello hemos querido dedicar este mes de junio a promocionar una de nuestras secciones más queridas, la de tebeo, cómic y novela gráfica.

On the 18th June, as part of our Bloomsday celebrations, Asturian illustrator Alfonso Zapico, winner of the best newcomer award at the 2010 Barcelona International Comic Fair, will present his most recent publication “Dublinés” at the Irish Writers Centre, here in Dublin. “Dublinés”, fruit of 3 years’ work by Zapico, is a graphic novel which focuses on the life of James Joyce.

We’d like to celebrate this new release by promoting one of our most loved sections; the cartoon, comic and graphic novel section of course!

Érase una vez… personajes, criaturas, palabras, escenarios, objetos mágicos, ilusión, gestos, sonrisas; historias de hoy, de ayer y del futuro. Cuentos clásicos, contemporáneos, y como no, todos ellos divertidos.

Tienes un cuentacuentos el sábado 4 de junio, a las 12:15h con Carmen Sanjulián

En Facebook puedes ver las fotos de uno de los cuentacuentos realizado en nuestra biblioteca.

Te esperamos

Once upon a time… are characters, creatures, words, scenes, magic objects, gestures, smiles and excitement; stories from yesterday, today, and stories from the future; classic stories, contemporary stories, and of course, all of them, very entertaining stories.

Next storytelling on Saturday, 4th of June, 12:15h with Carmen Sanjulián

You can see on Facebook some photos of one of our Storytelling held in our library.

See you there!

Las novedades de la biblioteca pueden ser consultadas en nuestro catálogo en línea, como es habitual.

Para ello, seleccione ÚLTIMAS ADQUISICIONES, y elija el período de tiempo que le interesa, por ejemplo “los últimos 15 días, “el último mes”, o “los últimos tres meses”.

Ésta es nuestra selección para el mes de junio de 2011.

The latest additions to the library catalogue can be consulted on-line as usual.

Click ÚLTIMAS ADQUISICIONES, then select “Dublin”, and choose the time period, for example, the past 15 days, the past month, or the past 3 months.

This is our selection for June 2011

Juan Cruz Ruiz, periodista, escritor y editor nacido en el Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife) en 1948 es nuestro autor del mes de junio de 2011.

Juan Cruz estudió Periodismo e Historia en la Universidad de La Laguna y comenzó a escribir en prensa en el semanario Aire Libre con sólo trece años de edad.

Es miembro fundador de El País, donde ejerció también tareas muy diversas, entre otras, la de corresponsal en Londres, jefe de Opinión y redactor jefe de Cultura. Actualmente es adjunto a la dirección del periódico.

Juan Cruz nos visitará el próximo día 16 de junio para hablarnos sobre “El sueño del celta”, última novela del Premio Nobel Mario Vargas Llosa el martes 14 de junio, a las 18h, en nuestro Café Literario.

Con él celebraremos nuestra entrevista digital mensual. Ya podéis enviar vuestras preguntas sobre sus obras, o sobre Mario Vargas Llosa. Juan responderá a ellas el mismo día 14 de junio, de 16.30h a 17.30h, hora de Dublín.

Juan Cruz, journalist, writer and editor was born in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, in 1948. He is our author of the month in June 2011.

He studied Journalism and History in the Universidad de la Laguna, Tenerife, and started writing for the press in the weekly sports newspaper Aire Libre, at just thirteen years of age.

He is one of the founding members of Spanish newspaper El País, where he has performed a wide variety of roles, amongst others, correspondent for London, head of the Opinion and Analysis section, and editor in chief of the Culture section. He is currently Assistant Director of the newspaper.

Juan Cruz will discuss “The Dream of the Celt”, the most recent novel, recently published in English, by Mario Vargas Llosa, 2011 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, on Tuesday 14th June, at 6pm in our Café Literario, here at Instituto Cervantes.

We will also be hosting a virtual interview with Juan on our library’s blog, whereby you can ask him questions about his own work or that of Mario Vargas Llosa. You can send in your questions as of now, Juan will answer them live on Tuesday 14th June, from 4.30pm to 5.30pm.

Diego Valverde Villena: La curiosidad te permite estar siempre vivo, y de algún modo, no tener edad

Entrevista con Diego Valverde Villena realizada el 31 de mayo de 2011 en la Biblioteca Dámaso Alonso del Instituto Cervantes de Dublín con motivo de su participación en la mesa redonda “Más que poesía” junto a Anamaría Crowe Serrano.

Diego Valverde Villena (San Isidro, Lima, Perú, 1967) es licenciado en Filología Hispánica, Inglesa y Alemana por la Universidad de Valladolid. Entre 2002 y 2004 trabajó en la Secretaría de Estado de Cultura del Gobierno de España. También fue director de la Feria del Libro de Valladolid de 2006 a junio de 2009. Desde 2010 es profesor visitante en la Universidad Mayor de San Andrés de La Paz. De su obra poética cabe destacar títulos como El difícil ejercicio del olvido (1997), No olvides mi rostro (2001), Infierno del enamorado (2002), o El espejo que lleva mi nombre escrito (2006). En 2007 estrenó Iconos, obra para soprano y piano, con música de Juan Manuel Ruiz, publicada en 2008. Un segundo de vacilación, antología de su poesía, fue publicada en 2011.

Carmen Sanjulián: —¿Quién es Diego Valverde Villena?

Diego Valverde Villena: —Bueno, preguntado así, te diré la respuesta de corazón y profunda: soy el hijo de Fermín y Chati, que son los nombres con los que yo, cuando tenía dos años, llamaba a mis padres en Lima. En el caso de mi madre, era un apelativo cariñoso. Mi padre se llamaba Fermín. Yo no les decía papá y mamá, sino Fermín y Chati, como les decía el resto de la gente, los amigos de mis padres.

En el fondo en el fondo, de verdad verdadera, ese soy yo. Exactamente soy el hijo de Fermín y Chati y todas las cosas que soy, que he sido y posiblemente que seré, vienen de ellos, de todo lo que he recibido de ellos. Todo estaba ya en origen ahí. Lo demás, todo es expansión de lo que me han dado.

Carmen Sanjulián: —Explícanos un poco eso de un «Orfeo criollo», que decías en una entrevista, una biografía.

Diego Valverde Villena: —Sí, es un texto que además sé que lo tenéis aquí en vuestra estupenda colección. Por cierto, os agradezco el trabajo de documentación que hacéis aquí, y en el Cervantes en general.

Lo titulaba «Soy un Orfeo criollo» porque me gusta mucho la figura de Orfeo. Me parece muy interesante el emblema del artista, no solo el poeta, sino alguien que siempre está buscando algo que está un paso más allá y siempre está en el límite de desvanecerse. Y entre las cosas que busca, aparte del arte y la obra de arte, está la persona amada, está su amada. En general, el mito acaba mal, pero gracias a Dios hay algunas versiones, una ópera, que acaba bien.

Yo confío en ser ese Orfeo para el que las cosas acaban bien. Y soy criollo porque soy de ahí: soy hijo de español y americana (en mi caso, mi madre boliviana, de Potosí). Nacido en América, en Lima. Siempre me he sentido un español de América, que es una manera muy bonita de ser español y de ser americano. Tengo esas dos cosas.

Carmen Sanjulián: —¿Perder la curiosidad es una forma de muerte?

Diego Valverde Villena: —No sé si decirlo tan duramente, pero desde luego para mí la curiosidad es fundamental. La curiosidad como vicio es algo muy feo, pero como virtud es algo maravilloso. Es algo que te permite estar siempre vivo.

La curiosidad te permite, de algún modo, no tener edad, siempre estar buscando cosas y siempre disfrutar de la vida. Creo que es muy importante lo de disfrutar de la vida… Tantas cosas por ahí que tenemos y no nos damos cuenta, pero están al lado. Qué decir aquí, en una biblioteca donde, mires donde mires, hay maravillas, y una línea te puede cambiar la vida, te puede hacer que despiertes a muchas cosas. Yo creo que la curiosidad es algo importante.

Carmen Sanjulián: —Una pasión

Diego Valverde Villena: —Eso es como si me preguntaras qué poema te gusta más, qué poeta te gusta más, qué canción, qué música… Tengo muchas pasiones, muchísimas pasiones personales y cosas que me fascinan. Incluso no sé si la literatura es mi principal pasión. Es a lo que me dedico. Pero desde siempre disfrutaba muchísimo con cosas que, al no hacerlas yo, me parecían aún más mágicas. Como la música, por ejemplo, o el cine. Por darte un ejemplo: yo nunca he llorado con un texto. Bueno, con cartas sí, pero nunca con un texto literario. Sí con películas y con música. A veces, si oigo una música, tengo que dejarlo todo.

Carmen Sanjulián: —¿Hay algún lugar al que recurres con frecuencia?

Diego Valverde Villena: —¿Un lugar en el espacio? Pues, no tanto así… Me gustan mucho las ciudades grandes, eso sí. Nací en Lima, que cuando nací yo tenía tres millones. Ahora está con diez millones. Vivo en Madrid. También está simpático, con cuatro millones, casi cinco. En general, soy bastante feliz en las ciudades grandes: Berlín, o París o Roma. Pero bueno, tampoco es tan importante. En el fondo es como en el romancero: «Allá se me ponga el sol do tengo el amor».

Carmen Sanjulián —¿El olvido es un ejercicio difícil?

Diego Valverde Villena: —«El olvido». Estás aludiendo a un título mío. En el fondo, para mí es un ejercicio imposible. Veo que sale el olvido en dos títulos de libros míos, quizás porque es algo que no tengo. Tengo muchísima memoria, gracias a Dios, y la memoria es bagaje tuyo. Una persona que pierde la memoria no es nadie.

En mi caso sí, el olvido es algo que no existe. Tomo una cita de Borges que dice: «solo una cosa no hay, es el olvido». En mi caso, en general, es una carga muy constante de quién eres.

Carmen Sanjulián: —Un sueño.

Diego Valverde Villena: —Hacer las cosas que tengo que hacer y poder ser digno de todas las cosas que me han llegado de mis antepasados, todas las cosas que se me han dado de algún modo para que haga algo con ellas. Intentar ser digno de eso.

Carmen Sanjulián: —Diego, sería una pena tenerte aquí y no pedirte que leyeses algunos de tus poemas. Nos vas a leer dos poemas. ¿Nos puedes explicar cómo surgieron?

Diego Valverde Villena: —Sí, voy a leer dos poemas que hacen pareja, que nacieron juntos. Les tengo mucho cariño porque son los dos primeros poemas con los que ya decido que estoy contento con lo que estoy escribiendo.

Yo estaba en una estancia de estudios en Chicago y escribí estos dos poemas en los que se juntan el bloque principal de mis temas. Temas recurrentes que son el viaje, el libro, la obra de arte, la mujer y el amor, y el destino. Ahí están los temas que van a salir en casi todo el resto de mi obra.

Carmen Sanjulián: —Vamos a empezar con el poema «Metro de Chicago».

Diego Valverde Villena:

METRO DE CHICAGO

A lo largo del viaje

la mujer de tu vida se te escapa repetidas veces,

siempre en el lado opuesto de la vía,

en el otro andén,

en la otra cola,

saliendo del museo o del restaurante cuando tú entras:

un segundo de vacilación es suficiente.

Carmen Sanjulián: —Y para acabar esta entrevista lo hacemos con «Como un libro»

Diego Valverde Villena: —Aquí mismo tenéis, como en todas las bibliotecas del mundo, los cartelitos que dicen que por favor no se recoloquen los libros, que se dejen en la mesa, que para eso están los bibliotecarios, alma del Cervantes junto con los profesores, para ponerlos en su sitio. Y yo estaba en esa época en Chicago, en una biblioteca que tenía por aquel entonces siete millones de volúmenes. Uno se imagina que el libro mal colocado está perdido para los restos. Pensando en esa idea del pobre libro perdido y cómo se encontraría o recuperaría escribí…

COMO UN LIBRO

Perdido,

abandonado entre filas extrañas,

rehén de congéneres fortuitos que entienden otro idioma,

víctima del azar de un bibliotecario burlón

o una mano inexperta,

solo y soslayado,

hasta que alguien me encuentre.

Enlaces relacionados

• [Vídeo] Entrevista realizada a Diego Valverde Villena en el Instituto Cervantes de Dublín por Carmen Sanjulián.
• Poemas de Diego Valverde Villena en Aurora Boreal.
• Ensayo de Julio Martínez Mesanza sobre la obra de Diego Valverde Villena.

< Listado de entrevistas

Aut: Paola Maulén

Tienes un taller de cuentacuentos para adultos el 25 y el 26 de mayo, de 6 a 9 de la tarde con Mercedes Carrión.

Te esperamos

Storytelling Workshop for adults the 25th and 26th of May, from 6 to 9pm with Mercedes Carrión.

See you there!

Aut: Paola Maulén

Este taller de narración oral pretende orientar en la adquisición de los primeros conocimientos, habilidades y destrezas necesarias para contar cuentos.

Aplicaremos las capacidades expresivas al servicio de la narración oral para captar y mantener la atención del público creando un clima de comprensión y distensión.

Tienes un taller de cuentacuentos para adultos el 25 y el 26 de mayo, de 6 a 9 de la tarde con Mercedes Carrión.

La asistencia es gratuita, se necesita reserva. ¡Habrá regalos para todos!

Te esperamos.

Más información

For the third consecutive year, the Instituto Cervantes organizes a festival of literature within the programme “Wolves and Dragons”, which embraces events around 28 centres in 5 continents with some of the most prominent representatives of Children Literature in Spanish – speaking world.

In Dublin we will be hosting Mercedes Carrión: an actress, director, screenwriter, mime, magician, tightrope walker, juggler and a storyteller.

She will lead a storytelling workshop for adults.  the 25th and 26th of May, from 6 to 9pm

Free entry, booking essential, and presents for everyone.

See you there!

More info

Continuamos nuestra serie de encuentros literarios en la biblioteca “5 minutos con… “ Luis Alberto de Cuenca

Carmen San Julián  charla con el poeta madrileño sobre sus lecturas y aficiones. Luis Alberto de Cuenca, nuestro autor del mes de marzo, nos visitó para celebrar con nosotros el Día Mundial del Libro en Irlanda.

Esperamos que os guste.

We continue our series of literary encounters in the library “5 minutes with…” Luis Alberto de Cuenca

Carmen San Julián chats to the poet from Madrid about his reading habits and hobbies.  Luis Alberto de Cuenca, our author of the month in March, paid us a visit to celebrate World Book Day with us, here in Ireland.

We hope you enjoy it.

Laura Freixas (Barcelona, 1958) estudió en el Liceo Francés de su ciudad. Se licenció en Derecho en 1980, pero se ha dedicado siempre a la escritura. Se dio a conocer en 1988 con una colección de relatos, El asesino en la muñeca.

En 1997 se publicó su primera novela, Último domingo en Londres, a la que siguieron Entre amigas (1998) y Amor o lo que sea (2005). Ha publicado también otro libro de relatos (Cuentos a los cuarenta, 2001) y una autobiografía: Adolescencia en Barcelona hacia 1970 (2007).

Paralelamente a su obra narrativa, Laura Freixas ha desarrollado una intensa labor como estudiosa y promotora de la literatura escrita por mujeres. En 1996 coordinó y prologó una antología de relatos de autoras españolas contemporáneas, Madres e hijas (que alcanzó 9 ediciones en el primer año), y en 2000 publicó el influyente ensayo Literatura y mujeres. En 2009 vio la luz otra antología de parecidas características, Cuentos de amigas, así como la obra La novela femenil y sus lectrices (Premio Leonor de Guzmán).

Ha sido editora, crítica literaria y traductora. Fundó y dirigió de 1987 a 1994 la colección literaria El espejo de tinta, de la editorial Grijalbo, donde publicó por primera vez en España a Amos Oz y Elfriede Jelinek, entre otros autores. Ha ejercido la crítica literaria en El País y traducido los diarios de Virginia Woolf y de André Gide, así como las cartas de Madame de Sévigné. Dirigió el número monográfico de Revista de Occidente consagrado al diario íntimo en España (julio-agosto 1996). Colabora regularmente en distintos medios: Babelia (suplemento cultural de El País), Revista de libros, Letras libres, Mercurio… y es columnista del periódico La Vanguardia.

Ha publicado libros de divulgación como Taller de narrativa (1999) y una biografía de la escritora brasileña Clarice Lispector bajo el título Ladrona de rosas (2010).

Imparte talleres literarios en diversas instituciones y ha sido profesora, conferenciante o escritora invitada en numerosas Universidades españolas y extranjeras (Estocolmo, Budapest, Londres, Edimburgo…), especialmente de Estados Unidos (Cornell, Virginia, Rutgers, City University de Nueva York, entre otras). En 2010 ha sido profesora visitante en la Universidad norteamericana de Dartmouth College.

Forma parte del Parlamento Cultural Europeo y preside la asociación Clásicas y Modernas para la igualdad de género en la cultura.Tras haber residido en Francia e Inglaterra, vive en Madrid desde 1991.

Laura Freixas charlará sobre Carmen Martín Gaite y con todos los asistentes al acto del martes 3 de mayo, a las 18h, en nuestro Café Literario.

También vamos a celebrar una entrevista digital con Laura en la bitácora de la biblioteca. Podéis enviar vuestras preguntas sobre sus obras, o sobre Carmen Martín Gaite. Laura responderá a ellas el mismo día 3 de mayo, de 16.30h a 17.30h, hora de Dublín.

Consulta la entrevista de los lectores con Laura Freixas

Laura Freixas (Barcelona, 1958) studied at the FrenchSchool in her home city. She got a BA degree in Law in 1980 but she has always been dedicated to writing. She was first known in 1988 for her collection of short stories, El asesino en la muñeca (The Wrist Murderer).

In 1997 her first novel Último domingo en Londres (Last Sunday in London) was published, followed by Entre amigas (Just between Friends, 1998) and Amor o lo que sea (Love or Whatever It Is, 2005). She has also published another collection of short stories (Cuentos a los cuarenta, Tales at the Age of Forty, 2001) and an autobiography: Adolescencia en Barcelona hacia 1970 (A Teenager in Barcelona Around 1970, 2007).

Along with her contribution to fiction Laura Freixas has developed an intense work both as a scholar and a promoter of literature written by women. In 1996 she compiled and wrote the prologue for an anthology of short stories by Spanish contemporary female authors, Madres e hijas (Mothers and Daughters, which reached nine editions during its first year), and in 2000 she published the influential essay Literatura y mujeres (Women and Literature).  In 2009, Cuentos de amigas (Women Friends), another anthology of similar characteristics was published, as well as the work La novela femenil y sus lectrices (Ladies’ Novels and Lady Readers, ‘Leonor de Guzmán’ Award).

She has also worked as a Spanish language assistant at two British universities, as a publisher, a literary critic for El País and a translator. At present she teaches literature workshops for different institutions, she writes as a columnist for the newspaper La Vanguardia and does literary reviews for its supplement “Cultura/s”. She is a contributor to literary magazines such as Mercurio, Letras libres, Revista de libros…

She has been a lecturer or a writer in residence at a large number of Spanish and foreign universities (Stockholm, Nottingham, Budapest, Cornell, Rutgers, CUNY…) and taught creative writing at the University of Virginia (UVA) in 2006 and at DarmouthCollege in 2010. She is a member of the European Cultural Parliament and the chair of the association Clásicas y Modernas for gender equality in Spanish culture.

After been living in France and England, she currently resides in Madrid since 1991.

We will also be hosting a virtual interview with Laura on our library’s blog, whereby you can ask her questions about her own work or the work of Carmen Martín Gaite. You can send in your questions as of now, Laura will answer them live on Tuesday 3rd May, from 4.30pm to 5.30pm. hora de Dublín.

Digital inteview with Laura Freixas

Las novedades de la biblioteca pueden ser consultadas en nuestro catálogo en línea, como es habitual.

Para ello, seleccione ÚLTIMAS ADQUISICIONES, y elija el período de tiempo que le interesa, por ejemplo “los últimos 15 días, “el último mes”, o “los últimos tres meses”.

Ésta es nuestra selección para el mes de mayo de 2011.

The latest additions to the library catalogue can be consulted on-line as usual.

Click ÚLTIMAS ADQUISICIONES, then select “Dublin”, and choose the time period, for example, the past 15 days, the past month, or the past 3 months.

This is our selection for May 2011

Érase una vez… personajes, criaturas, palabras, escenarios, objetos mágicos, ilusión, gestos, sonrisas; historias de hoy, de ayer y del futuro. Cuentos clásicos, contemporáneos, y como no, todos ellos divertidos.

Tienes un cuentacuentos el sábado 5 de mayo, a las 12:15h

En Facebook puedes ver las fotos de uno de los cuentacuentos realizado en nuestra biblioteca.

Te esperamos

Once upon a time… are characters, creatures, words, scenes, magic objects, gestures, smiles and excitement; stories from yesterday, today, and stories from the future; classic stories, contemporary stories, and of course, all of them, very entertaining stories.

Next storytelling on Saturday, 7th of May, 12:15h

You can see on Facebook some photos of one of our Storytelling held in our library.

See you there!

Virtual Interview with Laura Freixas, Instituto Cervantes Dublin Library, 3rd May 2011. Translated by Emer Cassidy

LMartín
Laura, which title would you recommend to the foreign reader as a good introduction to Carmen Martín Gaite’s work?

Laura Freixas
“El cuarto de atrás”(translated into English under the title “The Back Room”).

LMartín
How does Carmen Martín Gaite’s work vary from that of peers?

Laura Freixas
In many ways… For example: she had a great capacity for analysis, reflection, and introspection.

Also: her ability to mix popular culture and daily life with high culture, and to do so in a very natural way.

Also: the great richness and plasticity of her language (which, similarly to the references she made, even geographical – New York with a town in Galicia -, flowed seamlessly between popular and high culture).

Another characteristic very much her own, and perhaps the most obvious difference between her work and that of her peers, whether male or female, is the variety of genres in which she worked: novels, short stories, plays, essays, daily newspapers, autobiography etc.

LMartín
Kafka’s influence in Martín Gaite’s first novel, El balneario, is evident, as the writer herself agreed. Which other influences could we glean from her bibliography? Are any of them women?

Laura Freixas
Good question…I hadn’t thought about that. I think she was influenced by the novelists of the nineteenth century – Galdós, Balzac, Flaubert…-, also by Proust…and I’m not sure who else… I think like all good (male/female) writers, she was a voracious reader, and that means that there is no one single influence in her work; she drew from many wells.

DCarrión
Ignacio Aldecoa introduced Carmen Martín Gaite to his circle of friends upon her arrival in Madrid: there she met Medardo Fraile, and Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, with whom she later became romantically-involved until 1970. How important was this circle to her training as a novelist?  

Laura Freixas
Without a doubt he gave her support, and security, two things which are hard to find in the case of female writers, given that they are normally more isolated than male writers. Both formal groups (academies) and more informal groups (literary gatherings), where writers exchange opinions and ideas etc., tend to be male-dominated.

The entire group took on quite a similar aesthetic approach, a realistic and critical portrait of Spanish society at that time, in contrast to later generations who opted for more experimental literature.

DCarrión
Carmen Martín Gaite spoke on the television programme A Fondo, in and around 1981, of a before and an after in her writing style brought on by a refinement of her style crucial to the writing of her essay on Macanaz. Is her work previous to this still valid?  

Laura Freixas
How interesting, I didn’t know that. But, of course, her previous work is still valid, to my eyes Entre visillos shows she had already acquired a definite personal style. I read it just a few years ago and I still think it’s wonderful, and the same goes for Retahilas, for example.

DCarrión
Some years after the aforementioned TV programme, Carmen lost her only daughter. Did this tragic loss also affect the style and subject matter of her writing?

Laura Freixas
That’s a good question, but I don’t know… In any case, don’t forget that she had already lost a son, who died just a few months after having been born. That provided the autobiographical basis for her short story “Lo que queda enterrado”, although, oddly enough, the protagonist in the story loses a baby girl, not a baby boy.

(I think the reason for that change is that the death of the baby girl in the story takes on a greater meaning: it represents the death of the little girl in the narrator, of her hopes and dreams).

LMartín
You have mentioned before that very few women’s issues, such as pregnancy, are ever examined in literature. Which women’s issues did Carmen Martín Gaite explore in her work?

Laura Freixas
Lots of them: mother-daughter relationships, the profile of a housewife, feminine introspection, women’s various roles (comparing women who work outside the home, and those who don’t, for example), the creation of female characters rarely or never dealt with in literature (the “weird” girl, the artist etc.), the critical analysis of gender roles, inequality, the relationship between power and the lack of communication between the sexes…

LMartín
What other subjects do you think still remain difficult to write about simply because they are never discussed in literature?

Laura Freixas
I think there are still subjects which are scandalously absent from literature because they are difficult to deal with, or could cause a backlash, and/or because they are associated with sub-culture (they are viewed as “women’s magazine” topics, and aren’t considered “serious”). For example, pregnancy, abortion, or the negative aspects of motherhood.

DCarrión
Are Ana Karenina, Madame Bovary, and La Regenta “real” women, or are they transvestite men who have tried unsuccessfully to reflect the interior world of women?

Laura Freixas
Ah, what a good question! When I read those novels, I had the feeling there was something the authors hadn’t quite captured, or weren’t aware of, something they didn’t manage to fully reflect. I didn’t feel they were able to construct characters as convincing or as complex as those by Carmen Martín Gaite, Virginia Woolf or Annie Ernaux.

But the difference is so subtle that it would be very difficult to pinpoint exactly. Perhaps it’s for the same reason that I never fully believe historic novels. If I’m interested in learning more about the 17th century, I would be more inclined to read Madame de Sévigné, for example.

LMartín
How is the young Spanish woman from the ‘50s, the protagonist in “Entre Visillos”, different to the young woman from the ‘70s, the protagonist in “Adolescencia en Barcelona hacia 1970”?

Laura Freixas
The protagonist in Adolescencia… has had two or three times the luck of the young woman in Entre Visillos, to have been born in a more modern Spain (in terms of the era and the region, Catalonia), in a more cosmopolitan family, and to have studied in the French Lycée. All of those influences give her self-confidence, freedom, the ability to view things with a critical eye, and a clear ambition. She is more enterprising and more self-assured.

But what she does have in common with the protagonist in Entre visillos is a certain feeling of disorientation, that something isn’t right, but she can’t quite put her finger on what exactly.

(If truth be told, to answer the question properly I’d need to reread both books, because it’s not something I had ever thought of before. Thank you LMartín, for giving me so many ideas…)

DCarrión
The back cover of that same book reads:  …an education ruled by the maxim “You must be ladies”. Are today’s young women in Spain still under pressure to be ladies, or have things become even more difficult for them, in that nothing is expected of young women any more, nor of young people in general?

Laura Freixas
I don’t know, to tell you the truth, because the only young woman I know well is my daughter, and I, along with her father, and her school (the French Lycée, cela va sans dire!), expect a great deal from her.

LMartín
Is the biographical component also an important element in your other three novels “Último domingo en Londres”,”Amor o lo que sea” and “Entre amigas”?

Laura Freixas
Yes, absolutely. All my novels have an autobiographical core. I used to feel uncomfortable about that at the beginning, but not any more, for the following reasons:

1-Autobiographers are accused of having a lack of imagination, but I think I have proved that’s not the case with my books of short stories. Besides, it is possible to be a wonderful writer while not displaying much imagination (as with Proust, or Pla).

2- In revealing my life, I’m not revealing anything most people couldn’t relate to. My life is very similar to that of any other woman born in circumstances (generational, geographical, social etc.) similar to my own.

3- The autobiographical element is only the jumping-off point. It’s like the fabric from which I make a dress: first I have to cut out the pattern, sow it, add other materials and accessories, and so on. Multiple stories can be weaved from the one biography.

DCarrión
What happened with your first novel, “Último domingo en Londres”? Why was it such “an ordeal” to get published, given that you had already published your first book of short stories? Were you not able to convince Anagrama? I imagine they were your first choice.

Laura Freixas
That’s exactly it. I think it was a very ambitious (or complicated) novel for the little literary experience (or complete lack of, if we are talking specifically about novels) I had at the time.

Aside from that, I think that gender was something of a double-edged sword in the case of my initial success (Anagrama having published my first novel, given that I was unknown and that it was a book of short stories), in that, young women have a certain charisma and that affords them lots of opportunities… but then, when they are no longer so shiny and new, they are treated as “more of the same”…

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that so many female writers’ careers (I would interested in finding out if the same thing happened in other eras, and if it continues to happen in other fields, such as in politics, or painting) take off very early and with apparent ease, and then lose speed, or disappear completely, only to reappear (in some cases) years later, as the very same Carmen Martín Gaite, Carmen Laforet, Ana María Matute, Luisa Forrellad…

LMartín
Regarding “Ladrona de rosas”, isn’t it a luxury to throw yourself into writing and publishing the biography of a Brazilian author who isn’t particularly well-known in Spain? How did the need, or the idea, to write this book come about?

Laura Freixas
It was all thanks to a happy coincidence. An editor (María Borrás, from La Esfera publishing house) contacted me to ask if I would be interested in writing an autobiography, which gave me the opportunity study a writer who had always intrigued and fascinated me, through her life as much as her work.

DCarrión
Is “Ladrona de rosas” to Laura Freixas what “Macanaz” was to Martín Gaite? Did the writing of this book change the way in which you approach your literary work?   

Laura Freixas
I haven’t thought about that, but it has changed my approach to life, or rather, it has reaffirmed one thing, namely: for years I thought being a (part-time) housewife was a good way of being able to devote oneself to writing, without the pressures inherent in having to make a living from a career (be that literature or not).

Now, through my own experience, and also because I have seen it as clear as day in the case of Lispector, I think that is a very dangerous was of thinking, and which comes at a high price. Through her letters, we see that when she was living abroad, disconnected from what was happening in literary circles in her country, she was so distressed and depressed she had great difficulty writing. And she wrote her best works when she divorced, returned to Brazil and had to earn a living. Of course there are lots of factors at work there, but that doesn’t stop it being a fact.

LMartín
“A glass ceiling prevents many women from being published”, those are your words. What can we do to break through this glass ceiling?

Laura Freixas
The first thing we can do is be aware of it, talk about it, analyse it, research the figures, to try to understand why and how it occurs… In my association “Clásicas y Modernas”, that’s precisely what we do.

DCarrión
In 2009, you relayed some striking facts produced by the Spanish Ministry of Culture: “women read more than men, the number of men and women who write literature is equal – 8% of the population – however, only 20% of literature published in Spain is by women”. Has anything changed since then?

Laura Freixas
Unfortunately not. And neither have I observed a greater awareness of the situation… except in the case of those involved: female writers, painters, composers, film directors… as evidenced by the creation of various associations of women within the world of the arts in recent years, such as CIMA (association of women in film and audiovisual industries), MAV (Women in the Visual Arts) and Clásicas y Modernas (association for gender equality in the arts).

DCarrión
Your mother’s passion for reading was, as far as I’m aware, what led you to read and to write, “to turn yourself into a book” so that your mother would pay more attention to you. What did you read at that age? Which was the book that seeded your love of literature?

Laura Freixas
My love of literature began even before I could read. Oddly, I don’t remember a particular title which marked me greatly until the great discovery I made at 19: Proust.

Patricia
You were recently selected as one of the most representative authors of contemporary Spanish fantastic narrative. Proof of that is the inclusion of your short story “Final Absurdo” in the anthology of contemporary Spanish fantastic short stories “Perturbaciones, Antología del relato fantástico español actual” (Salto de Página, 2009).

What is your relationship with the fantastic genre? What is it that attracts you to it? How would you define today’s fantastic literature?

Laura Freixas
Well, I should confess that it’s a genre which interested me when I was younger, mainly as an influence of the Latin American boom, and now it doesn’t interest me so much…

Pavel
Laura, I think men are more group-oriented than women, making it much more difficult for women to achieve important positions within society. I don’t understand why it is like that. What is your view on the subject?

Laura Freixas
You’re right, women are more fragmented, living their lives at home, not making as much use of public spaces, and tending to spend their time with family and friends more so than with colleagues or competitors.

That has to do with power: men play power games much more than we do, and that happens through men tending to relate mostly with other men, through negotiations and exchanges. As for women, I’m not sure whether it’s that we don’t know how to play those games, we’re not able to, or we don’t want to. And I think being excluded from that interplay, whatever the reason may be (which I honestly don’t know), is a price we pay dearly.

Joe
Do you think men and women write about different subjects in their work?

Laura Freixas
Although it may be rather brash of me to make sweeping generalisations, I do think there are certain areas which are dealt with more by male writers (for example, war) and others which are more common among female writers (for example, relationships between women: friends, mothers and daughters, sisters etc.).

I also think that female writers tend to construct female characters which are varied and complex, with interests and ambitions not solely focused on love, whereas male writers are inclined to present female characters purely as the lover, mother, or wife of the male character, rather than the protagonist of her own life.

Joe
Laura, a few months ago you were interviewed on the radio for the classical music programme “Juegos con espejo”, in which the person being interviewed picks their favourite music. You chose only foreign composers. Why were there no Spanish composers among your selection? Thank you.

Laura Freixas
Thank you for pointing that out, I hadn’t noticed.

It’s purely down to my musical ignorance. The little musical knowledge I have has been almost entirely handed down from my parents, who were both great fans of classical music. As far back as I can remember they would listen to Bach, Handel, Mozart, Schubert… I added more modern composers (Janacek, R. Strauss…), and apart from that, my friends influenced me as a teenager, by introducing me to Janis Joplin, for example.

Although, if truth be told, now that you mention it, I think that like many of my generation, I had certain anti-Spanish prejudices in my formative years, which carried over to my tastes in literature (I started to get out of that mind-set quite late, in the ‘90s, when I began reading the Spanish classics, of my own accord), and I suppose also in music.

Colm
Do you think that men and women’s roles in society are the same in every country? Thank you.

Laura Freixas
Not in the slightest. Fortunately so, for those of us who live in the West, which proves that gender roles are a social fabrication and may be modified.

Vicky
Good afternoon, Laura. What does Carmen Martín Gaite’s “Caperucita en Manhattan” represent to you? Thank you very much.

Laura Freixas
Yikes, that’s one of the very few, perhaps the only, of her books I haven’t read… I’m sorry. I’ll make sure to read it.

Thank you to all of you for taking part.

Related links:

• Official web-site of Laura Freixas in English.
• Podcast: Laura Freixas presents her book “Libro de las madres” La Luna en COPE: listen podcast
• Podcast: “Ladrona de rosas” by Laura Freixas: listen podcast. Nos gusta la gente. Radio ECCA
• Podcast: Laura Freixas on Juego de espejos: listen podcast
• Reviews of Laura Freixas’s books on Lecturalia
• La batalla por la identidad. Article by Laura Freixas, EL PAIS (20th April 2011)
• You can ask Laura questions about Carmen Martín Gaite
• Reviews of Carmen Martín Gaite’s books on Lecturalia
• Video: Carmen Martín Gaite: A Fondo de RTVE, watch broadcast
• Song: Fui madre a ver pasar Lyrics: Carmen Martín Gaite. Music: Rosa León.
• Podcast: Carmen Martín Gaite at la Fundación Juan March: Buscando el modo. Listen lecture
• Podcast: Carmen Martín Gaite at la Fundación Juan March: Mirando a través de la ventana. Listen lecture
• Espéculo: dedicated to Carmen martín Gaite
• Carmen Martín Gaite: Personaje en EL PAIS

Laura Freixas is our author of the month throughout the month of May.

Apenas unos días después de que Ana María Matute haya recibido el Premio Cervantes, y en el mes en que Laura Freixas nos visita para hablarnos sobre la obra de Carmen Martín Gaite, os proponemos un acercamiento a algunas de las grandes autoras de la literatura escrita en español, desde las pioneras como Teresa de Ávila o Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, hasta las escritoras con mayor éxito de ventas hoy en día como Matilde Asensi o Julia Navarro.

Esperamos que os guste la selección.

Otros títulos de Cecilia Böhl de Faber y Larrea, (que escribía bajo el pseudónimo de Fernán Caballero), Dulce María Loynaz, Emilia Pardo Bazán, María Zambrano, etc., os esperan en la biblioteca

Just a few days after Ana María Matute was officially awarded the Cervantes Prize, and in the same month in which Laura Freixas visit us to speak about Carmen Martín Gaite, we’d like to invite you to come and get to know some other great female authors of Spanish-language literature, from pioneering writers such as Teresa de Ávila and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, to today’s best-selling authors, such as Matilde Asensi and Julia Navarro.

We hope you enjoy our selection.

However many more from these authors and others await you in the library (including Cecilia Böhl de Faber y Larrea, who wrote under the pseudonym Fernán Caballero, Dulce María Loynaz, Emilia Pardo Bazán and María Zambrano).

Hoy os presentamos nuestro renovado canal de televisión en Youtube con una entrevista a Alicia Mariño.

Con ella iniciamos una nueva serie de encuentros literarios en la biblioteca titulada “5 minutos con… “ en la que nuestros profesores y compañeros charlarán con los escritores y artistas que nos visitan dentro de nuestra programación cultural.

En esta primera entrevista, Pilar Garrido charla con Alicia Mariño sobre literatura fantástica. Alicia Mariño nos visitó el pasado 3 de marzo para celebrar con nosotros el Día Mundial del Libro en Irlanda.

Esperamos que os guste.

Today, we are bringing you our recently rejuvenated YouTube television channel with an interview with Alicia Mariño. We hope this will be the first of many in a new series of literary encounters in the library, entitled “5 minutes with ….”, in which our teachers and friends chat to visiting writers and artists visiting in line with our cultural programme of events.

In this first interview, Pilar Garrido discusses fantasy literature with Alicia Mariño. Alicia Mariño paid us a visit on the 3rd March to celebrate with us World Book Day in Ireland.

We hope you enjoy it.