Books against Tyranny

Laura Vilardell

Description

Catalan-language publishers were under constant threat during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939–75). Both the Catalan language and the introduction of foreign ideas were banned by the regime, preoccupied as it was with creating a "one, great, and free Spain." Books against Tyranny compiles, for the first time, the strategies Catalan publishers used to resist the censorship imposed by Franco's regime.

Author Laura Vilardell examines documents including firsthand witness accounts, correspondence, memoirs, censorship files, newspapers, original interviews, and unpublished material housed in various Spanish archives. As such, Books against Tyranny opens up the field and serves as an informative tool for scholars of Franco's Spain, Catalan social movements, and censorship more generally.
Introduction: The Disguises of Censorship
Chapter 1: "If You Are Spanish, Speak Spanish": The Evolution of Ideology in the Francoist Censorship Apparatus
Chapter 2: Publishing Illicit Books during the Onset of the Dictatorship (1939–1959)
Chapter 3: Publishers' Willingness to Publish Books in an Oppressed Language (1960–1975)
Chapter 4: Writers Speak Up about Censorship
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Histoire
• Joan Sales
• Spanish Civil War
• Manuel de Pedrolo
• Spain
• History
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826504425
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

BOOKS AGAINST TYRANNY
Books against Tyranny
Catalan Publishers under Franco
LAURA VILARDELL
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY PRESS
Nashville, Tennessee
Copyright 2022 Vanderbilt University Press
All rights reserved
First printing 2022
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Vilardell, Laura, 1986– author.
Title: Books against tyranny : Catalan publishers under Franco / Laura Vilardell.
Description: Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021055326 (print) | LCCN 2021055327 (ebook) | ISBN 9780826504401 (paperback) | ISBN 9780826504418 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780826504425 (epub) | ISBN 9780826504432 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Censorship—Spain—Catalonia—History—20th century. | Publishers and publishing—Spain—Catalonia—History—20th century. | Catalonia (Spain)—Intellectual life—20th century.
Classification: LCC Z658.S7 V55 2022 (print) | LCC Z658.S7 (ebook) | DDC 070.509467/0904—dc23/eng/20220224
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021055326
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021055327
To Efren Domènech (1918–1993),
who experienced oppression firsthand
CONTENTS
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION. THE DISGUISES OF CENSORSHIP
1. “If You Are Spanish, Speak Spanish”: The Evolution of Ideology in the Francoist Censorship Apparatus
2. Publishing Illicit Books during the Onset of the Dictatorship (1939–1959)
3. Publishers’ Willingness to Publish Books in an Oppressed Language (1960–1975)
4. Writers Speak Up about Censorship
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURES
2.1. Evolution of books authorized and published in Catalan, 1946–1959
3.1. Comparison between the number of Catalan books produced and the number of translations into Catalan, 1962–1977
3.2. Translations into Catalan in 1962 and 1963, organized by categories
3.3. Time delay between the completion of a work in Catalan and its publication, 1950–1970
3.4. Number of books published in the Isard series, by year
3.5. Comparison between the number of new releases and total availability of books in Catalan, 1967–1970
3.6. Books in Catalan; percentage of new releases compared to the total books available, 1967–1970
3.7. Number of publishers issuing books in Catalan, 1967–1970
3.8. Number of publishers of Catalan books distributed geographically, 1967–1970
TABLES
2.1. Control mechanisms and response strategies for issuing books in Catalan, 1939–1945
2.2. Control mechanisms and response strategies for issuing books in Catalan, 1946–1951
2.3. Control mechanisms and response strategies for issuing books in Catalan, 1951–1959
3.1. Incidence of book censorship in Spain as a whole
3.2. Availability of books in Catalan according to the geographic location of their publishers
3.3. List of publishers and their companies’ liabilities
4.1. Documentation of the censorship process of Incerta glòria
4.2. Contrasting publishers’ and authors’ strategies to overcome censorship
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing a book about this topic and in the midst of a global pandemic, with libraries closed and difficulty obtaining bibliographical resources, can only be possible thanks to colleagues and friends across the world who helped me selflessly. The first acknowledgment goes to my mentor, professor, and advisor Manuel Llanas. Without him, this book would not exist.
I appreciate the generosity of Elisenda Boix, Maria Boix, Pere Julià, and Zum Boix. All of them opened the doors of their houses and took the time to speak to me about Josep M. Boix i Selva.
Many thanks also to my institution, Northern Illinois University, to support my research. Thanks also to Stephen Vilaseca, Rosa Flotats, Montserrat Bacardí, Pilar Godayol, Ramon Pinyol i Torrents, Josep Mengual, Adelina Plana, Emili Boix, and Jeremy Rehwaldt.
I extend special thanks to Vishal Kamte, who helped me tirelessly in every step of this process.
And finally, my gratitude goes to my parents, Joan Vilardell and Antònia Domènech, for their unconditional support.
INTRODUCTION
The Disguises of Censorship
In April 2018, I organized a talk for my class at Georgetown University on Catalan culture with the famous Catalan journalist Miquel Calçada i Olivella. The title of his presentation was “Solidarity, Information, and Independence: Catalan Television and Its Impact on Its Society.” I was aware that it touched on a complex subject—the controversy after the self-determination referendum of Catalonia held on October 1, 2017. 1 However, my students had asked me specifically to speak about this topic, and the guest agreed.
At six o’clock in the morning on the day of the talk, I received a call from the sponsor located in Barcelona asking me to remove the word “independence” from the title in order to “avoid being offensive.” Calçada’s reaction was that we were being censored, and he declared he was not willing to go through censorship again —obviously referring to Franco’s earlier censorship. However, for the sake of the class, he gave the talk, finally retitled “Information and Social Justice: Catalan Television and Its Impact on Society.”
This was the first moment in my professional career that I had dealt with censorship firsthand, and the oddity was that the directive did not come from the university where I worked, but from Barcelona. Why? It is no secret that today in Spain some subjects remain sensitive, such as political events related to the unity of the country—as in the case of the example mentioned above—or any reference to the dictator Francisco Franco, whose thirty-six-year regime ended in 1975. This is proved by the article “No Laughing Matter: Making Jokes about Franco and ETA Is Off the Table in Spain if You Want to Avoid Trouble with the Law,” published in Index on Censorship (Nortes 2017, 85). One of the cases the author mentions is from 2017, when the journalist and comedian Dani Mateo, on the late show El Intermedio shown on the Spanish private television station La Sexta, opened a section called “5 Things Never Explained about Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen).” 2 One thing was that “Franco wanted that cross to be seen from afar.” Mateo commented, “Normal because . . . who’s going to want to see that shit up close?” ( LaSexta.com 2017). He was denounced by the Association for the Defense of the Valley of the Fallen and brought before a judge. The director of the show, El Gran Wyoming, referred to William Wallace: “Before they can silence our mouths, we will shout freedom!” ( LaSexta.com 2017). The case was eventually shelved.
In 2019, as a result of the already mentioned self-determination referendum in Catalonia, the Provincial Electoral Board of Barcelona prohibited the public media from mentioning “expressions such as exile , political prisoners or the repression trial [because] they violate ‘information neutrality’ ” (Redacción 2019). 3 The director of the public Catalan radio station Catalunya Ràdio denounced the prohibition: “This has only one definition: censorship. It is a direct attack on freedom of expression and freedom of the press. The magistrates have exceeded their powers and have become a figure that we thought was forgotten” (Redacción and Agencias 2019). He was obviously referring to the repression in Franco’s times, but without mentioning it explicitly. Why has the word “Francoism” created such a huge trauma in Catalan society? What is the evolution of censorship in Spain? What was the repression against written material like? Why were there still books written in Catalan if the language was forbidden in public areas? What is the role of publications and translations in the cultural recovery of Catalonia? Did Catalan society overcome all the obstacles of censorship and repression from the Franco era? Since the start of the twenty-first century, more and more monographs related to Francoism have been published, many focusing on memory, identity, and repressed authors. Journalists have also been keen to discuss more modern concepts, such as digital censorship (Carrasco 2020), self-censorship (Nortes 2020), and freedom of the press in Spain (Schweid 2011). Surprisingly, though, some of the previously mentioned questions remain understudied. In order to answer them, this book engages in historical and social analysis of three basic concepts: dissemination, censorship, and resistance.
To tackle dissemination I focus on literature, using the struggle of publishers of Catalan books and translations in the context of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939–1975) as the main topic, as they were doubly oppressed—both the Catalan language and the introduction of foreign ideas were banned by the regime, which was preoccupied with creating a “one, great and free Spain.” The publishers’ actions are true acts of resistance that some paid with severe economic penalties and book sequestrations. This study aims to examine the behavior of Catalan-language publishers and to compare it to the experience of writers by using first-person accounts by those who spoke up about that period.
By censorship I mean the suppression or modification of a message to make it align with the guidelines of the government—or in this case, the regime. I examine censorship laws and censors’ accounts by means of firsthand sources from both sides, aiming to shed light on the evolution of Francoism’s ideological and political thought. My motivation is to provide and analyze a unique list of strategies used to overcome censorship in Spain during that era.
Resistance in this case refers to the reaction of those who are oppressed. This book shows that resistance against cultural and linguistic oppression is a universal topic. Both the censoring apparatus and those who suffer from it have similar patterns of action, no matter where, when, or under what pretext it was produced. For example, Burma’s censorship is based on a completely different ideology from Franc