Key Catalan and Valencian Writers

Josep Maria Benet i Jornet: Drama & TV

The drama began a new stage in 1964, where the existence of a group of authors who wanted to make a different theater was proved again. The early works of Benet i Jornet are rooted in realism. This realistic phase of these authors' drama was reformulated through formal experimentation. The research on the use of theatrical resources continued during the seventies. Works addressed to an audience of children or young adults were published by Benet, some of which could also reach a wider audience. He also began a prolific career as a creator of scripts for television series. Benet i Jornet would always remain loyal to these two new lines of writing: children's theater and television. In exchange for the theater writer, the personal and professional relationship between Benet i Jornet and a young playwright and theater director, Sergi Belbel, who was beginning his career, was influential. During these years, Benet has maintained the production of children's and youth theater and expanded and diversified production for television. Benet i Jornet is one of the few playwrights of his generation who has changed and transformed his artistic trajectory.

Joan Fuster: Essayist & Critic

Joan Fuster is the most important essayist of the Valencian Country from the generations that emerged after the Civil War. His work can be classified as follows:

Humanistic Works

These treat subjects ranging from history to politics, viewing man as the measure of all things.

Valencian Identity Studies

Works aimed at investigating and reflecting on the collective identity of the Valencian people, such as Nosaltres (Us).

Literary Criticism & History

Where we can emphasize the studies devoted to medieval Valencian classics like Ausiàs March.

Fuster's essays take various forms, such as articles, dictionaries, and newspaper columns. Most essays reflect the same attitude: the desire to understand a fact or a problem concerning us. His prose of ideas had a natural quality and served as a language that constituted a pattern for normalization.

It is noteworthy that Fuster's history reflects a constant transformation of his society.

Joan Francesc Mira: Novelist & Essayist

Translator and novelist, author of a body of work that includes abundant essays published in newspapers and periodicals. These are articles about everyday life with a language that is not academic or specialized, even on literary topics. Topics like nationalism, the relationship between culture and power, and the creation and evolution of identities and symbols that form them. The author approaches these topics not from an aseptic position, but from a commitment to his country and culture. It is worth noting that one of his virtues is always showing a degree of skepticism, suggesting that the problems peculiar to Valencia and Catalonia regarding their national condition are not so different from those suffered by many other peoples around the world.