Key Figures and Works of Catalan Modernism

Raymond Fields and Modernist Theory

Raymond Fields (1855-1910), art critic of La Vanguardia and theoretician of modernism, in In Wild Assistant (1901), attempted to regenerate a society's primary farmers. The protagonist fails the front-wheel bagassa strains, which symbolize the ancient evil to which the masses succumb.

Prudenci Bertrana: Human Depravity

Prudenci Bertrana (1867-1941), in the novel Jehoshaphat (1906), recounts the sexual depravity of the human character. The action and description are often rugged, and the work was a cause for scandal.

Josep Pous i Pagès: Heroic Struggle

Josep Pous i Pagès (1873-1952), in Life and Death of George Fraginal (1912), deals with the rebellion and the heroic struggle of the protagonist against the order and the traditional family, despite the hazards encountered along his life trajectory.

Caterina Albert: The Legacy of Victor Català

Caterina Albert (1869-1966) took refuge under the pseudonym Victor Català to overcome the prejudices that Catalan society of that time held against women writers. The Victor Català conflict arises from a strenuous moral standpoint. Her first titles, Rural Drama (1902), Ombrívoles (1904), and Drames rurals (1907), are collections of short stories themed around rural tragedy that present the human condition with raw intensity.

The Masterpiece: Solitude

Victor Català's masterpiece is the novel Solitude. The action begins with the arrival of the protagonist, Mila, at the hermitage of Saint Pontius to assist her husband, Maties. This lazy and insensitive man embodies the mountainous, primary, and bestial aspects of human beings, eventually raping the protagonist. As a counterpoint to this negative element, Mila finds company in the spiritual shepherd, Gaietà. The book is written in poetic prose that describes mountain landscapes with vivid intensity, full of symbolic meanings, expressing nuanced feelings and the psychological evolution of the protagonist.

Joaquim Ruyra: Psychological Realism

Joaquim Ruyra (1858-1939) combined realistic and psychological approaches with modernist techniques. Marines i boscatges (1903) was taken as a model by Noucentist writers.

Josep Maria Folch i Torres

Josep Maria Folch i Torres (1880-1950), known as a writer for children and the soul of the journal Patufet, wrote modernist novels such as Aigües encantades (1907) or Joan Endal (1909). These works contrasted the determinism of the environment with the labor force, representing a significant level of psychological depth through individual will.