Pioneering Catalan Writers: Papasseit, Foix, Sagarra

Joan Salvat Papasseit: Avant-Garde Catalan Poet

Joan Salvat Papasseit was born in Barcelona in 1894, in the maritime district of Barceloneta. At a very young age, he began working as an apprentice grocer. At seventeen, he decided to educate himself by attending classes and literary gatherings.

His early works included poems and manifestos aligned with anarchism, alongside the editing of magazines. Soon after, he began working in a bookstore where he was appointed director, a position that allowed him to discover avant-garde authors and painters.

Later, he left this position, and his commitment to anarchism and nationalism reached its peak. However, he was soon diagnosed with tuberculosis, which led to his death in Barcelona in 1924. Salvat Papasseit embraced Futurism, and two of his best-known works are The Hertz Waves and Pink Lips.

J.V. Foix: Surrealism and Classical Form

J.V. Foix was born in Sarrià in 1893 into a family of confectioners. He was an admirer of classical and Greco-Latin literature, and he belonged to the Renaixença movement. He dedicated himself to promoting Noucentist and avant-garde publications.

Foix developed a unique style, a symbiosis between classical culture (20th century) and avant-gardism. The content of his works is surreal and dreamlike, yet their form remains classical. One of his notable works is That When I Sleep I See Clearly. He was a voluntary exile in France and died in Barcelona in 1987.

Josep Maria de Sagarra: Versatile Catalan Author

Josep Maria de Sagarra was born in Barcelona in 1894 into a family of the minor Barcelona aristocracy. He received a good education from the Jesuits and later studied law. He later studied to become a diplomat, a profession he never pursued.

He professionalized in literary creation, literary translation (including The Divine Comedy by Dante and works by Shakespeare), and journalism (serving as a correspondent in Germany). Sagarra was not exiled, but he wrote literature clandestinely.

Although fully formed within Noucentisme, he positioned himself closest to Modernism, employing a style considered an evolved, vitalist Modernism. His poetry can be distinguished in three different phases:

• Lyrical: Satirical Doggerel and Ventalls poetry.
• Satirical: Poems of Tavern and Oblivion.
• Epic/Narrative: Poem of Montserrat.