Catholic Iconography in the Novels of Juan Marse

The prize-winning novelist Juan Marse, born in Barcelona in 1933, is widely-read not only within Spain but also in translation, for his often provocative portrayals of life in post-war Barcelona. Clark's study discusses Marse's engagement with Catholic popular culture, Spanish National Catholicism and Catalan Catholic Nationalism, exploring his subversion of iconic imagery as an ironic sub-textual commentary on political ideology, by which he is able to experiment with outer reality...
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The prize-winning novelist Juan Marse, born in Barcelona in 1933, is widely-read not only within Spain but also in translation, for his often provocative portrayals of life in post-war Barcelona. Clark's study discusses Marse's engagement with Catholic popular culture, Spanish National Catholicism and Catalan Catholic Nationalism, exploring his subversion of iconic imagery as an ironic sub-textual commentary on political ideology, by which he is able to experiment with outer reality and inner reconstructions of experience. Dr Clark shows how religious and profane visions of love are subtly intertwined, how the tales told by children and the novel form itself are interrelated, and finally how a variety of biblical topoi, ranging from the Garden of Eden to the Song of Songs, are deployed in Marse's fiction. Particular attention is paid to La oscura historia de la prima Montse, Si te dicen que ca and Im genes y recuerdos. ROSEMARY CLARK lectures in the department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Cambridge.; El novelista Juan Marse, nacido en Barcelona en 1933 y ganador de varios premios internacionales, es un autor muy leido no solamente en Espana sino tambien en otros paises del mundo, a traves de traducciones, y su obra se aprecia especialmente por sus descripciones provocativas de la vida cotidiana en la Barcelona de posguerra. La monografia de Clark analiza el profundo interes que sentia Marse por la cultura popular catolica y el nacionalcatolicismo - tanto en su forma espanola como en su forma catalana. Demuestra que la manera en que Marse utiliza los iconos y las proyeciones visuales del Catolicismo constituye un comentario ironico y sutil sobre la ideologia politica de la epoca franquista. Las novelas de Marse - especialmente La oscura historia de la prima Montse, Si te dicen que cai y Imagenes y recuerdos -- exploran los lindes entre la realidad objetiva y la reconstruccion sujetiva de aquella realidad en el mundo de la ficcion.