Luis Goytisolo Gay (born 17 March 1935) is a Spanish Catalan writer in the

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in th ...

. He is best known for his tetralogy ''Antagony'', which was published between 1973 and 1981. Goytisolo is a member of the Real Academia Española.

Career

Goytisolo was born on 17 March 1935 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. He is the younger brother to José Agustín Goytisolo and Juan Goytisolo. He started studying law in 1953 but quit shortly afterwards to dedicate himself to literature and a political struggle against

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

. In 1963 he was locked up for four months in the

Carabanchel Prison Carabanchel Prison was constructed by political prisoners after the Spanish Civil War between 1940 and 1944 in the Madrid neighbourhood of Carabanchel. It was one of the biggest prisons in Europe until its closure in 1998. The structure follow ...

for being a supporter of the

Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya, PSUC) was a Communism, communist political party active in Catalonia between 1936 and 1997. It was the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain and the o ...

Communist Party of Spain The Communist Party of Spain ( es, Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a Marxist-Leninist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is part of Unidas Podemos. It currently has two of its politicians serving a ...

. Part of this period he spent in isolation. During his time in prison he started to write his novel ''Antagony''. He wrote on used pieces of toilet paper. His

tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- '' tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedie ...

''Antagony'' is considered by '' El Mundo'' to be one of the best novels of the 20th century. In 2012 it was published in a single book. The first book was translated into English in 2017, and a full translation by Brendan Riley was published as a single book in 2022 by

Dalkey Archive Press Dalkey Archive Press is an American publisher of fiction, poetry, foreign translations and literary criticism specializing in the publication or republication of lesser-known, often avant-garde works. The company has offices in Funks Grove, Il ...

. In March 2015 Goytisolo donated 57 boxes of his personal archives to the

Biblioteca Nacional de España The Biblioteca Nacional de España (''National Library of Spain'') is a major public library, the largest in Spain, and one of the largest in the world. It is located in Madrid, on the Paseo de Recoletos. History The library was founded by K ...

Awards and honors

In 1958 Goytisolo became the inaugural winner of the Premio Biblioteca Breve for his novel ''Las afueras''. In 1993 Goytisolo won the Premio Nacional de Narrativa for his book ''Estatua con palomas''. Goytisolo was elected to seat ''C'' of the Real Academia Española on 24 March 1994, he took up his seat on 29 January 1995. He took over the seat from

Luis Rosales Luis Rosales Camacho (31 May 1910 – 24 October 1992) was a Spanish poet and essay writer member of the Generation of '36. He was born in Granada (Spain). He became a member of the Hispanic Society of America and the Royal Spanish Academ ...

. In 2015 Goytisolo criticized the Spanish government for budgets cuts to the Academia, citing the Academia as fundamental to the Spanish language community worldwide. In 2013 Goytisolo was awarded the Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas.

Works

* ''Las afueras'' (1958) * ', consisting of: ''Recuento'' (1973), ''Los verdes de mayo hasta el mar'' (1976), ''La cólera de Aquiles'' (1979), ''Teoría del conocimiento'' (1981). ** ''Antagony'', trans. Brendan Riley (Dalkey Archive, 2022): ''Recounting''; ''The Greens of May Down to the Sea''; ''The Wrath of Achilles''; ''Theory of Knowledge'' * ''Estela de fuego que se aleja'' (1984) * ''Estatua con palomas'' (1993) * ''Diario de 360º'' (2000) * ''Liberación'' (2003) * ''Oído atento a los pájaros'' (2005) *''Recounting'' (

, 2017)

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goytisolo, Luis 1935 births Living people 20th-century Spanish novelists 21st-century Spanish novelists Members of the Royal Spanish Academy Writers from Barcelona Spanish male novelists 20th-century Spanish male writers 21st-century Spanish male writers