José Agustín Goytisolo Gay (13April 192819March 1999) was a Spanish poet, scholar and essayist. He was the brother of

Juan Goytisolo Juan Goytisolo Gay (6 January 1931 – 4 June 2017) was a Spanish poet, essayist, and novelist. He lived in Marrakesh from 1997 until his death in 2017. He was considered Spain's greatest living writer at the beginning of the 21st century, yet ...

and

Luis Goytisolo Luis Goytisolo Gay (born 17 March 1935) is a Spanish Catalan writer in the Spanish language. He is best known for his tetralogy ''Antagony'', which was published between 1973 and 1981. Goytisolo is a member of the Real Academia Española. Caree ...

, also writers.

Biography

Born in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

on 13 April 1928, in an upper class Spanish-only speaking family (that is, non Catalan-speaking though he spoke perfect Catalan and translated Catalan poems into other languages), his family was brutally shaken by the death of his mother (Julia Gay) in a Francoist Nationalist bombardment in 1938. José Agustín was especially affected and named his daughter after his lost mother. In ''Words for Julia'', one of his best-known poems (sung by Paco Ibáñez and Los Suaves, among others), he joins the love for both women. In 1993, in the ''Elegies to Julia Gay'', he united all his mother-themed poems. He also deals with his feelings toward his mother in his later books ''The return'' (1955) and ''End of a goodbye'' (1984). He started studying

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

in the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, ...

, and ended his studies in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. He was a member of the so-called "Generation of the 50s", along with writers such as Ángel González,

José Manuel Caballero José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

José Ángel Valente José Ángel Valente Docasar (25 April 1929, Ourense, Galicia, Spain — 18 July 2000, Geneva, Switzerland) was a Spanish poet of the Generation of '50, an essayist, and a translator, who wrote in Spanish and Galician. He studied at the Faculty ...

and

Jaime Gil de Biedma Jaime is a common Spanish and Portuguese male given name for Jacob (name), James (name), Jamie, or Jacques. In Occitania Jacobus became ''Jacome'' and later ''Jacme''. In east Spain, ''Jacme'' became ''Jaime'', in Aragon it became ''Chaime'', and ...

. They shared a moral or politic commitment and a renewed attention to the lyrics and the language. In the 1960s and 1970s he was a key contributor to the development of

Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura (RBTA) is an architecture firm that was founded in 1963 by Ricardo Bofill, initially as Taller de Arquitectura (). It is headquartered in Sant Just Desvern near Barcelona, in a former cement factory known a ...

as a multidisciplinary endeavor. From that experience he drew a collection of poems named ''Taller de Arquitectura'', published in 1976. According to

Manuel Vázquez Montalbán Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (14 June 1939–18 October 2003) was a prolific Spanish writer from Barcelona: journalist, novelist, poet, essayist, anthologue, prologist, humorist, critic and political prisoner as well as a gastronome and an ...

, Goytisolo's poetry was not just an ideological substitute for the

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

, but aspired to build a new

humanism Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and Agency (philosophy), agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The me ...

Works

*''El retorno'' 1955 *''Salmos al viento'' 1956 *''Claridad'' 1959 *''Años decisivos'' 1961 *''Algo sucede'' 1968 *''Bajo tolerancia'' 1973 *''Taller de Arquitectura'' 1976 *''Del tiempo y del olvido'' 1977 *''Palabras para Julia'' 1979 *''Los pasos del cazador'' 1980 *''A veces gran amor'' 1981 *''Sobre las circunstancias'' 1983 *''Final de un adiós'' 1984 *''Como los trenes de la noche'' 1994 *''Cuadernos de El Escorial'' 1995 *''Elegías a Julia Gay'' 1993

Anthologies

* Poetas catalanes contemporáneos 1968 * Poesía cubana de la Revolución 1970 * Antología de José Lezama Lima * Antología de

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...

* ''Los poemas son mi orgullo'', poetic anthology. Edition by Carme Riera (Lumen publishing, 2003)

Translations

He was involved in important translations from Italian and Catalan to Spanish. He translated, among others, works by

Cesare Pavese Cesare Pavese ( ; ; 9 September 1908 – 27 August 1950) was an Italian novelist, poet, short story writer, translator, literary critic, and essayist. He is often referred to as one of the most influential Italian writers of his time. Early ...

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist ...

, Salvador Espriu and Pere Quart.

Prizes

Premio Adonais The and its twin the are sedans sold in Japan from 2001 to 2021 by Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by ...

(1954) * Premio Boscán (1956) * Premio Ausias March (1959)

References

Sources

José Agustín Goytisolo legacy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goytisolo, Jose Agustin 1928 births 1999 suicides 1999 deaths Writers from Barcelona Translators from Spanish Italian–Spanish translators Translators to Catalan 20th-century Spanish translators 20th-century Spanish poets 20th-century Spanish male writers Spanish male poets Suicides by jumping in Spain