Writer and academic Luis Goytisolo dies, author of the monumental 'Antagonía'

BarcelonaThe Barcelona-born writer Luis Goytisolo, the last member of a lineage of writers who renewed contemporary Spanish narrative, died on Sunday at the age of 91 in his rural refuge in Vimbodí, in the Conca de Barberà, as reported on Monday at midnight the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), an institution of which he had been a member since 1995. Goytisolo is the author of an extensive literary work characterized by his capacity for innovation both formally and narratively. One of his most celebrated literary projects is the monumental tetralogy "Antagonism –formed by the volumes Count, The green of May down to the sea, The wrath of Achilles and Theory of knowledge–, which spans from the Civil War to late Francoism and which represented a literary milestone for the narrative of the 70s and 80s. His constant search for new literary territories earned him the National Prize for Spanish Literature in 2013 and awards such as the National Prize for Literature in 1993 for Statues with pigeons.

Born in Barcelona on March 17, 1935, Luis Goytisolo was the son of the Barcelonian scientist José María Goytisolo Taltavull and Júlia Gay, who died during one of the bombings of Barcelona in 1938. He was the brother of the also renowned writers José Agustín and Juan Goytisolo, who died in 1999 and 2017, respectively. He debuted in 1958 with The outskirts, a volume of seven seemingly unconnected stories with a common setting: post-war Barcelona. The book won the Biblioteca Breve prize and marked the writer's leap towards a literary career. "The prize changed my life. The 30,000 pesetas they gave me were an important help, but it was even more decisive to start working as a reader for Seix Barral. After a short time, I left my Law degree," Goytisolo explained in 2018 in an interview with ARA. His debut was already a controversial book due to the literary radicalism it offered: it stirred up controversy among the more conservative critics, who, despite praising Goytisolo's style, questioned whether that artifact could be considered a novel.

In 1960 Carmen Balcells founded her literary agency and Goytisolo became the first Spanish author she represented. That same year, the writer spent four months in Carabanchel prison for having participated in the VI Congress of the Czech Communist Party in Prague. In prison, he began to conceive what would be his great masterpiece, the tetralogy "Antagonism. "I spent five weeks of incommunicado that were very fruitful. I took notes on toilet paper that a PSOE leader smuggled out through his lawyer", recalled the author in 2012, from when he was 25 years old. The tetralogy starts from the writer Raúl Ferrer Gaminde and reflects on the mechanisms of creation, while at the same time constituting a radiography of Spanish society in the final years of Francoism.

Goytisolo began to write Antagonism in 1963 and would dedicate 17 years to it. The publishing house Seix Barral, however, did not want to wait for the work to be finished and published the first volume, Count, in 1973 in Mexico and in 1975 in Spain. Then would arrive The greens of May down to the sea (City of Barcelona Prize, 1976), The wrath of Achilles (1979) and Theory of knowledge (1981) which, together, would form a tetralogy of more than a thousand pages. In 1976 he was awarded the City of Barcelona Prize. Years later, in 2013, would also receive the National Prize for Spanish Letters especially for this work, which the North American newspaper The New York Times would be considered one of the fundamental creations of the last century.

Language over image

The 80s decade was also very profitable for Goytisolo. He published Estela del fuego que se aleja (1984), with which he won the Critics' Prize in 1985, and other titles such as La paradoja del ave migratoria (1987) and Fábulas (1981). In 1992 he dared to publish one of his most autobiographical books, Estatua con palomas, in which he linked his experiences and reflections at the end of the 20th century with those of the historian Tacitus during 2nd century Rome, playing with the times and spaces of both eras. The title earned Goytisolo the National Narrative Prize. During that period, he was also elected an academic of the RAE. Goytisolo took office on March 24, 1994, with the speech titled L'impacte de la imatge a la narrativa espanyola contemporània, in which he analyzed the effects of cinema on literary creation and defended the autonomy of language over image. The writer was also a member of the Governing Board of the RAE between 2000 and 2002 and censor between 2000 and 2008.

In the final stretch of his career, Goytisolo also dedicated himself to essay writing with titles such as Naturaleza de la novela (Anagram Essay Prize, 2013), in which he breaks down the characteristics of the genre and questions its possible crises. Among his latest works are Chispas (2019), Coincidencias (2017) and El sueño de San Luis (2015), the manuscript of which he donated to the National Library of Spain. Luis Goytisolo was also a regular contributor to media outlets such as El País, ABC and Diario 16, and he also wrote and directed television documentaries such as the series Índico and Mediterraneo, broadcast by Televisión Española.