The truth behind "Jusep Torres Campalans": Max Aub's committed postmodernism

Abstract

"Jusep Torres Campalans," the apocryphal biography of an avant-garde painter published by Max Aub in 1958, should be read as a reflection on two matters of great importance to an exile of the Spanish Civil War: the relation between art (or literature) and politics, and the relation between fiction and reality. In spite of the fictional quality of its protagonist, "Jusep Torres Campalans" constitutes a serious history, commentary and critique of modernism that can be read as one of the first true samples of postmodernism in Spanish letters. Further, the book is a political statement in itself, closely connected with Aub's own position and experience as an anti-Francoist Republican exile at the height of the Cold War.

Publisher

Johns Hopkins University Press

Publication Date

1-1-2004

Publication Title

Hispania

Department

Hispanic Studies

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://doi.org/10.2307/20140828

Language

English

Format

text

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS